Guest AuthorA good reputation is one of the most crucial assets for any organization, an important determinant of the company’s success and sustainability in the market. Because goodwill is not something that is built in a day or overnight; instead, it is a long journey for companies/organizations to build an unrivaled reputation for themselves in the business landscape.
Owing to the aggressive competition dominating the Indian market, many companies in India face the risk of acquiring a bad reputation overnight. In such a scenario, Media Relations and Reputation Management come to the rescue. In the competitive online business world, managing reputation is a critical marketing element that every business owner needs to be familiar with.
The most essential part of managing your brand image is to hold enough authority over your reputation in the market. But the question is what is reputation, and what makes a good reputation?
Your reputation is a collection of public opinions about the things you do, say, and sell. A good reputation can indisputably help any business to gain the trust of the audience. It can help businesses to acquire new customers. To shape your reputation your employees, products, services, and even your community presence all help. It allows you to perceive the way people see or think about your business. It is important for everyone who is in the public eye.
Yes, in current existence especially in the era of digital marketing reputation management has become even more vital to look into. In the current digital atmosphere, reputation management has become an even greater area of interest. Brands that prioritize reputation are constantly monitoring the media so they can respond to any negativity almost as soon as it happens. Managing the image of the brand is not just about gossip or rumor but also about maintaining the brand identity.
With the times this task has become immensely difficult as we continue to deal with fake news, rumors, online scammers, and banning products from using unethical means have made it imperative to attain and grasp the consumer’s trust. And to top it off people don’t just forget about bad press overnight because of the internet and the increase in the usage of apps it stays on the internet for a long period of time and sometimes becomes difficult to rise from that.
With extreme competition taking place in consumers’ minds many companies these days are hiring brand managers who are a specialist in maintaining the image of the brand in the market and also look for pertinent opportunities in order for a business to flourish.
Reputation management trends that can bring a paradigm shift in media relations: –
Execute Content Modernisation System
If you have a popular product or service, then there are chances that people reviewed it. And if there are negative reviews about you then make sure to respond. Negative user-generated content like negative comments and complaints that flies under the radar can easily tarnish the positive reputation of any business. It is a part of the promotion itself. With a positive outcome comes a little bit of negativity as well. As a part of reputation management service, the key is to turn these negative comments into positive ones and win over the heart of your haters as well. A good brand view it as an opportunity and get what they want
Build Customer Trust
Reputation management is an increasingly important element of business activity and enhancing reputation as the cornerstone of an organization’s differentiation strategy requires carefully nurtured interdependent and complex relationships. Reputation, a key construct in media relations, can increase the perception of responsibility for any crisis event in an organization. Media relations is the relationship that a company or organization develops with journalists.
It consists of raising awareness about your organization’s aim, mission, policies, ethics to the public. The aim is to spread positive coverage as much as possible in the media by actually investing in the advertisement.
Collaborating with Artificial Intelligence
Tools like social listening have been making use of AI to help companies stay ahead. It is useful in reputation management to track the global stream of user information and monitor every mention you get. AI helps build a positive brand reputation by making the brand informed and desirable for users.
Grow Customer Interest
Either the organization or media should take the first step toward each which can be taken from either side. Nevertheless, dealing with the media requires a lot of obedience and control of the content that goes out to them. They have to carefully craft the stories that reach the journalist as they should be interesting and entertain the audience.
Due to this the relationship between any organization and the media relation is of utmost importance. This strategy has proven to be effective for quite some time and has been adopted by various business heads.
So, it is obvious that nowadays engaging in reputation management is not a choice, but a necessity for any organization. It controls and monitors a company’s goodwill in the market. It is a part of ‘Public Relations’ itself and it encompasses the entire ambit of managing the reputation of the company. Reputation management keeps track of any negative news about the firm hovering around in the market.
Author – Manoj Barman, Vice President & Head – Laqshya Public Relations
Aravind Sundaram
Guest Author
