ONLINE REPUTATION

Online reputation management is also called as ORM, exercise of dependable research and analysis of any personal or professional, business or industry reputation as represented by the content across all types of online medium. It is also sometimes referred to as online reputation monitoring, with the same contraction.

Online reputation management is fairly new industry. It has been bring to the front of professionals’ awareness due to the overpowering and many times unpredictable character of both professional journalistic content and part-time user-generated content, the latter of which there is far more, and not the least because of the wide number websites that offer such an opportunity to visitors, typically with very low barriers to entry--often just by creating a screen name, registering one's birthday and a geographical location, and providing a valid email address to complete the account-creation process. Thus, the type of online content monitored in ORM distance professional, journalism sponsored by traditional news and media giants as well as user-generated and user-created blogs, ratings, reviews, and comments, and all manner of specialized websites about any particular subject, be it a person, group, company, business, product, event, concept, or trend.

Effects of ORM

* Improve customer satisfaction by gaining insights from consumers about what is good and bad about their product or services.

* Increase perceptions of brand by creating opportunities to listen to and engage consumers.

* Gain insights about competitors and their customers’ perceptions about their products and services.

* Maintain shareholder value by mitigating risk by having ears close to the ground where opinions about a business are being formed and propagated.

* Engage in more effective public relations by understanding who the real influencers are.

* Gain understanding of the relationship between user generated content and traditional forms of online media, e.g. news, print, etc.

* Provide early warning systems for reactive and defensive PR.

* Reduce marketing spend by learning how to reach out to customers more cheaply.

* Reduce internal costs by employing services which save time and effort, as well as money.

* Help identify gaps for products and services which can be developed for profitable niche markets.

* Gain insight into online networks and keywords and key phrases found in user-generated content, which can help to bolster natural search results about the person, product, or business.