What a brand looks like in the eyes of users: getting to know SERM and ways to work with reputation on the Internet

​Brand reputation is so crucial nowadays because a majority of users leave their commands about lots of products they use. The diversity of social media channels makes the possibility of spreading information even quicker and in the most comfortable way. You can use absolutely any platform including YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, and others. That’s why the monitoring of feedback from customers might become an overwhelming process.

To be honest, no one can manually scroll and analyze all the feedback about a specific company. More often than not, we are just reviewing the first page with comments, in rare cases, we can check the 2nd one. These last comments drastically influence the brand reputation and general impression as well. That’s why, it is crucial to manage social media and official sites in such a way that will promote more positive feedback and reviews.

SERM: Essential Components and Strategic Approach

SERM is a mixture of several strategic approaches and components that help to influence your positive online reputation. These core components are such as review management, management of social media, creation of content, and a couple of others. So, based on our practical experience in this area, we will discuss the key components in detail.

Crafting Compelling Content

Very often we are accepting content only as the best approach to be higher in the SEO ranking and attract more users. Well, this approach is okay, but we offer to orient more to the value that you provide to the customer rather than just worrying about your online rating. There are so many websites online that users don’t want a fantastic design anymore, they are looking for compelling content with some value for them.

For instance, if you are an experienced artist who wants to get a bigger audience online, then you’d better share some practical recommendations about your experience and failures. These guides can be posted not as frequently as you wish, but meaningful content with practical pieces of advice will attract more users to your website. So, your online presence will be more noticeable and your brand reputation will be more positive if you share really valuable information.  

Effective Social Media Handling

One of the most important components of SERM is the management of social platforms. Social media is an ideal variant for communication with your clients and potential customers. Your engagement in the comment section and reaction to the negative comments will drastically influence your brand reputation online.

If you are trying to promote your home improvement business online, it's advisable to post some helpful recommendations on Instagram (or any other social media of your choice). However, what is more, important is to react to negative feedback and to show your loyalty to every client and their needs. When there are tons of negative reactions from the users and no feedback from the company, then it is obviously bad for a reputation. SERM offers to monitor the users' activity regularly for the better of your business reputation.  

Social Listening

One more important component of SERM is tracking the comments/feedback in forums, news articles, and blogs. With the tracking of these platforms, you can get a better understanding of industry insights.

For instance, if you find an article about your business with some negative characteristics, you can immediately react that you have changed this thing or you have taken this factor into consideration. In such a way, this will show your active position and the importance of your audience or customers. A polite reaction to any negativity can add even more value than just positive comments without any details and explanations.

Online Review Management

Of course, one more important factor in SERM is review management. When you are reacting to negative as well as positive reviews it definitely shows how involved you are in the audience's needs and feedback. If users see that you are active online are regularly react to all the criticism and positivity then it is possible to minimize random and unnecessary reactions. If a user doesn’t see feedback from the business then the negativity will not disappear and it will be spreading. So, why not invest some time into all these processes and get a better reputation online?

With all the SERM components, you can effectively control a majority of the information about your business and influence future comments. Your reaction is crucial because you are building trust and showing how you care about your business and its growth.

The Significance of SERM​

SERM is extremely important in case you want to have a successful online business, and here is why:

• SERM impacts the decision of purchasing. If the company is regularly monitoring comments, then by entering a forum you can review positive feedback or a good explanation for the negative ones and you will definitely buy a product when the firm is presented positively on the market.
• Trust. A good brand reputation helps with the creation of a positive image.
• SEO ranking can be improved with SERM immensely. That’s because search engines promote websites with better content and with positive comments.
• Minimize negative impact with SERM. Of course, you can not prevent or totally exclude negative comments from the users, but you can professionally react to them. There is no need to worry about negativity because companies with only positive reviews don’t exist.  

Steps and Tools for Achieving Success​

If SERM is new to you then it might be a bit challenging to start. That’s why, we decided to share our experience and offer you practical recommendations and tools for successful planning.

Assessing Your Current Reputation Status

Probably the most important step in creating a positive brand reputation is assessing your current status. The most functional tools to start this process are the usage of listening software, and Google alerts so you can see when your company is mentioned somewhere. This is extremely important and can become a foundation for the building of further strategy.

Clear Reputation Objectives

One more important step in SERM is understandable objectives. You should create an actual plan for what you want to change. For instance, you might need to react to negative comments at first, the next procedure will be dealing with promoting a positive brand reputation in social media, or changing the ranking of the website via improving the quality of the shared content, and so on.

Generating High-Quality Content

For the optimization of the content, you may try to use such tool Moz so you can check whether the website includes the relevant keywords. With such implementation, you can drastically improve the visibility of your brand and improve your reputation.

Active Engagement on Social Platforms​

Users love to have direct interaction with the businesses and their immediate response in case of some issues. Social media is a great way to share your feedback and communicate with the users directly. Active engagement is an important step in SERM.

Online Reviews

There are plenty of helpful tools that can help with monitoring the activity such as Yotpo. With the usage of management tools, you can quickly react to the responses and show how active and friendly you are. Your immediate reaction to the negative feedback about your brand will definitely show your professionalism and desire to grow and change.   

To Sum Up

The success of the SERM strategy includes only a couple of important steps that anyone can follow such as evaluation of the current brand reputation, understanding of your goals, monitoring and reaction to the feedback, and a couple of more steps. With the implementation of additional tools, you can create an effective process with visible progress. SERM is oriented on the creation of a positive reputation of your brand, but not only dealing with negative reviews. It is a huge strategy that can drastically influence your online business.