What is Reputation Management in Public Relations?

A common misconception about a bad reputation is that it cannot be fixed.

While it is true that you can't control what others say about your brand, you can control how you respond to it.

Reputation Management in Public Relations is all about addressing negative press and negative reviews in a way that shows your customers that you're listening and you care.

This article will cover the most important things you need to know about reputation management in public relations. 

Most importantly, it'll give you useful directions on tools to use and actionable steps to take in order to boost your online presence.

1. What Is Reputation Management?

Before talking about reputation management, it's important to establish what a reputation is.

Think of it this way: everything that you've done in the past, your behavior, and the character that you've exhibited are judged by others.

For businesses, reputation matters in terms of attracting customers, employees, and investors.

If a business is widely perceived as reputable and if it's providing quality products and customer service, customers and investors will be more likely to trust it with their money.

On the other hand, if a simple Google search uncovers that your company is mistreating its employees, lacking business integrity, or not offering anything of value to its customers, you're at risk of earning a bad reputation.

And here's the thing: while a good reputation is hard to build, there's no quick fix for a bad one. 

With Cancel Culture being prevalent in the corporate environment, a reputational crisis is just one misstep away.

That's where reputation management comes in. 

Reputation management is a long-term process of attempting to influence the external perception of your business, attract talent, increase trust, and grow your profit.

1. Importance of Reputation Management in PR

The purpose of public relations is to create a persuasive narrative around a company. This narrative has a single objective, which is to generate a positive association with the brand in the minds of:

• The general public
• The customers
• The employees
• The investors
• Other stakeholders.

In Public Relations, Reputation Management aims to prevent the spread of falsehoods regarding the company. 

This process, usually conducted by specialized reputation management companies, further includes:

• Improving the online reviews of the brand
• Improving search engine rankings
• Improving brand sentiments
• Building a trusting relationship with the customers
• Protecting a business from a full-blown reputation crisis

1. Differences between Reputation Management and Public Relations

Both Reputation Management and Public Relations have the same goal: generating a positive public perception of a brand.

The way they go about achieving this objective, however, is entirely different.

For starters, a Reputation Management process tends to be more internal. 

On the one hand, PR is a public activity. It is focused on building a trusting brand-customers relationship under the spotlight.

On the other hand, Reputation Management is more of a behind-the-scenes process. It is focused on generating content that manipulates the information regarding the company that is available online.

Another difference is in the communication channels used.

We'll talk more about this later, but generally speaking, PR often relies on press and other traditional media to spread the positive word about a business, while Reputation Management relies on blog posts, reviews, and customer testimonials.

In doing so, PR content comes across as more in-your-face, as the same narrative can be seen across numerous publications. 

On the other hand, content produced as a part of the Reputation Management strategy is subtler. You could say that it's personalized, and it tends to offer unique value to a smaller audience.

Regardless of the differences, these two work the best hand in hand.

If you really have to pick one, I'd say: go for PR when dealing with a full-blown reputation crisis and opt for reputation management when dealing with negative online reviews and generating brand buzz. 

1. Comparison of traditional and online reputation management

Generally speaking, we could divide reputation management into two categories: traditional and online reputation management.

Let's take a look at the main differences between the two.

1. Traditional Reputation Management

The main characteristic of traditional reputation management was the lack of technical tools used for managing reputation crises.

In times when reputation-damaging content wasn't just one search away, generating a positive public perception of the brand was done in a more personal way.

How? Mainly through in-person interactions with the customers, bribery of the media, or paying a hefty sum for a prime-time advertisement. 

In other words: relationships matter in traditional reputation management.

Now, don't get me wrong, these tactics are employed to this day because they work. 

However, in the age of digital transformation, traditional reputation management tactics are more restrictive. 

1. Online Reputation Management

Online reputation management has made it possible to reach a worldwide audience through far more communication channels in a much faster way than traditional reputation management.

Its two main characteristics are: 

• Heavy use of social marketing, including search engine marketing and social media management
• Two-way communication with the target audience

To sum it up, online reputation management is on a more technical side, involving the processes of the technical development of search engines and conducting AB testing.

1. Tips for reputation management in public relations

1. Create a branded content

Are you experiencing reputation issues? If the answer is yes, you need impressionable content that can improve your brand awareness and shine a positive light on your business message.

We're living in a time when the values of a brand matter to customers, so use that to your advantage.

Create content that shows in which way your brand is involved in making society a better place. Appeal to your audience's emotions. Give them something to identify with, all while highlighting the benefits of your business offering.

1. Address negative reviews

Flagging and reporting negative reviews are an easy way to go about it, we get it. And to be fair, this is a strategy we'd also recommend when dealing with online trolls. 

But have you tried actually responding to some of the reviews?

In my opinion, a good response strategy can go a long way. 

Making a timely follow-up to respond with a simple "thank you," owning up to your mistakes, and apologizing are powerful tools in building trusting relationships with customers.

And, they can even positively impact your search engine optimization. 

For instance, reading through negative reviews can uncover the keywords you could optimize your content for, as they reveal what your target audience is searching for before stumbling upon your website.

And, whatever you do, don't entertain disrespectful online arguments. Let others react however they like, but you must remain professional.

1. Be present and interact with your audience

To avoid a reputation crisis, it's important to track the conversations around your brand online.

Wherever you're being talked about, you need to build a presence there. 

However, being a bystander in these conversations will not suffice. 

Negative reviews aren't the only ones that you should address. You should also interact with users speaking favorably about your brand.

Lately, major brands across the globe can be seen interacting with their users, influencers, and others alike in the comment section of social media channels such as TikTok or Instagram. 

This helps users feel valued and connected to the brand.

1. Don't forget about your employees

Recently, a lot of companies have faced backlash regarding the way they treat their employees.

It goes without saying that you should treat your employees well, but going that extra mile can really improve your online reputation.

Try:

• Investing in training your employees. They're the representatives of your customer service, and the way they treat customers will be discussed online.
• Giving your employees more control over the content. Encourage them to build a social media presence. Make them feel valued and see them become strong brand advocates. 
• Protecting your key employees – Whether you have a case of an employee making an honest mistake or someone mistreating your employees online, it's important that you stand up for your staff. A good business will be protective of its key players and side with them when things get tough.

1. Be consistent

Sustained effort and long-term commitment are key to success.

Remain consistent in the way you present your brand to the public. Stick to matters that relate to your industry and your brand message, if you want to come across as honest.

To frame it in a way that matters to your business: consistent branding is the key to being perceived as authoritative and trustworthy. 

If you can achieve this, you can look forward to improved search engine rankings and competitive advantages in the market. 

1. To sum it up

As you can see, reputation management and public relations are separate processes, but they work best as a pair.

These two offer an array of strategies and opportunities for building a strong reputation and preventing reputational risks. 

If you're still wondering whether you need reputation management for your business, let me paraphrase Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway:

You don't want a single mistake, that took 5 minutes of your time, to cost you an empire that you've spent 20 years building.

Author bio:

Tomas is a digital marketing specialist and a freelance blogger. His work is focusing on new web tech trends and digital voice distribution across different channels.

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