With Tim Shier’s day-long workshop on ORM coming up in February, we thought that this would be the perfect time to get back to ORM basics and look at some of the preliminary steps you need to take when integrating ORM into your marketing strategy. We asked Naazneen Parkar of BrandsEye to collate her tips into a Beginners guide to ORM – something every company with an online presence should heed.
Recent research by Mckinsey has shown that companies using social media have gained profit from their efforts . This demonstrates that the digital space is definitely growing whether you are playing an active or passive role. Most people may have a rough idea what the term online reputation management is, though very few understand how it should be managed and run on a day to day basis. The following tips help clarify the basics when it comes getting started with online reputation management.
1. Secure budget
One of the main questions that needs to be answered is, which department should the ORM budget come from?
An overall estimate for the budget can be broken down as, 10% brand, 40% marketing, 40% communications and PR, with the remaining 10% from advertising. Assigning the budget will also help determine what level of online monitoring the company is going to go for, whether it is the basic monitoring, data monitoring and analysis or overall data management. According to a recent article by the eMarketer.com, approximately 82% of the respondents surveyed said they would budget more to brand monitoring in 2011.
2. Define your objectives
Just like any other process both business and personal, it is extremely important to define the Where? What? How? and Why? Based on the objectives, the next step will then be to structure the account to meet that need. For instance, one of the objectives when structuring the account according to various departments is to analyse performance of each department based on online conversation, reach and advert (earned) value. In the same way, if the objective is to analyse competitors, the company can set industry benchmarks to track and measure performance.
It is also important to spend some time making sure the search phrases are in line with the objectives. Phrases should be structured in a way to decrease irrelevant content and make the account as relevant as can be.
3. Decision making and insight
A good way to break this down into what will be responded to and what can be ‘ignored’, is whether the comments are from consumers or press and whether it is theme data or instance data. Theme data refers to a trend, which a group of people are collectively talking about e.g. an online crisis where the community is complaining about the withdrawal of a product. On the other hand, instance data will be a once off incident that may only have affected one individual e.g. a bad customer service.
It is also important to confirm which department communication will come from. For instance, the PR News Channel discusses how releasing content helps reduce the negative mentions which is good for a brand. The article states that online reputation management is about ‘good search engine results’, though it may be worthwhile considering solving the underlying problem (the trend/ theme) rather than the instance alone.
4. Plan for a crisis
Online space exposes a brand to a whole lot more than the traditional platforms did. The business needs to identify their strengths and be able to plan for any possible opportunities and threats. These can be based on the brand promise to the community and how to manage the perceived expectation. One of the best case studies when it comes to the effective management of a crisis is the Woolworths Love Birds saga. This had the potential of costing the brand a whole campaign and losses in revenue. However due to clever marketing and effective online monitoring the campaign was saved and gained positive rewards and awards.
5. Internal process
After the action plan has been formulated, the next step will be to make sure all the internal processes are laid out in the event of a crisis or opportunity. Due to the limited lag time, in most instances, to milk every opportunity and prevent a threat, the response will need to be almost immediate. By outlining the internal processes before-hand it helps save time with red tape and crisis solving can be done effectively.
All in all, online reputation management is the new space which several businesses are embracing. The foundations are similar to many of our traditional platforms though it requires far more real time management. This requires that the structure and management are put in place in advance. This will make sure you are one step ahead of your competitors and other stakeholders.
Interested in learning more about ORM? Tim’s workshop is taking place on the 16th February in Cape Town and the 18th February in JHB. He’s going to be looking at a practical approach to integrating ORM into business and marketing strategy.
To find out more about the workshop or to register please visit http://www.quirk.biz/courses/ORM-CPT for Cape Town and http://www.quirk.biz/ORM-JHB for Johannesburg. You can also contact Dianne on 021 462 7353 for more.
Also check out:
