Online reputation determines how others perceive your business when they search for or stumble upon it online. Consequently, online reputation management (ORM) proactively influences what information people will find. For instance, various techniques and strategies can help you push damaging and harmful content further down the Google search engine results pages (SERPs) by ranking your own or third-party more desirable material above it. Why is this important? Because the top five listings in Google’s search results receive about two-thirds of all clicks. ORM is not only about managing content in search engines, though.
It’s also about managing negative business reviews and encouraging happy clients to contribute more positive feedback. The importance of your online personal and professional reputation can’t be understated. Here are the four distinct digital marketing channels involved in ORM, channels also referred to as the PESO Model.
Paid Media: Paid media includes all marketing efforts that require payment to feature your business on external websites and networks. This includes PPC advertising with Google AdWords, display ads on Facebook, and sponsored posts on industry/influencer blogs. Paid media extends your reach and drives traffic to your web properties by building new
relationships with partners and customers.
Earned Media: Earned media describes the coverage of your business on external web entities for which you didn’t pay. It requires you to stand out from your competition with great content, products, or services that users consider worth sharing, mentioning, reposting, and reviewing.
Social Media: Pages and profiles on social media are “an extension of your brand and create additional avenues for people to interact.” When it comes to social properties, it’s important to dedicate the resources to stay active on them by engaging in conversations and publishing fresh content regularly. As a general rule: not having a profile on a certain network is better
than having an inactive one.
Owned Properties: Your business websites and blogs are properties owned by you, which means you have full control over them. Of course, the more properties you own, the higher your chances to effectively build your digital presence. At the same time, you don’t want to cause confusion by establishing properties that can’t be distinguished from one another.