BUSINESS REPUTATION – EMPTY PHONE NUMBER OR A POWERFUL ASSET?

Let's figure it out

From my own practical work and observations of organizations in Krasnoyarsk and Krasnoyarsk Krai, and especially their actions on social networks and the Internet, I can conclude that companies do not have a reputation as such, nor any management of it, and even less a strategic plan for its development and strengthening.

There is no work in the field of reputation management. With rare exceptions. And these exceptions are mainly large enterprises.

Both large players, medium and small ones are active, post something in the networks, respond to guests/clients of Internet resources. That's all.

There is no generation of images for browsers, explanatory work, consistent content marketing, systematic collection and posting of reviews and other things in the virtual space (as well as in the real one). There are no lists of media, bloggers, for interaction, platforms for using content marketing and SERM tools, a list of reviewers!!! for monitoring and forming public and customer opinions. Sometimes all this is missing! in the presence of a PR specialist or PR department in the company! But such lists need to be compiled and worked with.

In reality, everything is done chaotically, sometimes spontaneously. This brings the corresponding result. This state of affairs certainly has a bad effect on business, its positioning and representation in the minds of clients and society as a whole.

Representatives of domestic business have not yet realized that reputation is the foundation of the empire ©, its shield, result and most important asset. They have not realized the full importance of work to strengthen reputation. They are only on the threshold of this discovery.

Without systematic work on your reputation, i.e. on your future, nothing good will come of it.

Any rustle on the Internet can form an opinion. Yes, an opinion is not a reputation. But an established opinion, and not just one person, but a group, especially the majority, related to the target audience, and especially the public – this is already a reputation.

This is already a problem if it (public opinion) diverges from your ideas (about yourself). In other words, ignoring your own reputation management is a big, unacceptable oversight, it is a huge risk! If they think of you as “fie” or “yuck”, then you will not have clients. But if they talk about you and think “Wow”, then the profits will be greater.

And if all business processes are built properly, responsibly and conscientiously, a strong reputation is created and nurtured, then the latter will become the foundation on which you can build not just a business, but an Empire!

I called reputation a shield.

Yes, indeed, a strong reputation is your shield from crisis storms, for example, in economic terms, which are so abundant in modern reality. When everyone knows that you are you! then it will be more difficult to shake trust and loyalty to you.

Whether you like it or not, what other people and organizations say about you shapes their attitude towards you. The attitude of customers, partners, investors, potential clients, etc. They research you, read reviews about you, look at your website and pages on social networks, their appearance and content. And they think about it. Or they decide impulsively. What they say about you, what they think about you, and what they decide – depends on you.

So.

This reasoning, as well as the totality of my arguments, leads us to the conclusion that reputation is the most important and powerful asset of any company, be it a huge corporation or holding, be it a simple auto parts store. And it is necessary to engage in its construction as meticulously as possible, monitor and adjust actions more often, verify them and approach reputation management with full responsibility.

What steps would I highlight to start building/changing reputation?

1) Conduct a reputation audit and an audit of the information field around the company.

2) Develop a communication and reputation strategy. This includes a description of the work and its results with target audiences, suppliers, contractors, intermediaries, the media, and, if necessary, with government agencies. Start from the end. From the final results that you want to get from working with each of the listed categories. And moving to the beginning, build a strategy. Always ask yourself questions: why? how will this affect the reputation? what will it give? how to implement? when? and is it possible to do better?

3) Based on the first two points, start correcting errors. Modernize the site. Update information on the site and in social networks (if required).

4) Choose platforms for presence. Choose the most relevant ones for you. These are social networks, information resources, electronic magazines, printed publications, etc.

5) Post information about yourself and your products. Introduce people to yourself.

6) Publish information about your methods and technologies. Naturally, not a commercial secret. Talk about your competitive advantages or how you are better and more profitable than others. And from the position of the You-concept.

7) Select and correctly present news, events from the life of the organization. Show your team at last!

8) Work with reviews.

9) Work with SEO optimization, with tips, by the way, I have good SEO specialists – contact me). Create pictures, photos and videos about you and your activities.

10) Don't forget about working with lower-level managers and employees. Build respect in teams for each other, for themselves and for the work. Build a team from teams. Inspire people.

Work on your reputation and it will pay you back a thousandfold!

Good luck!

Sincerely, Ilya Valentinovich Erakhtin