A Strategic View of Online Reputation Management

Online reputation management came to market as a service that allowed users to report on how people viewed their brand. In essence ORM was just another form of market research. However as the ORM community has developed so has the use for the service. Now we at the BrandsEye team are frequently approached by users who plan to use ORM in any number of new and innovative ways. One such example is Scott Gray’s use of ORM when developing a strategy for client. Scott spent 6 years absorbing the hustle, bustle, and electric vibe that is Joburg as the Interactive Marketing Manager at BMW South Africa. He now holds the converted position of Client Strategy Director at Quirk eMarketing.

Earlier this week we sat down with Scott to find out his thoughts about ORM and the role it plays when developing strategy.

Greg: Hi Scott, thanks for taking sometime out of your frantic day to discuss ORM and its marriage with strategy. I think before we kick off into the world of digital, maybe you could give us an idea of how traditional strategists go about collecting                           information ahead of strategy development?

Scott: Traditionally strategists look to their previous successes and failures in an attempt to draw on past learning from previous work done. This experience is mixed with some on the ground research, often involving focus groups and surveys. Research done comprises both a qualitative and quantitative aspect and would concern itself with media consumption habits; among other key variables required in forming a strategy.

Greg: So when we move the campaign online how does this research process change?

Scott: Google! Jokes aside there is still a role for proper on the ground research when planning a digital campaign. The process as whole however doesn’t change too much, it’s only really the data that does. In digital we have more exact information for learning. As the web evolves information will become far more precise as we get access to more granular detail.

ORM helps paint the picture of what consumers are talking about, where they are talking and where the brand is failing to deliver. 

ORM also has the added value of providing real time information from the moment the account begins tracking. Within the hour you can have data at your fingers tips. ORM helps increase the detail of the information available.  More information will ultimately help ensure strategies are more on point and speak better to their target market.

Greg: You mentioned ORM’s ability to help supply more precise detail when conducting research, could you expand on how ORM research differs from regular research.

The main benefit of ORM research is the removal of interview bias. Regardless of the controls put in place the simple act of being interviewed about your opinions is an inherent flaw with traditional research. People over analyze and doctor their answers when interviewed.

ORM allows for more impartial responses. Research can then return a more honest overview of sentiment around the brand and its competitors. I feel confident that the data returned by BrandsEye is a more of a true reflection of the target markets mindset.

Greg: ORM offers you a different type of data but how much weighting do you give to the findings from the online community?

Scott: Ultimately I weight my BrandsEye research based on the target market I’m tracking. If I’m creating a strategy for a Cell Phone manufacturer I feel more confident that the data I have from ORM reflects my target market’s opinion as they are more likely to conversing online.

Conversely the target market for Rolls Royce is unlikely to be communicating with each other through social networks or the web in general. So then I would down weight the data returned.

ORM data is weighted based on the likelihood that we are capturing a significant portion of the target market’s conversation. We also need to consider the credibility of the people creating the content, who are they and what sort of voice do they carry in the community.

Greg: ORM clearly helps you research process, but does it impact your creation process more directly?

Scott: ORM has definitely impacted directly on the creation process, and it does contribute to the strategies I create. The challenge for using ORM in strategy is having the foresight to set up your account pre strategy creation to ensure data is available.

Greg: Through your use of BrandsEye to date what has been your most beneficial use of ORM research?

Scott: BrandsEye’s tracking of one key client identified that the target market were having a negative experience of a new product because of a lack of product knowledge. By understanding the information pitfalls we could respond by launching a YouTube channel which featured a series of videos that were able to clarify consumer’s confusion and ultimately improved the user experience of the product.

Greg: Let’s talk a bit now about communities. Responsible consumerism is something that is still developing in the South African online community. The result is that users often use social media more as a complaints forum then a channel for finding value. Do you find that the information returned through tracking of the community is therefore more open, honest and informative or too clouded in emotion to be useful?

Scott: It is true that a number of online users resort to loudly voicing their anger in the online space however it is up to the brand to control the engagement and through opening up communication between the brand and consumer.

Working through the anger to reach the root cause of the problem will ensure even the most angry of rants can provide value. All that is required is the correct questions from the brand.

Greg: ORM research is often used to identify influencers for the seeding of promotional messages and products. In your opinion to what extent does this compromise the integrity of consumer opinion online and will we see a backlash by the community?

Scott: I believe increasingly people are seeing through this type of promotion. People know who the influencers are and its becoming evident when companies have given them a product to use and blog about. I do believe the power of that sort of endorsement is going to start lessening. Bloggers need to start given honest critiques or risk losing the credibility of their endorsement.

Greg: Let’s talk measurement of success. So once a campaign is done what have been the traditional forms of feedback used to evaluate its success?

Scott: A lot of money has been pumped into models that try track the effectiveness of campaigns. The reality is that most of these models give varying levels of accuracy but for the most part are inaccurate in the overall context. Tracking of effectiveness is not given the same level of importance in the offline space as it is in the online environment.

Greg: So how does reporting on effectiveness change when running digital campaigns and does ORM fit into this measurement.

Scott: The information at your disposal for tracking an online campaign is significantly improved. Between software analytics programs like Google Analytics and Facebook’s insight there is a lot more information to measure campaign with.

ORM tracking can help quantify increases in volume of conversation and overall sentiment making setting KPIs and measurable objects up front far easier. It is important to note that ORM only captures the online aspect of the campaign and not any exposure in the offline environment. The real time nature of the data aids in shortening the learning cycle. Campaigns can be updated mid roll out to ensure they are more effective, something that wouldn’t be possible with more traditional research.