Have you ever googled your name to see what information appears about you? If you have a company, you should try to do the same to answer some questions: Who are you on the internet? How do users see you? Do you project a positive or negative image?
If you don't know the concepts "digital reputation" and "digital identity," or if you don't know how to ensure that the image you project on the web does not negatively affect your marketing strategy, don't miss this post.
Are "identity" and "digital reputation" the same?
According to the national cybersecurity Institute, 1 out of every 2 companies is online, either actively or because of what customers or users think of through comments or reviews. Therefore, running a company today involves dealing with physical and virtual life. As a result of the latter, new circumstances arise to consider and concepts that we must know and handle.
When the Internet emerged, information moved in a one-way fashion. In other words, the website administrators controlled the entire process, and users and customers only intervened as mere spectators.
However, as technology and the internet evolved, the role of users changed, and spaces such as chats and forums appeared, were those who until then were only spectators became those in charge of creating and sharing content. Little by little, until today, users have been taking control towards a multidirectional system that encourages the exchange of information.
The concept of multidirectional is a key piece to understand why our “digital identity” is important but, above all, to understand the concept of “digital reputation”; However, they are closely related, they are not the same.
- Digital identity is the set of information that we ourselves generate on the internet. Therefore, the corporate digital identity is the image that a company projects on the Internet through the content that it creates and controls.
Aspects such as the design of your website, the appearance of your social networks, and the tone you use to send your messages in different ways affect your digital identity.
Companies create their digital identity on the different platforms they participate in (web, blog, social networks ...). Taking care of your image and the relationship with your users in each one of them is essential and can positively affect your digital reputation.
- Digital reputation is the opinion that the online community has of a brand and that it expresses through comments on different platforms or reviews, whether positive or negative. You can improve your reputation if you buy google reviews cheap.
Brands do not have direct control over this content. The forms of control (for example, deactivating comments on networks) can work against them when connecting with the public since they can always find other ways to express their opinions on the vastness of the network.
According to Vilma, digital reputation is an abstract concept referring to our business's image or perception. In contrast, digital identity is a tangible concept, which refers to specific elements that build the brand, such as the logo or the fonts.
In summary, we could say that digital identity is what we say about ourselves on the internet, while digital reputation is what others think of our brand.
As a company, you can manage your corporate digital image to affect your digital reputation positively. However, the opinion that users have about your business is not based solely on your online performance. The general functioning of your brand and the satisfaction of your offline customers also have an impact since the latter can use the network to share their experience - positive or negative - with your brand.
By not transferring your business to the Internet, you do not prevent a negative image of your brand from being generated on the Internet. On the contrary, users are online regardless of your presence and can build your digital reputation leaving you on the sidelines.
Leaving your online channels unattended can be a big mistake, but as Dr. Magda Rivero explains, reputation is one and is influenced by both online and offline reputation. Your actions in the physical world will affect the virtual world and vice versa.
Risks to identity and digital reputation
- Attacks on corporate identity
The corporate identity of your brand can be attacked in various ways. One of them is identity theft, which Inteco defines as the usurpation of its corporate profiles by malicious third parties acting on its behalf. That is, someone begins to use the name and identity of your company, for example, to send emails on your behalf.
One of the reasons for resorting to these techniques is the theft of information from brand users. To do this, they resort to techniques such as phishing (impersonating the brand in communications via email or social networks) or pharming (when accessing the brand's page, the user is redirected to a fraudulent website).
Online reputation is cumulative
As explained by the National Institute of Communication Technologies in its Guide to identity and digital reputation, a brand's digital reputation does not work linearly but cumulatively over time. The risk that this entails is that the network does not easily allow oblivion, and each action carried out online leaves a digital footprint that marks the trail of your company. Therefore, you must start to take care of your online actions in detail from the beginning and not stop doing it at any time.The impact of negative comments
Today, through social networks, you can get direct feedback from your customers and users. However, this means that when these reviews are negative, your brand's reputation can be undermined.
Twitter is one of the most frequent ways users use to lodge their complaints. Through hashtags, information is transmitted and grouped quickly and, if several users start commenting on the same topic, they can create a trend (trending topic). In addition, with the rise of the networks, the figure of the troll has appeared, a type of user whose desire is to fan this flow of negative comments through mockery and insults.
Proper management of this flow of negative content can benefit your brand. It is about actively listening in networks and trying to solve possible failures. However, if it is about false information or offensive comments, companies may be protected in some cases by law through the right to honor and the right to be forgotten.
Tips for managing your image and online reputation
To manage your identity and online reputation, you must clearly establish the fundamental values and principles of your brand by which you want it to be recognized and differentiated from others. What are your values as a company? How do you want to transmit them to your audience?
Afterward, all actions must be aimed at fulfilling the chosen objectives. We show you some examples so that you can carry out your actions correctly.
Take care of the content you publish on the web, from publications on your website to responses on social networks; try to ensure that they correspond to your brand's values. To do this, correctly define the tone of the messages and establish the topics in which you will support your users.
Keep track of the digital identity of your competition and the possible problems that have arisen to avoid making the same mistakes.
Be active in social networks, take care of your appearance, publish content regularly and answer the questions that users may express through them. Do not open a profile on a platform if you will abandon it later and establish a calendar to prevent that from happening.
Put your efforts into generating relevant and timely conversations and create quality content in as many media as possible.
Segment your content based on your users' preferences: establish groups within your social community, covering different topics.
Configure automatic responses and automate processes on the network whenever possible.
Now that you know the importance of your brand's online identity make sure you are moving in the right direction and don't waste the opportunity to build a good digital reputation.