SEO, social networks and online reputation management: the trinity of internet marketing

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, and Online Reputation Management (ORM) are sometimes confused, and the vast number of people think that these three are the same thing. Also, there is an obvious crossover, all three have completely different approaches and follow very different results. Here in this article, we are going to discuss a bit more about its importance and uses.

Search engine optimization, online reputation management and social media are said to be the trinity of internet marketing. Let’s talk a bit about SEO, social media and ORM first.

Why search engine optimization?

SEO is generally concerned with getting a website rank in search engines or ranking better for search terms related to products and/or services. It is nothing more than a process to increase the chances of your website appearing on the first page or in the first search results of the most popular search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.

• Importance of SEO: It’s a viable marketing outlet that can bring more qualified leads, as well as customers, to your business. You may have a better return on investment than traditional forms of marketing, eg television and/or print advertising. It is good for business visibility and branding. SEO can drive traffic to businesses and provide unmatched insight into customers.

Why social media marketing?

Social media marketing is a set of techniques and strategies to promote awareness of a brand, publication, product, etc. (brand, post, or product can be personal or business), on social media, particularly by encouraging the sharing of content that helps drive the ultimate number of people to a specific website.

• Importance of social networks: Social media is sometimes used for marketing, especially online marketing, then social media transformed its name as social media marketing. You can increase your brand awareness. Social networks can help online marketing to validate brands. When your company’s social media presence is executed right, it tells customers that your company’s brand is active and focused on thriving customer communication. It provides a targeted way to promote your brand to your potential customers. You can increase traffic to your individual or business website, grow a large community of fans and followers, and can quickly generate new business. It can also help your search ranking.

Why Online Reputation Management?

Online reputation management is all about improving your personal or business name or brand reputation. This is accomplished by countering or removing negative comments found all over the internet, defeating them with more positive comments, reviews, or comments to improve your credibility and customer trust in your name or brand.

• Importance of ORMs: Online reputation is your image on the internet. These days, online reputation has become an imperative for businesses of all kinds to monitor, identify and influence the digital reputation of brands. It’s important to not only protect what you already have, but also to use your online reputation as part of your marketing campaign to generate new business and increase sales.

The technology that surrounds us is developing at an exponential rate. At no time in human history have we had the real ability, both as organizations and individuals, to reach, engage, interact and connect with an ultimate number of people, locally and globally, and certainly in real time. Digital media has completely transformed the concept of modern marketing, making it more damning than ever for business organizations and institutions, both small and large, to have a voice in the online arena.

Digital media and marketing, for example, search engine optimization, social media marketing, and online reputation management, have proven their value to businesses of all sizes and types by offering the following powerful features.

• instant communication – Digital media and marketing enable real-time conversions between businesses and organizations and their customers and members.
• Comment – Businesses can get qualitative and quantitative information about things happening in the target market by participating and asking for feedback.
• Advertising – Digital media provide a targeted way to promote your brand to potential customers.

Benefits of using SEO, social networks and ORM

When it comes to increasing search rankings, promoting business, and generating positive awareness, it takes a lot of time and effort to build and maintain a company’s online reputation. SEO, Social Media and ORM can give that. The benefits are:

• Help increase traffic i.e. visitors to the targeted website and exposure.

• Encourage followers and fans.

• Improve search ranking.

• Build online reputation, build brand name and value.

• Expand business and improve sales.

• Give a vision of the market.

• Build trust and credibility.

SEO and Social Media is not online reputation management. No doubt reputation management services include SEO and social media component. But, when it comes to comprehensive online reputation management campaigns, SEO is far from the whole story. Let’s take a look at the key differences between SEO, social media and online reputation management.

To understand the basic differences of SEO, Social Media, and ORM, we need to understand the buyer’s journey. The buyers journey consists of three important stages:

• Awareness: Buyers can easily articulate a need or problem, but aren’t even aware of any possible solutions. He or she likes to go to Southeast Asia, but may or may not have ideas about where to stay or what to do there, so you can search for “destination in Southeast Asia”, “things to do in Southeast Asia”, etc.
• againstconsideration: He or she now knows that they have a week to spend and a specific budget in mind, but they need to create an itinerary, such as where to visit, things to do, food to eat, things to buy, etc. He or she searches for “things to do in Hong Kong” and “motels or restaurants in Shanghai.”
• Decision: The buyer has an itinerary and needs to find particular providers in their destinations, such as “Hong Kong Hyatt”, “Hong Kong Cable Car”, “Shanghai CCTV Tower” etc.

Last but certainly not least, online reputation management often uses what might be considered hard-nosed tactics that fall outside the scope of conventional SEO and social media. Whether your business lives and dies by reviews in shocking online posts, then you need to optimize such sites properly and address those negative posts such as defamatory comments, copied content, inappropriate material, etc. that you don’t control