Brand image and e-reputation: why an audit is essential
The convergence between physical stores and e-commerce, traditional media and digital space and the rise of the influence of social networks has removed the boundaries between on and offline, both interacting to influence the consumer’s buying path. Not considering the brand image as an inseparable whole of the two universes would be deadly. The first step to improve your brand image is now the e-reputation audit.
Why be interested in its e-reputation?
The hyper media coverage resulting from the multiplication of social networks leads to a more or less advanced digitalization of the brand image. It requires companies to manage their online presence and its impact on their image on a daily basis, to control their e-reputation. At the same time, the risks for the brand of seeing its image splashed have multiplied: employees, consumers, activists now have access to a wide audience: the volume of information exchanged and the speed of this exchange have never been so important.
At all times, the brand must give itself the means:
- To monitor the way it is present in the digital space, directly (the brand itself) or indirectly (for example the themes on which its different markets depend),
- To estimate the importance of the presence of a brand or a theme within the digital space,
- Identify, particularly through weak or early warning signals, the risks and opportunities that lie ahead (especially those associated with competition),
- To correct any discrepancies between the image the brand wishes to give of itself and its reality.
First step: have an inventory of its e-reputation.
The e-reputation audit, the first essential step to take care of your image, will enable a brand :
- Quantitatively evaluate the weight of its presence on the Internet: how many times a brand is cited,
- Identify the places where this brand is mentioned: sites, forums, blogs, social networks, sharing platforms, but also the most visible research results,
- Understand the themes that can be associated with this brand,
- Analyze the content of conversations in which the brand is quoted and the tone of speeches, especially in areas of free expression such as blogs, forums, opinion sites or social networks,
- Identify the issuers/authors of this content and their nature (consumers, media, NGOs…) as well as influencers and communities likely to have an impact on the brand image.
- Monitor competition.
This audit phase is the prerequisite for any effective brand image monitoring strategy and action plan. On the basis of the lessons learned, it will indeed be possible to set up an effective monitoring and analysis protocol, which will concern:
- The brand, its competitors, associated themes,
- Types of sites and channels to monitor,
- Priority corrective axes.
Audit of e-reputation: what’s next?
In an operational way, the audit will make it possible to define and implement the two pillars of the brand’s e-reputation:
The monitoring of its e-reputation, in order to know in real time who expresses itself, how and on what,
The answer: how to quickly invest the digital space to effectively disseminate messages in line with what the brand wants to make known of itself: send the right message to the right people at the right time.
To do this, the indicators to be followed will have been listed, an editorial line defined, key messages may have been written and disseminated and the whole brand-customer relationship animated and moderate. This is thanks to the lessons learned during the audit phase, the clear vision of the brand it will offer, the scope of the brand expression territory it will help to define and the context, particularly the competitive context, in which it will be embedded.
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