Online reputation management (ORM) is the practice of monitoring what people say about your business online and taking action to maintain a positive image. For local businesses, this mostly means managing Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and social media mentions.
The core activities are: tracking new reviews across platforms, responding to every review (positive and negative), addressing complaints before they become patterns, and encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews.
A strong online reputation directly affects revenue. When a potential customer compares two similar businesses and one has 4.8 stars with thoughtful owner responses while the other has 3.9 stars with no responses, the choice is obvious. Your reputation is visible before a customer ever walks in.
ORM tools range from simple alerts (Google sends you an email when a new review comes in) to full platforms that aggregate reviews and automate responses. One often-missed aspect of ORM is turning positive reviews into marketing content. See how to share Google reviews on Instagram.