2024 SERM: Best Trends in Search Engine Reputation Management

The events of last year have seriously changed the rules of the game, perhaps in all spheres of the economy. Betting on quick deals will definitely not work now; if you want to succeed, focus on building a long relationship with the customer. In order not just to stay afloat but also to grow, you need customers who will stay with you even in a crisis. To do this, you need to develop and strengthen trust—this is the key trend in working with reputation today. All other relevant SERM trends of the current year follow from it.

Centralization and automation

Remember: Your most valuable resource is time. Spending it on manually collecting reviews and comments from dozens of sites, preparing, and posting responses is too wasteful. Especially in a large business that can receive hundreds of messages every day. Previously, full-fledged departments were allocated for this, but today it is a sin not to use automated tools. In addition, the purposes reputation management, there are a lot of them.

Modern technologies make it possible to transfer almost all aspects of such work to automatic rails:
• monitoring of reviews and mentions;
• an analysis of the sentiment of opinions;
• preparation of reports on individual scenarios

Automation is becoming almost the industry standard and reflects the potential for further development. The centralization of work with reviews into a single smart service with the ability to track the company's information environment in real-time is becoming an actual trend.

In fairness, we note that this was not the idea last year. A new direction of work has been developing in the ORM community for several years: RXM, or Reputation experience Management. That is reputation and experience management. Of course, the client. This includes classic reputation management, brand SEO optimization, and monitoring customer satisfaction.

The essence of this approach is that the work on the image goes on continuously. A customer should form an impression at all stages of their interaction with you. Therefore, all ORM and SERM tools need to be synthesized into a single system. And for greater convenience, implement it on the basis of an AI service. In the future, this may result in the formation of full-fledged ecosystems for professional work with reviews.

Trend in 2024: 

Examine existing automated tools you can integrate today. This step not only enhances competitiveness but also provides insights into potential challenges for future automation transitions.

Professional work with reviews as a trend

The more difficult the situation in the economy, the more distrustful customers become. They unconsciously begin to suspect everyone and everything of dishonesty, and therefore, before giving their money to a particular brand, they try to make sure of its reliability. Reviews, ratings, and other "likes" play an important role in this. That is, what other consumers say is more important than what the company itself broadcasts.

However, there is a downside to the coin: reviews are trusted less and less. And not only people but also cars. And not in vain: already today, there are neural networks that, in a matter of seconds, can generate a whole pack of coherent, quite detailed reviews on several keywords or photos. And not only laudatory: the required tonality changes at the touch of a button.

At the same time, the algorithms of aggregator responders are getting smarter. Some of them can already accurately recognize fakes using dozens of indicators. Fakes are not only typewritten but also human. Yes, even if the review is real, it can also easily fail moderation. And in some cases, the author is required to confirm the "naturalness" of the text with a photo of the receipt for the purchase of the product for which the review is being written. The requirement is not yet widespread, but the trend is already forming. There have already been precedents when companies received a "black mark" for publishing fake reviews of their products. And this is a serious blow to the company's reputation.

Trend in 2024: 

Handle review generation with responsibility. It requires a comprehensive strategy and professional execution. Engaging in uncontrolled manipulation, following the 'more is better' principle, will undoubtedly backfire in the long run

"Listening" to social networks

Your customers are an invaluable source of information for the development of your company. Yes, business analytics is important but do not forget to listen to those who directly use your products. For this purpose, a tool called Social Listening has been created. And this is one of the strongest trend in reputation management for at least the next few years. A properly configured SL will help not only to react to failures in reputation in time but also to prevent them at the point of origin.

The essence of SL is to track mentions of your company on the network. It would seem that everyone has been doing this for so long; what is the novelty here? The fact that this technology is focused on working in real-time. That is, you do not collect a slice for a particular period of time, but the most "hot" information.

And such promptness will definitely play to your advantage. A simple example. Your site suddenly stopped working—customers started leaving dissatisfied comments on social networks. You see them right away and immediately explain what's wrong and when the site will be restored. This will not allow the wave of indignation to rise to a dangerous height for the company's reputation. In a similar way, you can quickly work out any complaints or questions and respond to current information guides.

Trend in 2024: 

Be proactive in detecting shifts in customer mood, catching them at the 'Questioning' stage rather than waiting until they're on the brink of disengagement.

Friend, a resource for the benefit of the promotion

No matter what anyone says, the opinions of other people still have a strong influence on our choices. Moreover, the closer a person is, the more authoritative his opinion is. Therefore, today it is important to show the client that his friends, relatives, and acquaintances also trust you.

This is a simple example from everyday life. You come across an unfamiliar but potentially interesting person in a social network. You go into it, and you see that among the thousands of its subscribers, there is one of your friends. The confidence index automatically increases. And if the audience is relatively small, then the presence of a friend will be even more significant.

Trend in 2024: 

Enhance the "personalization" of reviews and recommendations.

Effective collaborations

To successfully overcome the crisis period, which may well drag on, it is worth combining actions with another brand. Moreover, you can choose a company from your own category. Sort of turning a competitor into a partner by launching a synergistic effect.

A striking example of this approach was the co-branding of two leaders in the electronics and household appliances segments. However, until the end of last year, they worked in a mode of active internal competition. Now they are not just launching joint advertising campaigns but also creating joint "two-brand" stores. According to representatives of the companies, this will help to get a 15 percent increase in attendance and increase the average check.

Trend in 2024: 

Consider exploring fresh avenues for collaboration, extending beyond current partners to include competitors. Collaborative efforts like these can enhance reputation management and drive projects that previously lacked scalability, fostering more effective outcomes.

Work on the client's field

This year, we will definitely have to accept the fact that user reviews and comments have already stopped accumulating on the site alone. The user has a lot of opportunities to share his opinion; he can choose the most comfortable conditions for this and is unlikely to search for your site, and even more so the department with reviews. It is understandably easier for him to write a post on a social network, on a review aggregator, or on online maps. So, you should answer him there, too.

Therefore, get used to the fact that you need to monitor communications on the client's territory. And communicate with him in his language. Not with official phrases and complex phrases, but as easy and simple as possible. And often taking into account the specifics of the resource.

Trend in 2024: 

Develop unique scripts and responses tailored to various platforms, avoiding generic templates. Focus on gathering feedback from a wide array of channels to ensure comprehensive insights.

In Conclusion,

This year, your primary focus in reputation management should be on fostering robust, trust-based relationships with users, extending beyond them to encompass partners and even competitors. While this endeavor may be labor-intensive, cultivating "long-term clients" is paramount, and there's no other route to achieve it.