Online Reputation Management 2026: A Guide to SERM, Handling Negativity and Reviews

Olga has an online clothing store. She plans to expand her assortment, so she is looking for a new supplier.

She browses a couple of sites and postpones the decision for a while.

Then, on social media, a familiar logo catches her eye.

One of the suppliers has launched targeted advertising.

Olga clicks the link, fills out a lead form, and sends her contacts to the manager.

Less than 20 minutes pass before the phone rings.

A polite manager tells her about the terms, sends price lists to her email, answers her questions.

Olga is impressed by the company's work and is already ready to place an order.

Before closing the deal, she decides to check how consumers review the supplier's products.

And here's what she sees. The first site is a review aggregator, the rating here is three out of five. Not great.

She reads the first, second, third comment.

Some people are happy with the quality, others breathe fire and only criticize the brand. There are more of the latter.

Olga studies the results further. The company's website. Everything is perfect here.

Only enthusiastic reviews and photos of happy customers. It looks suspicious.

Another link — this time a group on social media.

Here again opinions are divided, but there are many unpleasant comments.

Weighing all the pros and cons, Olga decides to decline the cooperation. She is not sure about the quality of the product.

Now let's look at the situation from the supplier's side.

He spent money on creating a professional and convenient website.

He allocated a budget for advertising, paid a specialist for setting up retargeting.

He maintains a team of sales managers, constantly improving their qualifications.

He does everything right. But he loses a large wholesale order and a regular partner because of a damaged reputation.

The example is real, the problem is common.

Do you also invest large sums in promotion but lose clients?

A couple of negative reviews may be to blame.

And often they have long been irrelevant, no one simply works with them.

Here's what the statistics say on this matter:

• 93% of consumers claim that reviews influence their purchase decision.
• 91% of users aged 18 to 34 trust online reviews. Among teenagers this figure is lower — 39%.
• 89% of people read companies' responses to reviews.
• 82% of consumers deliberately look for negative reviews.
• On average, users need to study 40 reviews to believe in the fairness of the rating.
• Buyers trust text reviews (43%) more than photos (33%) or videos (24%).
• The probability of buying a product on average increases by 270% if it has at least five reviews. For expensive items the growth is 380%, for cheap ones — 190%.
• 82% of consumers don't trust companies with a rating lower than three stars out of five.
• Increasing the star rating by just 0.1 points can boost conversion by 25%.

Reviews matter. A lot. These can be both reviews of your products and stories about the experience of dealing with the company, as well as publications in major media or posts on content aggregators.

How to find reactions to your brand online and turn them into profit, we'll tell you next.

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Where to look for reviews about a company online

No reviews on your site or social media page?

That doesn't mean there aren't any somewhere else.

In the first chapter we'll look at where recommendations and negativity hide from you.

By and large, reviews can be left anywhere.

Below we'll list the most important platforms. They definitely need to be monitored.

1. Review sites

Review sites can be either highly specialized or "about everything in the world".

Some of these platforms share advertising revenue with authors.

As a result, their audience writes a lot and in detail.

Examples:

• Authored reviews on various topics — IRecommend.ru, Otzovik, Otzyv.ru, Trustpilot.
• Tourism and recreation, HORECA — Tripadvisor, Turpravda, Booking.com.
• Reviews of local companies — Flamp, Zoon, Yell, SPR, Tomato.
• Employee impressions — O rabote, Pravda sotrudnikov, DOU.

The main advantage of these platforms is their scale.

If a user enters a company name into a search engine and adds the word "reviews", the giants will be first in the results.

Are these platforms relevant to your business?

If so, a presence on them will solve many problems.

Create official company accounts here and motivate clients to add good reviews.

They will easily outweigh the negativity on less popular resources. As a result, only recommendations will be in the top.

If negative reviews still appear, respond to them.

Solve problems and show clients that your reputation matters to you.

No one is writing about you on popular sites? There's one trick.

Find active authors on the platform and send them the product for review for free (or invite them for a service).

Such influence marketing is especially popular on "Otzovik" and "iRecommend".

Another option: bring in review authors from other platforms.

2. Maps and directories

A must-have for local business. And not only.

Did you know that search engines aren't very fond of sharing traffic.

Google, for example, finds answers to 94% of queries in its own services.

The most popular of them is "My Business".

In Yandex it's the "Directory".

Data from these sources gets into separate blocks, snippets, and occupies a large part of the top.

In them, besides the company's contacts, there are reviews, both internal and from external sources.

What does this mean for you? Firstly, you need to be in these services. Secondly, reviews here need to be monitored.

Fill out the company cards for all branches. Provide as much data as possible.

After that, track reviews and actively respond to them.

Besides Yandex and Google maps, there are a number of similar services that are also useful to check. For example, 2GIS and 4geo.

3. Product aggregators

On such sites it's convenient to compare prices for products.

All online stores and manufacturers need to "know them by sight".

In Russia, the highest positions in the results are usually occupied by Yandex.Market.

Reviews here are left both about stores and about products.

For promotion in Ukraine, choose third-party services, for example, hotline.ua, Puls cen, Price.ua, prom.ua, Tiu.

Marketplaces can also be added to this category.

Monitor all the platforms where your products are sold.

4. Forums, UGC platforms, media

People share their impressions not only on special sites.

Often they do it where they spend their time.

Previously, life was bubbling on forums.

In some niches they work even today, but they still noticeably lose out to other formats.

It's worth tracking mentions here only if they occupy high positions in the results.

Increasingly, users have started complaining about companies on UGC platforms — entertainment portals and blogging services where publishing materials is available to everyone.

If you respond adequately to such posts, you can earn the community's respect.

That's why it's better not to ignore such platforms.

And the most large-scale option — they write about you in the media.

It's very difficult to fight negativity that has reached major publishers. How to do it, we'll tell you in the third chapter.

5. Social networks

Perhaps the most convenient way to leave a review about a company is on social networks.

There are several placement options: a business page, a personal page, or thematic/local groups.

Reputation on social networks is no less important than your image in search engines. Users trust these platforms.

You can always open the profile of a comment author and verify their honesty.

People also expect the company to respond quickly to all mentions.

Don't disappoint them, and your reputation won't suffer.

Now you know where Internet users most often leave reviews.

It remains to understand which of the platforms your business needs. More on that in the next chapter.

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How to search for reviews about your company

As we found out, reviews can be left anywhere.

Monitoring dozens of platforms manually is a thankless task.

How to save time and not lose a single comment, we'll tell you next.

All companies are different. The choice of platforms depends on the niche and the audience's preferences. There are two options here:

• If you already have reviews on different sites, gather the most important platforms and concentrate your efforts on them.
• If you have few reviews, study the results for competitors.

You can search in search engines (manually, slowly, but for free) or in special services (faster, but a budget is needed).

Let's compare these approaches.

How to search for reviews in Yandex and Google

Everything here is obvious. Type the company name + "reviews" and off you go.

Just in case, enter queries with all spelling variants of the brand. In Cyrillic, in Latin, with spaces, without, etc.

To get all results on one page, in Google search specify synonyms using the OR operator ("Tanuki reviews OR Tanuki otzyvy"). In Yandex — using the | symbol ("Tanuki reviews | Tanuki otzyvy").

Look through the first two or three pages of results, they are the most important.

Write down in a separate file the sites on which reviews about your company appear.

To quickly gather all the resources from the results, use our video tutorial.

Now on these sites you need to register, enable notifications, and respond to all user reviews.

Do it informatively and politely.

How to search for reviews on social networks

Here the minimum program is to respond to all official mentions and branded hashtags.

Here's how to do it on the most popular platforms:

VKontakte

First, subscribe to notifications for your business page.

Click on the bell, go to the "Other sources" tab, and select "Add source".

Important! You must be the owner or administrator of the community to connect it.

Now your personal page will receive notifications about all comments, actions, and mentions.

Mentions can be viewed separately in the eponymous block of the community menu.

It's convenient to monitor hashtags through search.

There you can also type in the brand name in different variants and respond to relevant posts.

Facebook

On this social network, also start by viewing notifications. A separate tab is allotted for them.

The first block collects comments and reactions.

If you go to the "Activity" section, you can view mentions and reposts.

Hashtags and mentions without links are also tracked in search.

Instagram

In the app, go to settings, select the "Notifications" section.

Here we're interested in the items "Posts, stories, and comments" — "Comments" and "Following and followers" — "Mentions in bio". They need to be enabled.

Also, don't forget that tags in posts are placed in a separate tab on the profile page.

Other mentions will come to the "What's new" section, and mentions in stories will additionally be duplicated in direct messages. You definitely won't miss them.

It's useful to periodically search for posts with a branded hashtag, they may also contain reviews or negativity.

On other social networks the principle is the same: subscribe to notifications about comments and mentions and periodically track the brand name and hashtags.

If the company is small, this workload can be handled on your own.

Large brands should consider automation.

Tools for tracking mentions and comments

There are many solutions on the market that save time when working with reputation.

Why visit dozens of platforms and constantly check your mail if you can work in one window.

The solutions are convenient, but not free. Here are a few popular options:

• YouScan. Will find a brand mention even in a photo. Costs from 35,000 rubles per month.
• Brand Analytics. Searches for mentions in media, social networks, text, video, images, and check-ins. Costs from 25,000 rubles per month.
• IQ Buzz. Collects information by topics and subtopics. Costs from 7,900 per month.
• Medialogia. Offers tools for SMM, PR, and media. Flexible pricing plans.
• Babkee. A positive service for studying competitors, tracking opinions, and managing reputation. Has a free plan.

If you're not yet ready to connect a professional service, ask the search engines for help.

Google has the "Alerts" tool. Here you can enter your brand name and subscribe to new materials.

Notifications will come to your email.

In the settings, the frequency of sending, sources, language, country, and number of results are available.

The service finds many useful materials, and for free at that. Take it on board.

As an alternative — Yandex.Blogs. Here you can configure the geo, publication date, and language.

However, subscribing to updates is not available.

Recommended reading:

1. Crowd Marketing: 2 Core Goals, 5 Types of Platforms, 5 Approaches to Application
2. The Most Complete Guide to Crowd Marketing (+9 Recommendations)

How to create and improve your reputation online

Now you know where and with the help of which tools to look for reviews about your company.

It's time to figure out how to use this data to build and improve your reputation.

Let's start with the most optimistic scenario. You have reviews, no fewer than 100. Most are positive.

They bring in new clients and benefit the business only.

What to do in such a case? Keep it up. Actively respond to all inquiries. Look for new platforms and expand coverage.

To do this, determine where reviews about competitors are written.

What to do if things aren't so rosy, we'll tell you next.

What to do if there are no reviews

The absence of reviews is no better than low ratings.

Users develop many questions. What if you delete all negative reviews. Or deceive clients.

Even if you've only just opened a business, trust can't be won without reviews.

Which strategies will help fix the situation:

• Personally ask each client to share their impressions. Offer a discount or a gift for their activity.
• Send the product to bloggers (or provide a service), and in return ask them to tell their subscribers about the experience. Save the post.
• Post a task on freelance exchanges. You send the person the product, they test it and leave a review on a popular platform. As a result, they'll get a free product and a small amount on top for the work (up to 1,000 rubles). Such a publication will bring you new clients and help build a reputation. The mechanism works great on marketplaces. A review of the best exchanges of 2020 will help choose a platform to post the task.
• Ask partners to share their impressions of working with you as a professional. It's not necessary to tie them to a specific project. As a last resort, you can ask friends and relatives for help.
• Add a widget to the site that will motivate visitors to leave recommendations.
• Encourage the creation of user-generated content with mentions. Successful photos and videos with your product are also reviews, just in a different format.
• Engage in crowd marketing on social networks and forums. Offer value and unobtrusively recommend your business.
• Send reminders by email, SMS, or to messengers.
• Place a QR code in the store or establishment that leads to the company card in popular services.
• Launch a contest for the best review. Or any other themed one related to the brand.

Resist the temptation to fake reviews. It's cheap and fast, but the approach can harm your reputation.

A modern user will easily distinguish a fake review from a real one.

Their trust after such an episode can't be regained.

The hardest thing at the beginning of the journey is to attract the first commenters.

Over time, clients will get used to sharing their impressions.

You'll have to spend many times less effort on building your reputation.

How to handle negativity online

The most unpleasant scenario — there are reviews online, but most of them are negative.

Don't think that your business is really that bad.

It's just that consumers share negative experiences much more often. When everything is fine, the desire to tell about it is less.

Have you noticed that large corporations have mountains of similar negativity?

Even in the comments to ordinary posts on social networks, endless complaints flicker.

This is normal, so it's too early to close up and leave in disgrace. You just need to work with negativity competently.

First of all, track it. There's nothing worse than an angry comment to which the brand didn't react at all.

Users share emotions publicly because they want to restore justice.

The absence of a response will only anger them more.

You already know where and how to look for reviews.

It remains to get used to conducting monitoring regularly.

When working with negativity, follow simple recommendations:

• Try not to use brush-offs. Templates are easier to work with, but they irritate. Get into the situation and give a meaningful response.
• If a review hurt you, don't rush with a response. Cool down and collect your thoughts. Remember the positive sides of the company. A negative review is a lesson and an opportunity to become better, so you shouldn't take it personally.
• Gather information. The client wants to solve the problem as soon as possible, help them with this.
• Involve other team members. If your knowledge and competencies aren't enough to resolve the issue, turn to other team members.
• Don't forget to apologize. Politeness will melt the heart of even the most aggressive client.
• Grow brand fans who will voluntarily defend you from unfounded accusations. Create a strong community.

With your response to negativity, you should show that you care, you understood the mistake, and solved the problem (or will solve it soon).

If the user doesn't react to your responses at all, ask the platform administrators to remove such a review as a paid one.

Yes, this also needs to be remembered.

Negativity can be left both by your competitors, and haters, and just schoolchildren who have nothing better to do.

Such posts need to be removed as soon as possible. If it doesn't work out, emphasize in the official response that it was not possible to contact the author.

Readers will understand that such a comment is not to be trusted.

If you received bad reviews deservedly, don't even think about deleting them. That's unprofessional.

How to improve your reputation online

The cheaper and more popular the product (service), the less time a user will spend studying reviews.

But even for expensive purchases they're unlikely to take on researching all the results.

The first and most important impression forms when viewing one or two pages.

To improve your reputation online, you need to bring positive reviews to the top. How to do this:

• Work on your own site. Add reviews. Design an "About us" page. It's good if an official resource with verified data is in first position in the results.
• Bring new commenters to sites with negativity. Fresh posts are viewed more often, since they're more current.
• Collect reviews on different platforms. Search engines like to compose results from sites of different formats.
• If negativity got into the media, publish a refutation right there, or better — in a larger outlet. Then in the SERP your version will take a higher position.
• Push out bad reviews not only from the main page of search engines, but also from the "Images" and "Video" tabs.
• Enlist the support of experts in your industry. Their opinion will matter more to users than the comments of anonymous people.

And the main thing. Learn from your mistakes. Improve service, optimize processes, raise staff qualifications.

Show clients that you're getting better. For them, this will be an excellent reason to leave a positive review.

Conclusions

As in life, an online reputation can make your business a superstar or completely destroy it.

It needs to be closely monitored. Listen to clients and partners.

Start by tracking comments and mentions. They usually appear:

• on your site and on social media pages;
• on review resources;
• on product aggregators and marketplaces;
• on maps and in directories;
• on forums and in the media;
• on social networks.

It's convenient to find them using search engines, the built-in capabilities of social platforms, and special services.

If no reviews were found, you need to motivate clients to create them.

Offer bonuses, hold giveaways, collaborate with bloggers.

React to negativity promptly and professionally. Don't take criticism personally.

A competent response and real help in solving the problem can turn an upset client into a brand fan.

Report paid reviews to readers and platform administrators.

Fix a bad reputation with the help of publications on sites of different formats and by attracting positive comments.

Opinion leaders will also help strengthen trust.

Your attention and sincere desire to solve the problem will allow you to build an excellent reputation.

Investments in it will pay off handsomely — they'll bring you regular clients and become an excellent foundation for business development.