Reputation Management
Branding & StrategyAlso: Online Reputation Management · ORM
Quick definition
Reputation management is the practice of monitoring and shaping how a business is perceived, especially online. It covers reviews, search results, social conversation and press. Done well it is mostly about being genuinely good and responding well when things go wrong. Done badly it becomes an attempt to bury or fake perceptions, which tends to backfire.
Where it shows up in the data
You cannot manage what you do not see. Tracking reviews, brand-name search results and social conversation tells you your actual reputation.
Encourage genuinely satisfied customers to review, and handle criticism openly and constructively, because onlookers judge the response as much as the complaint.
The durable version aligns perception with a genuinely good reality. Faking or burying perceptions is detectable, punishable and collapses when exposed.
What it actually means
Reputation management is the work of understanding and influencing how a business is perceived across the places people form opinions: review platforms, search results for the brand name, social media and press. The legitimate core is threefold. Monitor what is being said so you know your actual reputation. Earn positive signals by being genuinely good and encouraging satisfied customers to review. And respond well to criticism, because how a business handles a complaint often matters more to onlookers than the complaint itself. The disreputable version, burying negative results, posting fake reviews or trying to silence legitimate criticism, is both increasingly detectable and increasingly punished by platforms and regulators, and it collapses the moment it is exposed. Reputation management works when it aligns perception with a genuinely good reality. It fails when it tries to manufacture a reputation the business has not earned.
The best reputation management is being worth a good reputation. Everything else is managing the gap between what you are and what you claim.
The Australian context
In Australia, fake reviews and misleading testimonials can breach Australian Consumer Law, and the ACCC has pursued businesses over fabricated or suppressed reviews. Legitimate reputation management, earning and responding to genuine reviews, is both safer and more effective.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
What is reputation management?
It is the practice of monitoring and shaping how a business is perceived, especially online, across reviews, search results, social conversation and press. Done well it is mostly about being genuinely good and responding well to criticism.
What is the best way to manage reputation?
Monitor what people are actually saying, be genuinely good so there is a positive reality to reflect, encourage satisfied customers to review and respond to criticism openly and constructively.
Are fake reviews illegal in Australia?
They can be. Fake reviews and misleading testimonials can breach Australian Consumer Law, and the ACCC has pursued businesses over fabricated or suppressed reviews. Earning genuine reviews is the safe and effective approach.
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New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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