Consider these facts:

Your school’s reputation can affect funding and community morale.

Not only that, but a negative reputation will send prospective students looking elsewhere.

According to Eduventures Research, 80% of college students say they picked their school because of its reputation.

With so much at stake, schools shouldn’t leave their image to chance.

Do You Know Your School’s Reputation?

These days people learn what they need to know about an organization online. A quick Google search can bring up all kinds of information. It’s not only your website and social media profiles that show up in a search.

Other people talk about your school. There could be interviews, professional listings, and more that you don’t know about. All these things affect your school’s image.

You’ll find out quickly what people think about its programs, instructors, and community, by searching your school’s name online.

Monitor Your School’s Mentions

Next, expand your search and monitor school mentions. Make a search list including things such as:

• Keywords and topics relating to your school
• Its programs
• Instructor names
• School competitors
• Backlinks to your school’s website

Use this list to monitor your school’s mentions. Do people speak highly of your institution? Or are there things to address?

Either way, reputation management for schools will make your online presence more robust. Here’s how.

Reputation Management for Schools: Promote the Positive

It’s important to refine your keyword and mentions list to weed out the noise. Hone in on specifics that affect your organization. Then you can use social media, your website, and other online platforms to produce positive content.

First, ask a few questions. How can the school reach students? What about prospective students? What makes your community special?

Highlight things like scholarships, groups, and community events. Likewise, your school’s core beliefs and mission should guide your strategy.

Be proactive. Promote student achievements. Feature popular programs and instructors who stand out.

The bottom line is that everything the school does, from marketing to programming, is part of reputation management. That’s why it’s equally important to consider how to respond to negative feedback. And it’s crucial to make a plan.

Reputation Management for Schools: Address the Negative

The idea behind creating positive content is to educate, build authority, and highlight your school’s missions and goals. Another key point in reputation management for schools is to address negative comments and feedback.

Your school can suppress negative chatter with plenty of positive content. But the negative should never go unattended. Everyone is watching.

Think of it as a chance to build better relationships. To emphasize the point—over 53% of consumers expect an organization to respond to their concerns within a week. Most are disappointed. Over 63% say they never heard back.

A negative comment could be valid. It’s an opportunity to recognize and fix problems. Most times, you can turn the negative into a positive just by showing you care.

If you combine positive content creation and a plan to address the negative, you can build a robust online presence that puts your school in the driver’s seat.

Here’s How to Address Negative Comments

Administrators don’t have to be at the mercy of negative comments and poor reviews. Remember, reputation management for schools is about driving and directing online perception. Make a plan.

People often write reviews when they feel frustrated. Acknowledging their complaint and offering help goes a long way. If you don’t avoid them, it shows you want to help.

Publicly respond to the review and address the situation. Take it offline to work out the details.

Work together to find a solution. Then ask them to address the negative review. Research reveals that students who get help with their problems are more likely to recommend your school than those who never had an issue.

On the other hand, negative feedback holds more power if you ignore it. Openly replying will let your audience know the school cares about their concerns.

It’s Time to Make a Plan

Consider that auditing, monitoring, and producing new content is a full-time job. And a vital one as well. Who in your organization can head up this task?

You can train administrators to do the job. You’ll want to do the following to get started:

• See where you stand online
• Devise a plan to monitor what needs to change
• Develop a new content strategy
• Set up best practices for addressing negative content

By the same token, students judge a school based on their experience on its website. It’s often the first impression. Ensure that all of your pages are user-friendly. Additionally, check for broken links. Also, make sure to optimize all your pages so search engines can find you.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Social Media

Social media is one of the best solutions for reputation management for schools. Produce great content that your audience wants to like, share, and comment on. It will increase your reach.

Likewise, highlight the good news. Join the conversation. Encourage students, staff, and others to share. They can post photos, talk about their accomplishments, and comment on their programs.

Students and staff are your school’s ambassadors.

Work with Professionals in Reputation Management

Does reputation management for schools seem daunting? You can hire professionals to get the job done. And they can maintain your school’s online image.

Reputation Sciences provides customized reputation management solutions. We start with an online audit. Then we offer insights regarding your school’s reputation.

Next, we customize a plan for creating content to get your school ranking higher on search engines. You also receive monitoring, 24 hours a day, to ensure you’re on track.

Do you need help managing your school’s online reputation?

Reputation Sciences is here to help. We’ve provided comprehensive reputation management services since 2015.

You can learn more about us online. Or schedule your free consultation by calling 844-458-6735 today! Call Us Today to learn more about our Online Reputation Management Solutions – ReputationSciences is owned by NetReputation.com

The post Reputation Management for Schools: Why It Matters appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

University admissions departments live and die by online reviews.

And universities of all sizes need to follow online reputation management best practices at every stage of the recruiting process. This includes matters of recruiting and retaining faculty, obtaining grants, and maintaining the brand of the institution.

What’s more: online reputation management best practices become critically important when managing a P.R. crisis.

The stats are in: your school is in the online spotlight

According to a recent Oberlo survey, 90% of adults read online reviews before making a major purchase.

And, BrightLocal found that 97% of teens applying to college read reviews of schools before they apply.

The Oberlo survey also reveals that three of four applicants place as much confidence in online reviews on colleges and universities as they do personal recommendations.

In this article, we outline the top 5 online reputation management best practices for universities.

We also look at the most effective online reputation management services for universities in the current climate.

There’s more to online reputation management for universities than preparing for a crisis

Every university needs an expert dedicated reputation management team for crisis situations.

But for managing day-to-day issues online, reputation management is even more important.

Going to college is a major life decision in any person’s life. But in 2021, every aspect of college life is full of uncertainty.

Students are more sensitive than ever to social signals.

And these signals influence their decisions on anything from how to invest their time in study to enrolling in college in the first place.

The kinds of issues that universities need to manage in 2021 often center on:

Reopening issues

What is your university’s plan for reopening? Will classes continue online, go 100% in-person or provide a mix of both? Are other learning options still available?

Changes in student life

What will student life look like in the coming year? What can students expect from clubs and athletic organizations?

Digital resources

What digital resources will be available to support studies?

International students

What are the incentives for international students to enroll at your school?

Other issues of online reputation management for universities in 2021

What will the campus experience be like? What can students expect as they move into dorms? Will students have the same opportunities to have fun?

Your university needs clear and consistent messaging across all digital channels. It also needs to manage misinformation and “minor” reputation threats to maintain a healthy online image among students, parents, donors, and faculty.

So, what 5 things can you do to keep your school’s reputation above water?

1. Make sure digital experiences are on point

Even in 2021, some university websites aren’t optimized for smartphones. Many aren’t creating content for students for whom digital life is second nature.

And others aren’t utilizing the digital pathways through which students get their information and opinions about schools online.

Pointing your branding in the right direction requires clean design and user-friendly navigation through your main website.

In other words, when students can’t find your content, they don’t get your message.

End-to-end audits of online searches used by students are essential, helping you understand how students get information about your school.

Not optimizing your website for students can undo your best reputation management efforts.

The best online reputation management for universities strategies require attention to detail, particularly when it comes to the digital experience.

2. Take advantage of advances in AI for chatbots

Walk-in appointments literally walked away due to 2020 pandemic restrictions. As a result, students and parents hit the phones.

And with administrators busy enough as it is, chatbots offer a great way to provide answers to common questions.

Intuitive chatbots have the power to direct students to the resources they need. in turn, they take a considerable burden off those managing the university’s reputation.

And for many students, chatbots are more effective than search engines. What’s more: they stay under your control.

3. Post lots of videos

Maintaining your university’s reputation is easier when students, parents, and other stakeholders are fixed on your message to the exclusion of other online voices. Video captures attention better than other forms of online content.

And when in-person tours of your campus are not possible, video is the next best thing.

What kinds of topics lend themselves to video for your various digital channels and ad campaigns? Campus tours are a must, of course, but you may also wish to consider:

• Welcome messages. Admissions officers, faculty, coaches, current students, and other persons associated with your university can post general welcome messages and personalized welcome messages as prospective students progress through the admissions process. You can run a similar campaign aimed at student retention.
• Speakers. Create a digital convocation to highlight speakers and invite discussion. You will have a detailed digital footprint that gives you objective data about how students respond to your presenters.
• Day-in-the-life. Create videos that give your students a taste of college life, both to entice them to enroll and to remind them of what is waiting for them when they return to campus.
• Departmental content. Serious students want to know what their professors are researching. Departments can create videos that show their research and innovations.

And with all those videos, you will be ready for the next essential activity for online reputation management for universities in 2021.

4. Ramp up social media marketing

Students hang out on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. This makes social media a primary tool of online reputation management for universities.

A Statista survey has found that global use of social media is up 44% since March 2020. Another survey discovered that the costs of social media advertising are down across the board.

This is the perfect time to increase investment in social media marketing. Doing so allows your to stay ahead of reputation issues and build your university’s presence across the web.

What’s more: universities that invest in social media marketing create awareness that helps water down reputation crises online.

What are the features of a successful university social media marketing campaign?

Flexible U/X

The University of Michigan makes creative use of its “M” team trademark in the classic gold and blue color scheme on its Twitter feed. Twitter is better suited to text content, so the Michigan “M” signals followers that the tweet is from their school.

But on Instagram, UM switches from its gold and blue “M” to shots of people and places with lots of gold and blue color. The university also created an eye-catching Snapchat mascot and maintains different YouTube channels for various academic departments.

Personal approach

West Virginia University has its own Mr. Rogers in the person of university president Gordon Gee. He creates folksy but useful video content to reach out to students across the country.

Grounding in place

The University of Vermont is located in a beautiful natural setting. As such, UV uses four-season shots of campus to generate engagement on Instagram. They also hold student photography contests

But when nothing else is going on, a photo of the campus covered in snow will do.

Lots of personality

It’s rare to detect even a hint of scandal at the University of Indiana.  One reason for this is that IU puts out so much content on so many social channels.

Indiana makes extensive use of LinkedIn sites. They maintain a lively student presence on Pinterest. They spend a lot of time creating Internet memes. And IU academic departments have WordPress blogs and Facebook pages.

Indiana manages its online reputation by drowning out competing voices.

The best online reputation management practices for universities elevate online visibility. They establish trust and highlight your attributes.

What’s more: the best online reputation management practices for universities highlight positive experiences of students and faculty. They promote positive news, create a buzz about your school and push your message to the top of the feed.

But even universities that offer courses and degrees related to online reputation management usually outsource outline reputation management to experts.

5. Hire a reputation management firm

One reason that universities outsource reputation management is to be ready for a crisis.

When a reputation crisis hits, you need experienced reputation crisis managers to look at your situation and provide the tools needed to limit the damage.

Another reason universities hire reputation management professionals is the level of expertise. After all, it’s impossible to optimize your social media presence without AI. You need a consultant with experience and training to get you the maximum return from your investment.

Need help managing your reputation?

You’ve come to the right place.

Our reputation management solutions provide the tools and technology your university needs to thrive online. We work with universities to build online reputations that attract new students and ensure long-term success,

We are experts in online reputation management for universities. Contact us today to schedule your free consultation. Call Us Today to learn more about our Online Reputation Management Solutions – ReputationSciences is owned by NetReputation.com

The post Online Reputation Management for Universities: 5 Things to Know for 2021 appeared first on Reputation Sciences.