Cannabis
Online Reputation Management

What is Cannabis Online Reputation Management?

Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the ongoing process of monitoring, improving, and protecting how your dispensary is perceived online. This includes managing customer reviews, search engine results, social media mentions, and third-party content. In cannabis, where trust and compliance are key, ORM helps ensure that your brand is accurately represented and that negative content doesn’t dominate what people see first.

What’s the Difference Between ORM, Online Presence Management, Brand Protection, and Public Relations?

These three terms are often used interchangeably, but they serve distinct purposes:

• Online Reputation Management (ORM): Focuses on how your business is perceived based on reviews, social mentions, and search results.
• Online Presence Management: Involves optimizing and maintaining your visibility across the web—directories, social media, and more.
• Brand Protection: Involves legal, technical, and strategic steps to prevent damage to your name, including dealing with misinformation or impersonation. Together, they create a strong digital foundation that builds trust with consumers and prevents cannabis public relations disasters. 
• Public Relations (PR): Centers on proactively managing your brand’s public image through media outreach, press releases, and crisis communication.

Why Reputation Matters for Cannabis Dispensaries

Today’s cannabis target audiences are research-driven. Before stepping foot in a dispensary, they’re reading Google reviews, comparing menus, and scrolling through social media. A strong online reputation builds instant credibility, while one unresolved comment can turn potential buyers away. In a market where cannabis word-of-mouth marketing has gone digital, what people say online is just as powerful as your best in-store pitch.

Unique Challenges of Reputation Management in the Cannabis Industry

Cannabis businesses face heightened risks when it comes to online reputation due to industry stigma, inconsistent cannabis advertising regulations, and strict advertising limitations. Major cannabis review sites and cannabis social platforms may block or flag content unfairly. Customers may also misunderstand product effects or strain information, leading to misguided reviews. It’s critical to take these added variables into account when building your ORM strategy.

Online Reputation Management Best Practices

01. Gain Respect

Earning the respect of your consumers is essential in managing your online reputation. Like any healthy relationship, this doesn’t happen overnight – You’ll need to invest in earning this respect for your brand and what you do for the community over time.

02. Be Transparent

Don’t be modest. If you’re doing something good for the community or giving back, share it with your local networks. Don’t expect it to hold the weight should a negative review surface and you try to ‘cover it up’ using your good deed.

03. Monitor Online Mentions

Aside from responding to negative comments, you also want to craft quick and helpful responses to questions and thank users who post a good review! ORM isn’t just damage control—it’s also about highlighting what’s working.

04. React Quickly and Politely

We know your business means the world to you, but it’s important that you take a pause to breathe and reflect before responding. If you need more time to respond, that’s ok, but you should still respond with something to the tune of ‘Thank you for your feedback. We promise to get back with you as soon as possible.’ Do not ignore the comment as it will not go away and will only make you look guilty.

05. Address Criticism

If something surfaces and gains lots of momentum online, you may need to make a grander step and make a public announcement addressing the criticism. Apologize, offer a solution, and make it right!

06. Treat Google Like Your Business Card

First impressions carry a lot of weight online – Google is the #1 search engine in our market today. If a potential customer searches for your business, what are they finding? If your dispensary is not showing up in relevant search results, it's time to revisit your cannabis dispensary SEO strategy. Work with your team to promote positive content should there be a bad review. Every unaddressed search result is a potential customer you may never win back.

07. Understand Your Critics

If someone has something negative to say, resolve the issue. While this does mean promoting a positive image for your brand, it also means taking into account the comment at hand. Is there something you could do better? Do you need to better clarify your messaging or offer? Are your budtenders offering up inaccurate information to customers? React and resolve if possible.

08. Defend Your Brand Against Illegal Aggressors

If a user’s comments or accusations report false information, are defamatory, or are damaging to the company’s reputation, it may be worth your resources to invest in legal action. If you don’t sue them or employ retaliation, they may act out again. Unfortunately, in our industry, we are not foreign to this occurring time and time again.

09. Don’t Make the Same Mistake Twice

Part of the experience of being in business is experimenting and making mistakes. The first step is to apologize, while the next step is to learn from your mistakes and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Whether it’s removing a product from the shelf, retraining an employee, or giving your messaging an extra once-over, it’s important not to make the same mistake twice.

10. Develop a Comprehensive ORM Plan

Your dispensary needs to implement a review-gathering strategy and invest in building your reputation with the online and offline community. Start now if you haven’t already or you’re at risk of letting a single sour apple ruin all your efforts.

How Do You Assess Your Online Reputation?

A well-rounded ORM audit involves three parts:

1. Search Audit

• Google your dispensary, products, and staff names
• Check for what ranks first—your site, reviews, news articles, or something else?
• Use Google monitoring tools to understand your rank on keywords and SERPs

2. Review Audit

• Review your ratings on Google, Weedmaps, Leafly, Yelp
• Read recent reviews to identify recurring themes
• Flag anything false, defamatory, or needing a response

3. Social & Forum Audit

• Search Instagram hashtags and Reddit for mentions
• Use social media monitoring tools to track community boards and user-generated content
• Note brand sentiment: are users advocates or critics?

Once complete, create a simple report or scorecard to track your findings—and take action where needed.

Where to Monitor Your Cannabis Brand Online

To stay on top of your dispensary’s online reputation, you need to monitor activity across all major digital touchpoints. Here are the key channels, organized by category:

Mainstream Social Media

• Instagram
• Facebook
• TikTok
• X (formerly Twitter)

Cannabis-Centric Forums & Communities

• r/trees
• r/weedstocks
• r/dispensaries
• Grasscity Forums
• Rollitup Forums
• 420 Magazine Forums
• THCFarmer
• Future4200

Video & UGC Platforms

• YouTube
• WeedTube

Additional Monitoring Hubs

• Blog comment sections on your site and cannabis news blogs
• Brand-focused Discord communities
• Dispensary-specific threads on Reddit or niche cannabis subreddits

3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Analyzing Dispensary Online Reputation Management

1. Are you actively listening to your customers and improving your customer experience based on what they believe to be good or bad about your dispensary?
2. Are you monitoring your competitors and taking note on how their customers are talking about them online?
3. Are you prepared to respond to bad comments or mentions online?

How to Respond to a Bad Review

Yes, you should always respond to negative reviews—professionally and promptly. When a negative review pops up, the worst thing you can do is ignore it. Instead, pause, reflect, and respond calmly. Say something like, "Thank you for your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about your experience and are looking into it. We’ll be in touch as soon as possible." Addressing issues demonstrates professionalism and builds trust.

Can You Remove Negative Content About Your Dispensary?

Yes, dispensaries can remove some types of negative content—if it's false, defamatory, or violates a platform’s guidelines. In serious cases, legal action may be required. Otherwise, your best strategy is to drown out the negative with authentic, positive content – a tactic known in some circles as the old "SEO bury."

Beware of Scam Services That Claim to Remove Legitimate Reviews

Some companies promise to “clean up” your online reputation by removing negative reviews—even if they’re legitimate. These services often violate platform terms, use black-hat tactics, or worse, scam you entirely. Watch out for guaranteed removals of reviews— No ethical provider can guarantee that.

Rapid Indexing for Positive Content

If you’re working to outrank a negative review or outdated listing, publishing new, positive content is just the first step. You also need it indexed quickly. To make the most of your cannabis content marketing, tools like Rapid URL Indexer help search engines find your content faster—giving it a better chance to rank higher and shape your brand’s first impression online, giving it a better chance to rank higher and shape your brand’s first impression online.

Review Generation Tools for Dispensaries

Invest in Google review generation tools to build your reputation proactively. These platforms help collect customer feedback and encourage satisfied clients to leave public reviews. More recent, specific, and high-quality reviews will help your dispensary stand out.

How to Build a Review Generation System for Your Dispensary

Effective review generation is more than a tool—it’s a system. Train budtenders to ask for reviews post-purchase. Use cannabis SMS marketing or cannabis email marketing with a direct link to your review page. Display QR codes at checkout. Offer small incentives or loyalty points for honest feedback. Make leaving a review as seamless and mobile-friendly as possible.

Should You Manage Reputation In-House or Hire a Partner?

For many dispensaries, the decision to outsource ORM versus keeping it internal comes down to time and expertise. In-house teams know the brand best but may not have the bandwidth or tools. A cannabis marketing agency can bring powerful tech, experience, and faster response times. If you’re struggling to keep up, outsourcing may be the best investment.

Cannabis ORM Examples

• Example 1: Crisis Review Management – A dispensary was hit with a wave of 1-star reviews due to a temporary inventory shortage. Their quick, transparent replies and offer of a discount brought many reviewers back to update their ratings.
• Example 2: SEO Suppression Success – A former employee posted false claims on a blog that began ranking in SERPs. The dispensary worked with a cannabis SEO team to publish press releases and blogs that eventually outranked the negative post.
• Example 3: Proactive Review Building – One brand trained staff to request reviews and implemented SMS follow-ups, increasing Google reviews. This proactive approach also strengthened their cannabis marketing campaigns and built long-term credibility.

Bad Reviews Happen—What You Do Next Matters

The internet has a long memory, and in cannabis, one unchecked review can echo for months. You can’t delete that negative post, but you can surround it with positive proof that your brand is worth trusting. Reputation management isn’t optional anymore. It’s your digital survival strategy—and a critical piece of your broader cannabis marketing strategy.

Ready to take control of your reputation? MediaJel can help you build a cannabis online reputation management strategy that protects your brand, drives trust, and attracts loyal customers. Talk to us today to get started.