Social media is allowing brands to connect with people like never before. Virtually in real time, a customer can voice a complaint or pay a compliment, and the brand can respond back to the customer directly. That’s your brand reputation we’ll be talking about. It can’t just be a fair weather relationship that a brand develops with its fans. Together, you and your customers will endure frustrating moments, happy memories, and maybe just share an inane story from time to time. However, a single customer can come and go, but you as your brand, must stay consistent. While it is important to develop friendly relationships with your fans and followers, it is equally necessary to always keep in mind that they are your customers, your revenue, not just your new friends. That means that maintaining a positive relationship, and managing your public image are tantamount to one another. Treat your reputation over social networks as you would your personal reputation. Handle it.
Establish Brand Presence
Establishing an online presence is step one is managing your brand online. In today’s world, whether you like it or not, chances are that your name is somewhere out there being discussed by people. You can choose to ignore it, or you can try to affect it. To start exploring this, you should find out just what comes up on the search engine results page (SERP). The first thing you don’t want to see is your website standing alone. If all that comes up in relation to your brand or company when you type it into a search engine is your website, that means that no one is talking about you; including yourself. Setting up social networks will get you started on the path towards becoming SEO friendly. The second issue to look out for is two fold; first, are there any negative comments on any blogs or forums that you should address? If so, the creation of your social networks will allow you the opportunity to begin taking over the top results on the SERP; thereby muting your critics to a great extent. Second, are there other brands with the same or similar names to your own that might confuse a potential customer looking for more information about your specific brand. People are curious, zo they’ll look at you; but they’re also impatient, zo if they can’t see you or get confused about where they’re meant to go, they have no problem simply walk away. If you’re consistently updating content on social networks, you’ll own the SERP, and leave your competitors wondering how you did it.
Control Brand Reputation
Having an established presence on social networks can be an invaluable asset, but it can also be a fatal liability if it is not controlled correctly. Undoubtedly, you’ve heard the proverb “you can’t please everyone.” This is always going to be true when it comes to customer service and marketing, whether virtual or not. Some people will love what you do, but others will want to tear it apart. The trick here is to be aware of what is happening on your social profiles, and respond to all inquiries in a timely manner. If a customer is asking about a sale on your Facebook wall, answer the question. If a follower is tweeting about how much they love your shoes, retweet! Whenever someone is on any of your social networking pages. they are entering a virtual store. They should be catered to as if they had a sales rep face-to-face with them. Your fans, followers, and customers will appreciate the connection, and in turn, will promote your brand to others. If a problem is brought up publicly, do what you can to address the problem publicly. If the situation gets a little too dicey, try a direct message or giving them a phone number or email to contact. Keeping the negative comments to a minimum should be a part of your online presence management.
Monitor Brand Engagement
“Social media monitoring tools are the first line of defense when managing your online reputation,” explains Andy Beal, CEO and founder of Trackur. “Monitoring tools allow you to quickly fan the flames of any praise or fight reputation fires while they are still manageable.”
Alright, so you know you have to be everywhere at once if you want this whole social networking thing to work; but how do you do it? With software now available such as Sprout Social, Google Alerts, and Social Mention, it is perfectly possible to keep a firm grasp on your online reputation; even when you’re offline. They will keep you apprised of any and all activity and metrics that you need to know. With that information, your response will get faster and more efficient; the faster the response, the happier the customer. Some of the aforementioned tools will cost you a small amount of money, but it is nothing compared to the money you’ll save now that you don’t have to pay an outsourced agency to manage your public image for you. This way, you can always be sure that what is being said back to your customers, is exactly what you wanted them to hear.
It might seem like a lot to take on, but we think you can handle it. Zo let us know how it goes, and if you need to know anything our wiZOrds are at your service.
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