Reputation Management Being Proactive vs. Reactive

As a business owner or manager, you likely plan for every aspect of your business and your marketing plan. Why should your online reputation management be any different? This is especially the case in cultures where company image ranks very high in importance. Planning ahead and being proactive is much better than waiting until a problem arises before attending to your online reputation. Proactive management can be as simple as using social media monitoring tools, regular media and press releases, and even your own company blog.

There are many reasons you should be proactive about your online reputation instead of reactive. (1)It is much easier to fix or diminish the effects of negativity online if you have already built a positive image. (2)Tending to your online reputation also helps establish your presence which can lead to an increase in sales. (3) Establishing ways to engage with your audience allows you to react quickly and easily to negative comments.

Diminished Effect of Negativity

Once you already have built up your own content and presence online, a problem does not carry the same amount of weight as if it were among the only information about your company online. Press releases, company news, and posts on your company blog are all simple ways to establish a positive presence for your company on the web.  With your company blog and social media accounts, where you control the conversation, you can establish your company’s persona and reputation.  Use these channels to establish your company as an expert in the field, sharing valuable information and quality content.  Share positive stories about fundraising, community involvement,  employee success stories, anything positive.  Offer helpful advice, product guides, useful content about your industry.  Now when your reputation is proactively built, and a negative issue arises, it will have a diminished effect because it is just one problem in a sea of positive examples.  Capitalize on your website and social channels where you control the conversation by adding content constantly.

In most cases, a customer complaint that is addressed quickly and correctly can turn a negative into a positive because your company will look better for caring and addressing the problem. If the reputation management problem is a major crisis issue, it is not as easy to clean up, but having your own platform and reacting quickly are both keys to resolving the problem. Never ignore a problem, it will multiply and may never go away. In fact, it will usually get worse and make it more difficult to resolve the longer time goes by.

Online Social Presence Attributes to Increase in Sales

Your customers are searching for you online, even if you don’t sell anything online. All types of organizations from local businesses to large retailers need to have an online presence. It can be a mobile users searching for a nearby restaurant or hair salon, or a consumer looking for a particular product. If these searchers don’t find you, they will find your competition instead.  Multiple instances of web presence for your company will lead to more visitors and more sales. In addition to your website and Facebook page where you control and guide the conversation, look for additional social channels, local directories, review sites, related industry blogs, etc. These all make up the pieces of the puzzle for consumers searching for what you are selling. Establish an online presence in multiple places by claiming online listings with Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yellow Pages, and other community pages. Search your company name routinely and keep any listings up to date.  Also employ the use of social media monitoring tools to be kept abreast of what is being said about your company.

Social Channels Allow You to Engage with Your Audience

Developing social channels only for the purpose of preventing a negative online reputation is not exactly the way to go about this process either. Social networks are there for your business to be social with consumers and engage them. If you establish your social channels, blog, and website only for the purpose of lying in wait to respond to a negative comment, you are missing the point entirely. It is the conversation, content, and overall positive reputation that you build that defends against negativity. Reward your fans and followers for positive interaction on your social channels. If they share their experience with your company, it is more often positive than not and a chance to spread the word to new audiences. Word of mouth marketing on social media is one of the best referrals your business can hope for. Consumers believe reviews from friends and even consumers they do not know over advertising published by companies. You can expect that most of the engagement with consumers on social media is going to be positive, especially if you reward their positive interactions through online contests, special offers for fans, and providing informative and entertaining content.  

Even more important is having the ability to respond to a negative situation immediately. In most cases, a customer complaint that is addressed quickly and correctly can turn a negative into a positive because your company will look better for caring and addressing the problem. If the reputation management problem is a major crisis issue, it is not as easy to clean up, but having your own platform and reacting quickly are both keys to resolving the problem. Never ignore a problem, it will multiply and may never go away. In fact, it will usually get worse and make it more difficult to resolve the longer time goes by.

Proactive vs. Reactive Approach and Your Company

Being proactive instead of reactive about your company’s online reputation means creating your online presence and controlling it instead of letting customers control the conversation. Many companies make the mistake of thinking that setting up an online presence opens the way for consumers to post negative things about your company and cause a reputation problem. This is a mistake because customers and other people will likely be talking about their experience with your company online whether you are there to hear it or not. But other potential customers will be listening and taking note. Word of mouth and consumer reviews drive such a large portion of sales today, you cannot afford to not be online steering the conversations and monitoring the discussions. You will need a person on your marketing team devoted to reputation management; it can be part of the responsibility of a social media specialist, or a social media monitoring company. Of course, it is also worth mentioning that a hearty customer service program will limit the amount of social media and reputation management issues that come up.

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How to Respond to a Social Media Crisis

Why Reputation Matters

A global survey by Deloitte ranks reputation as executives’ top strategic risk. The study found most reputation management programs don’t support their business strategy well.

It’s important to understand the way online conversations roll out.

Here are some key factors to consider:

• Anyone’s voice in social media can be heard.
• Companies can have more difficulties than individuals in avoiding bad news.
• Due to online social and web search, kindred spirits can easily become aware of others who share their criticisms.
• Bad news travels faster and further than good news.

Keep these factors in mind as we explore three case studies of companies with major reputation management problems and how they handled them.

How Buffer Responded to Crisis

Buffer, the online social media scheduling site, was recently severely hacked.

Buffer became aware of the problem very rapidly and took immediate action to handle the problem. You can see a full account of their actions during the 24 hours immediately following the hack on their blog.

They were quick to inform their customers of the problem and explain what they were doing to fix it before most of their customers were even aware there’d been an attack. Here is just one of the messages they sent via Facebook.

Buffer tells their community on Facebook about their crisis.

Needless to say, if their customers had lost faith in Buffer’s security and reliability, then a major erosion of their customer base would have taken place.

Fans show their support for how Buffer handled this crisis.

Because their response was timely and appropriate, they now have even more loyal customers.

How Fontaine Santé Responded to Crisis

Fontaine Santé Foods Inc. is a Montreal-based North American food company whose hallmark is quality ingredients and preservative-free, ready-to-eat produce.

In December 2011, they detected the possibility of Listeria monocytogenes in their prepackaged salads. The potentially contaminated salads had already been distributed and purchased by many consumers.

Not only did this present a potential social media crisis, but also the possibility of a major lawsuit. Major repercussions could’ve potentially destroyed the brand’s long-lasting credibility and reputation.

Their crisis plan was simple, timely and effective.

Fontaine Santé utilized traditional media and their social media channels to spread the message about the possible contamination and make sure that all consumers were aware of the situation.

The brand posted the following well-written official response on their corporate website.

Fontaine Santé kept their customers informed.

Thanks to their quick action, all potentially contaminated produce was quickly recalled with no reports of illness.

Because Fontaine Santé was open and honest about the possible contamination risk, their loyal customers rallied around to praise and defend the brand.

How J.C. Penney Responded to Crisis

In May 2013, J.C. Penney had what could be described as a tempest in a teapot that received international attention.

The Telegraph declared that J.C. Penney had a problem with its teapot as it was depicted in a huge billboard advertisement on Interstate 405 near Culver City, California. Some people saw the image as a subtle depiction of Hitler.

The offending billboard.

This is obviously a matter of personal perception and the result of an innocent creative mistake. The issue could’ve become a crisis unless J.C. Penney took very prompt action.

Because J.C. Penney’s response was rapid and appropriate, a crisis was averted.

7 Steps to Defend Your Own Reputation

The case studies above provide you with useful examples to refer to as you develop your own reputation management strategy.

Before you begin to build a plan, you need to be sure that you maintain shared standards within your company. Shared standards give you the strongest basis for an effective crisis response strategy.

Your company’s culture should emphasize the policies the company has developed for all aspects of its operations including:

• Quality standards
• Customer relations
• Human relations
• Safety standards
• Emergency responses
• Environmental concerns
• Privacy standards, etc.

Every member of your team should understand these policies and commit to them toput your company in the best possible state of readiness in the event a crisis develops.

Crisis management in action. Image source: iStockPhoto.

#1: Act Quickly

Although it’s tempting to hold back until you’re sure you understand exactly what’s happened and who’s to blame (as your lawyers might counsel), those impacted by the crisis want answers fast. Better by far that your company provides those answers before anyone else.

#2: Take Charge

The attitude should be that your company will manage the crisis, rather than allowing it to control the company. There are risks associated with both being prompt and being tardy with your responses. Move as fast as possible, rather than waiting for more information to come in before you act.

#3: Handle Reality

It’s important to deal with the real facts. Social media makes it easy for whistle-blowers to reveal the truth as they see it. ‘Fess up to what’s really happening and don’t attempt to maintain a charade that could collapse at any time.

#4: Engage the Nay-sayers

When you follow the previous steps, you can deal directly with any critics you have. Old-style PR often suggested laying low until the heat blew over. Because the Internet gives visibility to critics, it’s much better to deal with criticism as it arises.

#5: Spread the Word

To avoid any misconceptions or incorrect interpretations by others, your company should use all means at its disposal to communicate what has happened and what you’re doing about it. This includes using your website, company blog, social media pages and media releases.

#6: Encourage Dialogue

Any successful company will have defenders among its various stakeholders, including customers. Provide your supporters with an online space where they can express their views on what the company means to them and how they see the company’s response.

By encouraging positive sources of information about your company, you ensure that good opinions can far outweigh any negative information that shows in searches.

#7: Deliver on Your Word

At the heart of any crisis, there’s a real incident acting as a trigger. It’s important that your company ensure there are appropriate responses to that incident, and that outsiders acknowledge your company as handling the situation well.

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3 Ways to Start Using Google+ (Before It's Too Late)

3 Ways to Start Using Google+

Strategy #1: Get Them to Come Back for More

The whole point of social media is to increase engagement with potential, current and past customers.

Which self-proclaimed "gurus" translate into singing Kumbaya around a campfire and talking about loving one another.

But what it really means is better brand recognition, recall, and trust. Which translates into more effective lead nurturing, retention, referrals and repurchases.

So start with your client and customer segments, and break them down into different personas. Now what are their aspirations or goals in life and work? What are the common obstacles each face? And then what are the pain points (or symptoms) of each obstacle?

Maybe that means making more money or cutting expenses. Or perhaps it means less stress and an escape from reality.

Whatever the case... give them compelling reasons to follow, react and engage with your brand by solving these issues for them. And then add some personality to get people to react emotionally.

So use copywriting at the heart of every single update and campaign to increase awareness, interest, and engagement.

Strategy #2: Video, Video, Video

One of Google+'s biggest differentiating factors is the seamless YouTube integration. So capitalize on it!

Do you have a complex product or service? Then use video tutorials to illustrate them the pain in their life, and how your product/service can alleviate it. Teaching works better than selling in social media.

Shoot a 5 minute industry wrap-up with the latest changes and news stories to keep your clients and customers abreast of developments that may affect their business. Show testimonials from happy customers to boost credibility and overcome objections.

Bring a camera or iPad along to company events and record what's going on. This exclusive content can be made only available on Google+, and will give people an "inside look" at how your company thinks, works, and treats one another.

You can even use the Hangout feature to do live interviews or "office hours". And then published it directly to YouTube and Google+.

Strategy #3: The Zero Moment of Truth

Everyone's search results are now personalized based on three factors:

1. Your physical location
2. Your past browsing history
3. And your social media connections

This is already happening. So the concept of SEO keyword rankings will become even more meaningless.

When someone searches for your product or service, the search engine result pages will show a mix of past websites they've been to, recommended results from their social sphere, and a lot of local results.

The key to dominating these search engine results pages is through Google+'s local and Zagat review integration.

Want more local SEO traffic? Then get more reviews and recommendations on your Google+ page.

Because when new prospects want to research their options for your services and products, they're going to start with search.

And Google+ is your best bet to quickly and cheaply get in front of them.

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