3 Ways to Reputation Management – Keeping An Ear to the Ground
Yes, it’s true! People talk about their life experiences – good or bad every day. In the past, they would tell their friends, family and co-workers, but here’s what’s changed. Now anyone can go online and spread word of that experience… with the world. With the surge in blogging, article writing and tweeting, people now have a voice and they aren’t afraid to speak up. If you are a business owner, how well are you tapped into what people are saying about your brand?
If people are saying great things about your business, wouldn’t you want to thank them? Wouldn’t you like to springboard off of that positive feedback to influence others to do business with you? Of course you would. The other side of the coin however, is this. Do you think it’s possible to keep 100% of your clients happy 100% of the time? If you do, please tell me who you are! The reality is, that sometimes clients will go away unhappy and they are going to talk about it, potentially online. So it’s very important to stay tuned in to the conversation that’s taking place out there.
How do you do that? Here are a few ways to stay connected to the conversation.
1. Google Alerts
Go ahead and set up a Google account for yourself and install Google Alerts. It’s FREE! Enter the keywords for your brand – your business name, your name, your domain names, your key personnel, etc. Go ahead and enter your competition as well. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to monitor that activity too? GA will send you an email to tell you when it gets a hit on that search criteria and you can investigate. Yahoo also has its version too. You can find it here.
2. Twitter Search
Set up Twitter Keyword searches to monitor the conversation going on in Twitter. You use the same philosophy as above. You can do that from whatever console you are using i.e., Hootsuite, Seesmic or Tweetdeck for example. Don’t forget that tweets get indexed in the search engines too. Good and bad comments can hang around the search engines for a long time, years in fact.
3. Trackur.com
Consider using an application like Trackur. It has a great Social media monitoring system and comes with a free and a premium version.
There are a myriad of other applications that you can try out as well. Some are free, others charge a premium. Depending on the size of your business, you may need something more robust. Try radian6.com
Good news spreads fast on the net, and bad news spreads even faster. So what do you do when your brand gets mentioned? If it’s a great review, as I said above, thank the person/entity that is providing the great feedback. Foster that relationship. They are acting as a great ambassador of your brand. But what to do about a bad review? Don’t ignore it. Others won’t. Take this as a great opportunity to engage them in conversation, listen carefully to what is being said and respond appropriately. By addressing it here, not only are you are showing that you care, but you may be able to change their opinion and you can turn the relationship around. It’s Public Relations.
As a Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to monitor their brand and make sure they are participating in the conversation – good or bad. After all, it IS your reputation at stake.
What do you think? Have you engaged people in this environment using these tools? How did they work? I found an example of this just yesterday where someone included my content in his post and gave me credit for it with a link back to my site. What did I do? Thank him of course!
I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s great for all you bloggers out there. Leave a comment and you can leave a link back to your own blog! But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from all of you.
Joanne
While physically located in , Ontario where I live with my family, as a VA, I’m virtually yours anywhere….
Hi Aaron, you are absolutely right. But it is not just Twitter. A lot of content from Social Media sites is being indexed by Google. As standard practice, people should be judicious in what they publish. Good news travels quickly. Bad news travels even quicker! So use discretion. Thanks for the comment. Joanne
Great tips Joanne.
Business and individuals should use Twitter with care. You might be able to delete a bad Tweet. But often the contents of the Tweet will be on the Internet in some form or other.
.-= Aaron´s last blog ..How to Choose an Elance Provider =-.
Hi Julie, Thanks so much for reading the post. Yes indeed, this is a hot topic and one which should continue to be high on every business owner’s radar. Thank you for the faithful follow
Look forward to hearing from you again! Kind Regards, Joanne
Thanks, Joanne, think it’s a terrific topic. As a marketing and communications consultant, technology now allows me, as an individual , to tap into results/data/feedback that would otherwise be beyond my company’s means. After all, knowledge is strength. Following you faithfully, cheers!
From strength to strength, Biz2Biz.
Hi Janet, welcome to the VA world! Yes, this environment is changing so quickly. Google Alerts is a great product. I wish you the very best of luck in your new venture.
Kind Regards, Joanne
Hi Andy!!
What an honor to hear from you. Thanks for reading my post. And yes, it would be great to have 100% satisfaction!
You are most welcome for the recommendation. Trackur is a great product. Please visit again… Kindest Regards, Joanne
It would be nice if 100% of our customers were happy, wouldn’t it?
You are right you need to listen so you can foster the good news, thank those that write about you
and respond to negative reviews!
Thanks for recommending Trackur to your readers. As you said, we have a free version, so there’s no excuse!
Thanks very much Joanne for the great tips! The online world is changing so fast, it’s so difficult to keep abreast of things, and as a newbie VA, I really need to do so. I’m going to take a look at Google Alerts right now! Have a nice day!
.-= Janet Wilce´s last blog ..Why I love being a VA =-.