Brand Management Online Matters

The growth of social media has meant that managing your reputation online has become more complicated. Gone are the days when you went for a meal, had bad service and told a few friends, who in turn might think twice about visiting that particular restaurant.

Nowadays, same restaurant, same meal and then have a good old moan on Facebook or Twitter and let your 100’s of friends / 1000’s of followers know about it.

Add to this that in many cases your view of that meal in that restaurant becomes a permanent online review of that particular restaurant. This of course all means that I’m likely to come across that ‘review’ of the restaurant if I am searching for somewhere to eat and use the right search terms e.g. name, location etc.

So what should you do if you come across negative views of your business in social media?

Simple steps to repair your image online

React – Don’t wait for the complaints and negative comments to build up. When you come across some negative comments about your business, do something about it immediately. The reality is that if someone can see that your response to a ‘complaint e.g. on a forum was posted the same day, it gives the message that a) you care, and b) you are on the ball when it comes to customer service. It is important to you. If the issue is an ongoing issue, then at the very least give an update explaining the status, even if there is no progress

Apologise – Whether you think you have made the error or not, your customer felt strongly enough about ‘something’ to say what they said.  If you take the tension out of the situation from the start by offering an apology then the way is clear to start repairing the relationship.

Make up for it – If you got it wrong and you find out about it online, you react, you apologise and then you make amends. You need customers. In the same way the unhappy customer tweets and posts to say you were awful, so they will when you are exceptional and put things right.

Finally practice what you preach. If you make a big deal on your site of ‘great customer service’, ‘best in class product’, ‘fantastic prices’, as do 99% of websites out there, then live up to your promise.

It really is as simple as that to manage your reputation online.

Every business with an online presence wants more traffic and sales, and it’s worth investing in professional internet marketing as it will usually provide a good ROI. However whether your budget is a little tight or you just want to do everything you possibly can to increase your rankings, here are three  inexpensive ways to promote your website.

1.    Social media marketing

Social media marketing is all about building relationships with your potential and existing customers. Find out more about Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and get stuck in. The more you interact with people on these sites the more likely they are to trust you and take a look at what you have to offer. Just make sure you understand the difference between engaging with people and shameless promotion, or you may make more enemies than friends.

2.    Article marketing

This involves writing articles relevant to your industry and website and submitting them to online publishers and directories. Although you shouldn’t be promoting your business or products in the article, most allow you to add a link to your website in the author resource box that appears at the end of your article when it is published. By writing articles you are establishing yourself as an expert in the field and thereby encouraging readers to visit your website to see what else you have to say. Your website may also benefit from the links that point back to it.

3.    Blogging

Blogging is similar to social media marketing, except that it is more about building relationships with your existing visitors and customers, and is usually done on your website, rather than on external social media sites. The same rules apply though, in that you shouldn’t use your blog to constantly push your products; rather offer the readers valuable or interesting information and they will naturally want to find out more about you and your business. The benefits are also similar to social media marketing, in that you build trust with readers and encourage them to return to your blog on a regular basis. Blogs can also be very beneficial in helping your website’s search engine popularity.

More businesses are tracking what people are saying about them online, this allows them to engage in Online Reputation Management.  There are a number of benefits to this:

• Online Reputation Management allows you to answer any queries/concerns your customers and prospects may have.
• It's a great customer service tool, if you do something wrong it gives you the opportunity to hold your hands up and then move on
• It can help your brand by ensuring you come across in the right way
• By embarking on Online Reputation Management you can gain more of an understanding about how your business is perceived

The first step is to find out what it is that people are saying about you.  There are a number of tools that can help with this such as Google Alerts that send you emails when your keywords are mentioned on the web, you can also use Twitter funnels to see what people are saying about you.  The best way to start is to simply search in Google and see what comes up.

Once you have a view of this you can start commenting, you need to ensure that you address both positive and negative comments.  if you ignore the negative then this will ultimately have a detrimental effect.  Don't try and tell someone they are wrong either, even if they are.  Empathise with their point of view, after all they wouldn't have taken the time to write about your business if they hadn't had a particularly good or bad experience in the first place.

Professional Online Reputation Management

By engaging a professional you can take some of the pain away, trawling through yourself can be very time consuming and honestly, wouldn't you rather be managing your business?  The most difficult part in Online Reputation Management is collecting the information in the first place.  A professional Internet Marketing Consultant will not only collect the information but will produce reports for you that give you all the information you need.  But this is just part of the kind of service you can expect, they will also advise on how to respond to any comments and help strategise how to manage this longer term.