Reputation is everything and in today’s world reputation management in social media is paramount for any business that has an online persona. It’s not enough to just create social media accounts and sit back. You need to ask yourself: what is the goal and how does it fit with the company’s overall marketing strategy? Do I want to create a community where customers can share their experiences and use the information to attract new business and help increase sales? Or do I want my social media profiles to serve as an educational hub? Whatever the objective is, it’s crucial to manage it effectively.
Understanding Reputation Management in Social Media
Social media management or reputation management in social media is the process of curating purposeful content to post across your social channels. However, it does not stop there, the content must be monitored, and if your brand is doing its job effectively in managing its reputation it will engage with its audience who talk about its brand or business. Today, reputation management in social media has evolved and it also covers even more platforms such as online review sites like Yelp, local business directories, and business discovery apps.
Listening: Why it’s Crucial to Your Reputation
You can’t do it all and nobody is asking you to. Thankfully, we have tools to help with reputation management in social media. We recommend using a tool that centralizes the data from each of your social media channels in one place. These listening and scheduling tools help you to manage the content you post, allowing you to plan and schedule in advance, while also allowing you to track conversations you have been mentioned in. There’s lots of customization that can happen within these tools so you can effectively listen to your audience and manage your reputation.
Addressing the Situation
The first step is listening when it comes to reputation management. Whether it be good or bad it’s your responsibility to address the situation and get back to the customer. When you receive a negative review, it’s imperative that you respond in a timely manner as this gives you a greater chance of improving the situation. The response should be thoughtful, and your language should be specific to convey that you have taken the customer’s experience into account and you are working to make any changes or improvements based on their feedback.
Being Relevant
In times of uncertainty, going dark may look like the right thing to do, WRONG! Don’t let your social media accounts go stale and neglected. Create a social media editorial calendar to ensure that you post regularly but try to not overly self-promote too. Review user-generated content i.e., posts from followers that have used your hashtag etc., and look for ways you can include it so you can strategically improve your reputation. Remember that being relevant also means that you should look for opportunities to engage with your followers, such as liking, commenting, and responding to their activity on your social channels.
Why the Focus Should be Reviews and not Followers
Vanity metrics may soon become a thing of the past. Take Instagram for example, they no longer report the number of likes you get on a post, you must dig a little deeper to find out that information now. We’re not saying likes are not important, they help you gage if your audience actually “likes” your content. But, don’t let it be the measure of all your efforts. The same goes for followers, instead focus your attention on increasing your online reviews. Tuning into what your customers are saying about you on business review sites like Google and Facebook is a big part of your reputation management in social media. Outside of managing and monitoring these reviews, look to investing your efforts in generating more customer reviews and feedback. These reviews then in turn become part of your reputation management in social media as you can use them as posts on your social channels.
Using the Data
We’ve already said that reputation is everything but so is data. Taking the time to review the data allows you to extract insights from your social media accounts, reading through comments and closely looking at your customers’ reviews gives you the insight you need on their experiences. Tapping into the data often solidifies the goals of your reputation management in social media; helping you to make informed business decisions, ultimately earning the trust of potential and returning customers.
Reputation management doesn’t stop at social media though, it involves myriad strategies and tools. If you would like to learn how marketingworx integrative platforms can help with best sales and marketing practices get in touch today or stay connected with us through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.