Company Reputation With Social Media
The internet is littered with reputation management tools, but social media are at the top of the list when it comes to quick wins. When properly optimized, your social profiles rank the powerhouses within search engines. Setting up and maintaining these accounts can therefore protect your brand’s online reputation against negative messages and help you put your best foot forward with your customers.
Don’t limit yourself to the top five social networks. While maintaining a presence on Facebook and Twitter should be your top priority, lesser-known sites in your industry can also score favorably in Google. You would be surprised how many different networks there are to take advantage of. Here is a list of more than 60 and finding others is easy. Simply Google ‘social networking websites’. If you add a keyword, such as “food” or “pets,” you can refine the results even further.
Corporate websites are usually optimized for traffic and conversions, so social profiles can provide a better opportunity to develop the online story of your brand. Publishing positive news about your brand is also a piece of cake because you manage these platforms yourself.
How to Use Social Media to Manage Your Reputation
Social Media Optimization Services is powerful, but it is not a panacea. In other words, you cannot easily register multiple profiles and expect them to immediately start ranking on the first page of Google. To maximize the reputation benefits of social media, you need to do some work to set up your accounts and keep them active.
Choose Your Name Carefully
Experts recommend being as consistent as possible when it comes to branding your social traits, but this doesn’t mean that each of your accounts should look like carbon copies. In fact, the opposite is true. Sprinkle some diversity in your profiles to display the user base of each platform and at the same time keep the voice, name and logos of your brand consistent. This helps your customers and Google to identify your social media accounts.
An excellent way to build customer confidence is to use similar tools for your profiles. However, this may not be possible due to character restrictions and username availability. Make sure you can use it on different social platforms before you can determine your official handle. If someone else already has the desired name, this can be an offer to buy it or choose something similar.
Enter Your Profile
Your social profile is more than just a photo and a username. Make the best use of all fields, including description, location and contact information. Using these features will increase your user legitimacy and help Google understand the connection with your brand.
Check Your Accounts
It is definitely worth taking the time to verify brand-related accounts if the option is available. Verification informs potential followers that an account is authentic, and it prevents confusion when owners of similar handles post erroneous or negative content. Unfortunately, not all social platforms offer this feature and some only offer authentication under certain conditions.
Post Regularly
As mentioned earlier, simply establishing social profiles will not improve your search landscape. You must post regularly to show Google that your profile is active and relevant to your brand. Ideally you should place different content in your profiles, but this is not always possible. If you don’t have the resources or are not sure what to post, you can set up automation that share your blog content on all social channels.
Train Your Team
It is often overlooked, but ongoing training is essential to the success of reputation management for social media. Complaints often melt away in the feed of a brand instead of being addressed. Social media training courses can prevent this common mistake and even help your team turn angry customers into loyal brand lawyers.
A thorough training strategy must also include a plan for dealing with crises. During an emergency you may need to be prepared for thousands of comments and direct messages about your social accounts. It is wise to train more people than you think you need, so that you can activate them during an emergency. Crisis management training for your entire social team can prevent mistakes that damage your online reputation and prolong the crisis recovery.
Monitor The Activity
The vast majorities (96%) of dissatisfied customers do not complain directly against brands, but tell their friends about problems. These “dark complaints” occur when someone posts a negative experience on social media without tagging your brand. If you do not actively listen to these listings, you may miss critical brand sentiment information.
Social listening is not something that you can do in a few minutes. It requires a dedicated employee or team depending on the size of your brand and social presence. Fortunately, there are plenty of free options to get you started and countless managed services if you have the budget.
Respond Professionally
The disadvantage of trademark monitoring is finding negative comments about your company. Although your intuition is possible to defend your business, this can be a mistake. Proper handling of customer complaints requires empathy and understanding.
Never delete REAL customer items. It can be unpleasant to make negative comments about your social feed, but if you delete them, you can turn a few complaints into a furious crowd. Suppressing users can also ensure that they bring their stories to the media, which can use fuel for the social fire that is already burning.
When you respond to criticism, the best approach is to show your followers that you listen and care about them. Most people who complain are not looking for compensation; they just want to inform others about the bad experience. By training your team to respond in a professional manner, you prevent situations from getting worse.
Tell Your Story
Your social profiles give you the opportunity to share the positive story of your brand, so don’t use them only to sell your products and services. Use social platforms instead to talk about the good things your company does.
Here are some examples of corporate social responsibility that are worth sharing on Social Media. Others include hiring veterans or providing college benefits for employees. Customers love brands that give back, but few companies take the time to promote their philanthropic efforts.
Using social media to track brand sentiment, interact with your followers and promote the social well-being of your company takes time and resources. However, your investment will result in a radiant reputation that boosts sales and protects your brand from future negative messages.
For more information contact us Digital Media Trend.