If you are in business, you already know reputation
management is vital to your success. When everything is going your way and the
press is positive, life is good. When it is not, well… You may have heard the
saying “Nothing is so good that someone somewhere will not like it.” Bad
reviews, an angry customer, even a typo can affect your reputation—and your
bottom line—in a negative way. Because of that, when it comes to online
reputation management, your motto should be “Expect nothing. Be ready for
anything.”
While you are doing that, be sure your marketing and social
media strategies secure the best-possible reputation for your company on a
consistent basis. These fundamentals of online reputation management focus
first on day-to-day practices, followed by the basics of crisis management.
Establish and Own
Your Online Reputation
Control your Search Engine Results Page (SERP) with best
practices in SEO.
• Maintain
as much property as possible on the first page for all your keywords. This is where we find having a comprehensive
online strategy in place can be the most helpful. This can include press releases, your own
site pages, your blog, and potentially other extensions to your online brand.
• Keep your
eyes focused on great online communication while also staying abreast of
ever-changing search engine algorithms. We have learned that time and again the
strategies that work the best are just solid marketing communications versus
trying to leverage the latest tactic.
The long-term strategies are the ones that always win out.
• These
trends can help you adjust your strategy to accommodate your consumers’ wants
and needs.
• Stay
Socially Active Online. Engagement is
key. Promote your brand with a constant and constantly growing online presence.
Use a blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube and press releases to
engage consumers with regular updates and timely responses to your followers on
all social media platforms.
• Be
creative in your approach for maximum engagement. This is probably the most difficult part of
the entire strategy because you really have to dig deep to determine what is
going to work best for you and your brand.
What works for a retail business is probably not going to work for a B2B
focused business. There are some common
themes that you may want to consider.
Host contests. Encourage followers to share videos or photos that
demonstrate how they used your product and how it worked for them. Consider
event sponsorship and partnerships worth promoting. Most importantly, an active
blog does wonders to perk up a static website.
• The
blog’s domain name should reflect your brand. Content should provide
professional, brand consistent information about your company and its products,
trends in the industry, success stories and available support. Incorporate
videos and images into your website and social media, and make your topics
relevant to trending news whenever possible.
• Maintain
a Dynamic PR Strategy
• “Unique”
gets noticed. Fresh, informative content on a consistent basis is key to
keeping your online reputation heading in a positive direction. Revisit your PR
and social media plans on a regular basis, using reliable analytics to adjust
your strategy when necessary. Always “Expect nothing. Be ready for anything.”
• Create a
Crisis Strategy
• Do not
wait for the bottom to drop out before outlining a strategy to handle issues
with the potential to damage your reputation. Your first line of defense is to
minimize the damage.
• Create a
supportive and encouraging environment for your employees. They will respond by
providing good customer service. Happy, thriving employees will support your
brand at the most critical moment—when customer meets company. It is wise to
train your team in the use of social media tools, the benefits of social media
and the caution required when responding on any social media outlet.
• Monitor
Website and Social Media Activity Around the Clock
Technology can fail at any time, in any capacity. It is wise
to have a back-up system that alerts you to website failure and viruses as well
as social media glitches. When something occurs that affects your
community’s ability to access information, you need to
respond quickly and effectively.
• As you
can imagine, technology issues are often much easier to repair than negative
perceptions of your company and product.
• Respond
to Negative Issues Immediately – Except When…
• You must
respond immediately with a message, even if it is simply to acknowledge there
is a problem and you are on the job. Make your employees aware when you change
the message so they can respond
accurately. Apologize for the inconvenience, error or
whatever caused the issue. At this point, it is all about consistent, clear and
encouraging communication.
• There are
times though when responding will only aggravate an already tense social media
situation so carefully consider your response or if you should even
respond. For example, one client
received a scathing comment to a video they posted. The commenter pointed out how the video
showed what appeared to be immigrants in the video working on an assembly
line. The commenter said that the
company was hiring illegals (a statement that was completely untrue) to work on
the assembly lines. The internal legal
team told the company not to respond, but the core company stakeholders who are
all second generation immigrants used this comment as an opportunity to set the
record straight and also talk about how the company and brand are a living
showcase of the “American Dream”. This
response created a groundswell of positive company support.
• What can
frustrate some brand managers is when no response is the best response
especially when it involves legal issues or personal attacks. In these situations, a direct (non-social
media) response might be the most productive.
One expert social media person mentioned to us that you always have to
ask if your response is going to inflame or resolve the issue. If your response might inflame the issue you
may want to consider delaying the response to see whether you are dealing with
an isolated issue or a larger issue that must be addressed.
• Use
social media to support your response to these issues, letting your followers
and potential customers know everything is back on track and what you have done
to avoid the problem in the future. Sounds like you are ready for anything!
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