In today’s increasingly digitalized world, transparency is the name of the game. Which means your brand reputation is harder than ever to manage. Online resources and opportunities, from Houzz to Facebook to the Better Business Bureau allow total strangers to either help promote your brand or cause real damage with just a few taps of their thumbs.
Our February Roundtable (presented by the Small Volume Builders and Remodelers committees) featured the Better Business Bureau with tips on managing your online reputation. Here are a few key takeaways to help you protect your online reputation.
Monitor
This goes for all your online pages as well as social media. Make it a point to regularly set a time (you or someone you assign) to review all your properties and DO IT! It’s easiest if you make these action items on your to-do list every morning, week, month or quarter depending on how much activity you get online.
- Check for outdated information
- Read and respond to comments
- Make updates like adding photos, sharing successes, offering expert advice (a great idea for a blog)
- Take a few minutes to google your business name, your key principals’ names, and your key words
- Sign up for Google alerts so you can get daily or weekly emails for items the search engine finds about your name and key words
- You may want to subscribe to a monitoring service if your business is large and active online or you’ve had some issues in the past. These services will collect everything that’s said about you online, and many even automatically tell you the tone (positive, neutral or negative).
Respond
For most comments, you’ll want to respond within 24 hours or less. A simple thank you works for many social media posts, and factual answers to questions should be pretty straight forward. Remember to always be polite.
You shouldn’t ignore criticisms or negative comments, but don’t make them front page news, either. In most cases, you can respond quickly and politely. For example, you could say “Thanks for letting us know you had an unsatisfactory experience. This is not up to our standards, we apologize and hope you’ll come back and let us show you.” In any case, take steps to determine if it’s legitimate and, if so, use it as a teaching moment for you and your personnel. If it’s basically a difference of opinion or someone having a bad day, don’t make excuses and try to justify what happened. Try “We’re sorry you feel that way,” and let it go.
In rare cases, you may get a comment that’s downright illegal or libelous, in which case, get them off your site ASAP and you may want to take further action. On Facebook, for example, you can remove a comment; remove the comment and ban the user; mark the comment as spam; or report it as abuse.
This may lead you to want to just skip allowing comments altogether. But, therein lies the rub. Today’s online environment has changed the marketing game.
Paul Chaney, in a Practical Ecommerce article titled Managing Negative Facebook Page Comments says it best, “negative comments can hold positive value. In today’s cultural climate, people want what’s real and they tend to favor companies that share that mindset. A willingness to allow critical comments sends a positive message about a brand, that it supports the two major hallmarks of social media marketing philosophy — “authenticity” and “transparency” — ideals to which any company wishing to leave a positive lasting impression in social media should aspire.
Don’t miss our next Roundtable
Commercial Vehicle Requirements for Small Businesses
Presented by Tim Blomquist, Commercial Vehicle Inspector for the MN State Patrol
Even if it’s your personal vehicle, if you’re pulling over 10,000 pounds (that includes your truck and trailer weight), you’re considered a commercial vehicle. Get the skinny while you enjoy lunch from our sponsor, Fireside Hearth and Home.
June 7, 2017
noon to 1:30 pm
Light lunch served
Free, but please RSVP online at BATC.org or email Wendy@BATC.org to reserve your spot.
Sponsored by Fireside Hearth and Home
