Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing - Reputation Management in Reviews

Since social media is all about being social, the whole concept of social media marketing should encompass more than just the social media networks where people post their “nosale” marketing messages and random banter.

Social media marketing tends to be market dependent, which means every strategy is going to be unique to the individual business or marketer. Because of the way social media is changing, every business is going to use it in “similarly different” ways. Your customers are also going to use the same channels to communicate both with you and about it.

This is why it’s important to have a strategy in place for reputation management. There are a number of review sites that fall into the realm of social media marketing and they need to be incorporated into your every day strategy and routine.

These sites can have a positive impact on your SEO and get you a lot of visibility within the SERPs but the last thing you want people to see first is a rant from a disgruntled customer about how you and all of your products are filth. This happens a lot, more than most business owners can admit because they either don’t want to or they’re not looking into social media.

When you get a bad review it’s important to either respond to it or push it off the page – preferably both if you have the stones for it.

A response to a review needs to be carefully handled and be completely objective. You can do some serious damage to your business and your branding by taking customer reactions personally and responding inappropriately.

Try some of these tips to help you keep a cool head when responding to reviews during your social media marketing campaigns.

Be Understanding

Even if the person you’re dealing with is producing an unrelenting rant you need to remain polite and civil – at all costs. The reviews and responses tend to be made when people are at the peak of their frustration and anger. If you respond appropriately, you can bring them back from the end and toward resolution. This can bring the matter to a quick close, and the public may even develop some additional respect for you in the way you handle reviews.

Address The Issue

It does you no good to argue semantics or points that have nothing to do with the issue at hand. Actually you shouldn’t argue at all. It’s not a debate. If a customer has a complaint about a specific topic, then address what is broken (or what they perceive to be broken) and then reply. Don’t bother replying before hand, as that can give onlookers and the customer the impression that you’re more concerned about pleasing them and saving face than actually fixing the issue.

Personalize It

Not to contradict what was already said about keeping things from getting personal, but you should make it personal for the customer. Give them something with meaning to rectify the issue. Don’t just hand out the same 10% off coupon that everyone gets. Personalize it, and make them feel as if you value them.

Follow Through

This basically comes to doing what you say you’re going to do. If you told someone that you would contact them then you sure as hell should contact them. Keep it in the front of your mind that if someone took the time to post a negative review they probably won’t have an issue following up on their side if you happen to muck things up.

Expect The Expected

There will be a time when you find customers that just cannot be pleased. They are not happy with any solution being offered and they simply want your head on a pole. While duct tape and dynamite can be extremely tempting, have a more thorough plan to deal with the bad customer that can’t be satisfied.

We don’t think about issues such as negative reviews until they’re staring us in the face. Taking the time to plan ahead and generate a reputation management strategy is one of those deciding factors: Are you a proactive gladiator or a reactive twit?