Are you one of those people that think that just because you don’t pay attention to it, your company doesn’t have to worry about someone slandering your online presence? Think again. With web-based review sites like Yelp, Insider Pages, Zipingo and Angie’s List, consumers are constantly talking about your biz online – whether you know about it or not.
There has been a shocking increase in major brand names being smeared though even the wimpiest (and I mean that in terms of the simplicity of the site) of all social media sites: Twitter. A hashtag stating how much your customer service sucks from one consumer-gone-bad goes out to a couple of hundred people, and suddenly you have 5,000 responses chiming in about that time you didn’t give Sally a refund on that broken glassware she returned or how your cashier isn’t peppy enough at 8am. As menial and harmless as these things seem, their effects can snowball into a massive negative PR shitstorm.
But many companies have gotten wise to these tiny kindles and now are focusing on having a dedicated person – and sometimes an entire team – putting out these flames before they morph into an unwieldy wildfire.
Social media monitoring isn’t a new concept. Publicists have been doing it since, well, the beginning of the public relations industry. It’s just that now we’re dealing with a new medium – same dog, new tricks. But the differentiating factor is the more highly efficient terrain that we’re working in.
Social media monitoring can be easily done in just a few hours each day, as long as you know:
*What Google alert keywords to target
*Which sites to monitor
*How and when to respond to complaints (Hint: you respond to all of them)
*How to efficiently juggle multiple social networks
Monitoring your social media accounts has many benefits – the most important being that you can keep that brand name you worked so hard to cultivate clean. A brand is a powerful, powerful thing, and the tiniest besmirch can blow up into a huge issue and ruin a once strong household name.
While many people will give vague reasons for why social network monitoring is such an important part of online marketing nowadays, there are a few more specific benefits to keeping a strict eye on your online presence:
*You have the ability to turn complainers into repeat customers (everyone wants to be special and covets one-on-one attention)
Discover trends on favorite and most talked about products
*Pinpoint people who influence your brand and engage them more often (this would be that Twitter god who has 25,000 followers that bow to his every whim)
*Build and nurture relationships with other key industry players and with your consumer base
Social media monitoring isn’t just some meaningless corporate jargon like “rightsizing” and “proactive solutions”, it’s a real process that can save your small business’s reputation. By keeping on top of the chatter your company is generating, you can have full control over the conversation and steer it where you see fit.
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