A 6-Step Guide on How to Use Social Media to Build Your Reputation

Featured article by Annie French, Independent Technology Author

The modern business landscape has tremendously changed, especially with the advent of internet technology. It is now easier to market your brand using digital marketing strategies because your target audience has also embraced the same communication tools. Social media has now become an integral marketing strategy for modern business and it is no wonder even the biggest brands are working tirelessly to get more visibility on these networks.

If you are launching a new product, you don’t have to worry about the budget because a well organized social media campaign is enough to send word out. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there are over 3.29 billion internet users. Of these, over 2.3 billion are active on social media networks including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, YouTube, Snapchat, and Weibo among others.

Social Media in Reputation Management

One of the toughest tasks in the modern business environment is reputation management. With easier flow of information, everything that happens around your brand is immediately known not only by your existing customers but potential ones as well. As they say bad news spreads fast and far and if something is wrong, you will have to deal with a battery of queries and a lot of misinformation. Online reputation management can either make or break your investment at such times.

To remedy the situation, your business must provide the correct impression in order to reduce the damage. Even big brands have had to contend with bad press generated by fast flow of information. For instance, Toyota, Mitsubishi, BP, Wells Fargo, J.P Morgan, Chase &Co and Goldman Sachs are listed in a Harris Interactive Study as some of the top brands with the worst reputation in 2015.

All these big names were forced to go into defense mode by social media commentators and in most cases, they didn’t have the right strategy. These big brands ended up losing millions of dollars due to the poor reputation and the fact that the damage was exacerbated by poor social media strategies should be a wakeup call to every online business owner.

To appreciate how effective social media is in the contemporary business landscape, consider a London school of Economics Study which shows that a 2% reduction in negative comments boosts sales by 1%. Some businesses such as Dell have even gone ahead to put a monetary value on bad online reputation. According to their analysis, an online detractor will cost the brand $57 while an online promote nets the company $32.

The bottom-line is that social media is a double-edged sword; it can either boost your fortunes or devastate your brand. Companies such as General Motors have suffered backlash online and this has affected their profit margins. As a business owner, it is imperative to learn how you can leverage social media to work for you even during the worst crises.

Building a Social Media Strategy for Reputation Management

1. Start by Reviewing Your Business

This is the most ignored aspect of social media marketing. The moment your brand is out there, you can’t turn the clock back. Your target audience will start talking about your products or services the way they exist. Don’t expect to get a breathing chance because you are new on social media. Instead, make sure you review your business and only provide excellent services.

If you want to build a positive reputation, you must exceed your customers’ expectations. When creating a social media strategy, ensure you fully understand your target customers by building personas. Your business must manage customer expectations in order to build a solid reputation.

2. Promote Engagement with Customers

Just because you have a million followers on your Facebook does not mean you will achieve your objective. In this case, you are trying to boost your brand’s image and your team has to be proactive. You have to proactively engage the audience by asking them about their positive experiences. Get your customers to share such experiences. This way, you will have an idea when things are about to go wrong.

3. Address Customer Complaints Instantly

While most businesses boast of a presence on social media, they don’t use this to boost their reputation. One pitfall is failure to promptly address concerns raised by customers. This mostly happens if you have spread your brand on every social media network and there is no social media strategy. Take, for instance, an airline that does not promptly respond to complaints about delayed flights. Customers will rapidly share such experiences and within no time, the company will notice a backlash in terms of negative brand mentions.

4. Keep Monitoring 

There are myriad tools that you can use to constantly monitor your keyword and brand mentions. To evaluate how your brand is faring, you have to stay abreast of everything that is being said. It might not be possible to do this manually. There are different monitoring tools that will help you keep track of these mentions. It is possible to aggregate all the information on one platform to help build a solid reputation strategy.  RSS feeds can also notify you when your keywords are mentioned. Alternatively, you can use Google Alert to get notifications through email.

5. Be Innovative

People use social media as a new platform to find engaging content different from what they are used to. Print and electronic media has been blamed for providing boring content and users are now looking for other sources. Funny comments and videos easily go viral compared to boring text content. If you are trying to build a solid reputation, then come up with creative content that will be shared easily and more rapidly. For instance, creating a video to correct a wrong impression about your brand is much more effective than writing blog posts.

6. Train Your Staff  in Online Reputation Management

A social media course at http://www.media-minded.co.uk/ empowers your staff with the skills to deal with any crisis that affects your brand. The team will also be able to formulate a social media strategy whose crux will not only be engagement but also reputation management in the volatile internet environment.

Social media is an integral tool in online reputation management.  You can boost your company’s image through timely responses to customer concerns and constant interactions.

About the Author

Annie french is a freelance content writer. She has written many articles on Technology, web design, internet, software, etc. She has great experience in the field of writing.