What Is Your Online Reputation?
How do you get a reputation online? The same way you get any reputation - people talk.
This is the blessing and curse of Social Media. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and Google Plus make it amazingly easy to knock out a social post or a review. Here is an example I came across today on Yelp. And no it is not a YMCA.
This posting is disheartening for the business owner. I am certain this is not the way the employees were trained, but Yelp has made it easy and convenient for the customer to announce their frustration with how they they were treated to the world.
Bad reviews happen. Everybody has a bad day. But the scariest part is that the review was posted 15 days ago and the business owner has still not responded.
Clients are constantly asking me how to leverage their Social Media platforms. How do I increase my ROI on this investment? And I tell them what they don’t want to hear.
Listen.
Social Media is not a great tool for businesses to “tell and talk”. (Not to be confused with advertising on Social Media platforms. This is a separate topic.) Listen. In fact, listen to the following posting on Google about a YMCA.
This is a great post. Positive, engaged message. Liberal use of emoticons. This took time. But unfortunately this is one of the few times the YMCA could be talking. This message was posted 21 days ago and the YMCA has not responded yet. Part of the responsibility of participating in Social Media is to know when to listen and when to respond. It would be perfectly appropriate to have replied. “Thank you for the kind words! Swimming at the Y is one of my favorite activities…” In fact, it is the preferred act - show you are engaged with the customers who take the time to comment.
“I know this is important, but how do you “listen” everyday to Facebook, Google, Twitter, Yelp… I don’t have the time or resources to login (remembering my username and password for all these accounts) and read every posting”
At Thrive we license software that allows us to monitor activity on our Social Media sites, as well as those of our our clients. Every time a visitor posts on one of our client’s Social Media sites, an email is sent to the client with a copy of the post and the site it originated on.Be active. Participate. Then at the end of the month, the client receives a recap of all the posts.
Now you know when to listen, what is being said, with the ability to respond appropriately in near real time. Sound interesting? (See I am listening!)
Send me an email to ian.hartten@thriveim.com and I will send you a complementary reputation management report for your YMCA. I will also include a directory listing report that shows your YMCA’s contact information - or at least what the top directory listing websites think is your contact information. You may be surprised.
Or give me a call at 419-776-7000 x200. Let’s talk.
Do you have a marketing questions for the yTeam? Fill out the contact form by clicking on the button below and ask away! The first hour is always free!
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