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Social Media and Reputation Management.

October 29th, 2009
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This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Seven ways to doom a Social Media program.
Tuesday: Co-Creating with Social Media.
Wednesday: Building Brand Evangelism through Social Media.
Thursday: Social Media and Reputation Management.
Friday: Now that you’ve engaged, it’s time to re-engage.


(This is the 21st in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

Remember when your grade school principal used to threaten you with the idea that your transgressions would go on your “permanent record?” As school kids, we all envisioned this “permanent record” as a granite slab that duly recorded every spit wad, hair pull and rubber band gun for all mankind to see.

Thanks to the Internet, there is another form of a “permanent record” that we have to come to grips with. Once something is said online or some news article or blog post goes out, it’s being indexed by the major search engines. And when you Google or otherwise search for a company, what you get is a long list of relevant postings regarding that company or individual.

The much-dreaded permanent record.

One of the core tenets of Social Media is that the user is in control of the communication. The organization has a voice, but it is only one of many. Communities are about the members, not about the organization.

Too often, companies don’t like to even admit that negative things are being said about their brand. Their attitude seems to be, “If I ignore it, maybe everybody else will, too.” The problem with that kind of thinking is that customers today have a lot of ways they can express their displeasure.

And while you can’t control what people are saying about you, you can organize that speech by highlighting the good stuff and rationally responding to the not-so-good stuff. You can organize it by embracing the people who love your brand and challenging them to speak up and share the good word.

So when some dissatisfied customer or vitriolic ranter decides to go off on your organization or its products, what do you do? First off, accept that negative things are going to be said about you online…if not in the forum you set up and enable, then somewhere else just out of your sight. The web allows for a “comfortable anonymity” of its users, which makes them less inhibited, in both a good and bad way. You think less about moderating your comments when you’re sitting behind a computer screen hiding behind an email address, avatar or IP address.

Welcome to the art of Reputation Management.

The key to Reputation Management is to accept that knowledge is power. If you don’t know what is being said, you won’t be able to address it. Make it a best practice to survey major social networks and blogs for comments about your company, products or competitors. Free tools such as Google Blog Search or icerocket.com can help you get started. Here is a sample search results page for a marketer who gets lots of attention from bloggers, both good and bad—Walmart.

Google Blog Search

Negative commenters can be broken down into a few groups. The first (and the one that scares marketers the most) can be referred to as “trolls.” These are contributors who have a chip on their shoulder and who just want to complain, if not about you then something else. Most of the time, their complaints are baseless and often over the line (as an example, check out the comments on YouTube videos). Generally, it is best to just ignore this group, as their comments will be seen for what they are.

The second kind of negative comment generally comes from people who have an ax to grind against your company. They had a negative encounter with you at some point in the recent (or distant) past, and just aren’t willing to let it go. Acknowledging that you “hear” these folks will generally appease them to the point where they back off.

The third group of complainers can be very valuable to listen to. These are folks who have encountered some sort of legitimate problem or hiccup with you and are looking for a solution. These are customers who are “winnable,” and by listening to them and facilitating some sort of solution, you can often turn these negative customers into satisfied customers and in some cases into brand evangelists.

The advantage of knowing what’s being said about you, good and bad, is that it gives you an opportunity to respond immediately. And by “respond,” we’re not talking about arguing, justifying or trying to bribe commentators into pacification. It is more of an acknowledgment that you’ve heard the person, and you are open to helping them work through their issues.

You have a lot invested in your good name. It’s worth taking a little pro-action to protect it online.

If you’ve enjoyed the series so far, and are interested in what’s going on here at QMD/IQ, I invite you to visit our Facebook page and become a fan, or just comment on what you see. It’s all good.

Posted by Mickey

Mickey Social Media , , , , , ,

Seven ways to doom a Social Media program.

October 26th, 2009
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This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: Seven ways to doom a Social Media program.
Tuesday: Co-Creating with Social Media.
Wednesday: Building Brand Evangelism through Social Media.
Thursday: Social Media and Reputation Management.
Friday: Now that you’ve engaged, it’s time to re-engage.


(This is the eighteenth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

For marketers, these are exciting times. Never before in our lifetime has their been a sea change quite like we are seeing today with the rise and influence of Social Media.

As when other major changes in marketing came about (the advent of TV, the commercialization of the Internet), there is a steep learning curve for those on the forefront. In an attempt to help you flatten this curve somewhat, we present a handy list of things that could conspire to doom your nascent Social Media efforts:

  1. Starting too big. You don’t have to eat the apple in one bite. Start out with the platforms you are most comfortable with. Don’t think that because Ashton Kutcher has a million Twitter followers that you need to be on Twitter. While you want to stay in your comfort zone, examine how others you know or follow use various social media outlets. Start a personal Facebook page and Twitter account and play around with them to see how they work. As you become more familiar with them, you may feel more comfortable sticking your big toe into them.
  2. Focusing on platforms, not content. We’re on Facebook. We have six microsites. We have an email list of 100,000. So? The real question is, what are you using these platforms for? How are you using each to get fresh, relevant content to your followers? Each platform has its relative strength. Random, unfocused usage of tactics more often than not will deliver poor performance. There’s a lot of crap out there, and being on Twitter for the sake of being on Twitter isn’t going to build a following for you.
  3. Viewing the online space as “another medium” for off-line tactics and content. Off-line media at its core is about intrusion: we will sneak this TV spot by you while you’re busy watching “Desperate Housewives.” That type of intrusion doesn’t work in the opt-in world of Social Media. Banner ads that lead to a corporate web site that provides no real value to the user is a case-in-point of a wasted engagement opportunity.
  4. Not being transparent. Some organizations just don’t have it in them to cede the control of the communication to the user. Yet to be successful, you have to. Acknowledging only positive posts, or heavily moderating user created content is the fast track to digital irrelevance.
  5. Not being available. Remember Motrin Moms? Sharing information via social media without someone there to interact is a giant NO NO! A “must have” when branding on social media is being available to your public.
  6. Running out of steam. The landscape of Social Media is littered with abandoned blogs, inactive Twitter accounts, fanless Facebook pages and RSS feeds that go months without fresh content. Don’t just stake a flag across various platforms and move on. It says you’re not serious. Take an honest objective look at where your brand can make the biggest impact from a Social Media standpoint, while providing value to your target audience (remember, value is in the eye of the beholder). Even the best of intentions won’t create a blog post everyday, or a meaningful newsletter exchange every two weeks. Not every follower you have will find every posting or every new piece of content useful. The goal is to keep your platform presence relevant over time. Consider broadening your definition of “relevant content.” Redirect content created by others you have commented on. Invite others from your organization to contribute. Link to articles or content you think your audience may find interesting. Put together questionnaires or surveys for your followers to participate in, then report your findings back to them. Consider anything that will help you provide a solution for your followers.
  7. Not being committed. For some, Social Media will represent a giant leap forward in connecting with customers, building loyalty and developing new avenues for brands to grow. For others, Social Media will represent an ill-timed dalliance into platforms they never quite understood. Their initial excitement will ebb as they come to see that building and maintaining a meaningful presence in Social Media requires real effort and commitment. They won’t give their Social Media profile enough resources. They won’t give it enough time. They won’t give it enough attention.

This is sort of the “bookend” post to the one earlier this month on the Social Media Manifesto. Keeping these two on hand and referring to them during the design and implementation of your Social Media program should give you confidence as you move forward.

Posted by Mickey

Mickey Social Media , , , , , , , , ,