No online marketing approach is complete without reputation management. Even the most comprehensive SEO, PPC or social media campaign will fall short if you don’t incorporate an element of brand protection into your strategy. Even if you have the most loyal and happy consumer base in town it only takes one disgruntled or misplaced comment to temporarily tarnish your image. One of the most effective ways to deal with this threat is through social media, and one of the best things about this method is that it is so accessible. Social media marketing and monitoring can be carried out by even the smallest of businesses with the most limited resources. To get the full benefit of this approach, there are a few tips to follow:
- Use Google Plus. Google is constantly refining its algorithms and recently this has led to more social content appearing within the SERPs. Not surprisingly, the platform from which most text seems to be appearing from is Google’s own venture into the social world, Google Plus, therefore it really would be advisable to make use of this site.
- Consider the amount of profiles you keep. It is important to have at least two active profiles as if in the unfortunate event that one becomes the subject of abuse, the other(s) can effectively protect your name to a degree. Nevertheless it is important to make sure you don’t have too many profiles. Never have more pages than you can regularly monitor. Unattended profiles leaves you at your most vulnerable.
- Think before you react. When someone criticises the brand you’ve spent endless days, months and years building up, it is natural to react defensively, especially if the claims are unwarranted. However, as angry or frustrated you are it is imperative to remove yourself emotionally from your reply. Taking a moment to consider their point, then responding in a calm and objective way is a much more effective way of resolving the problem, and upholding your dignity and reputation in front of others.
- Promote your positive content within social media. Directing your users to the content you do want them to see, such as blogs, articles and press releases which portray your brand in a good light is a really pro-active way of deterring attention away from bad press. Ultimately it lets you gain control over what your consumer base see which is essentially what online reputation management is all about.
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SEO Positive offer comprehensive SEO, PPC, social media marketing and reputation management packages to businesses of all sizes.