Transcript Online Brand Reputation Leveraging Social Chatter: Monitoring and Management A Wakeup Call

Leveraging Social Chatter:
Online Brand Reputation
Monitoring and Management
A Wakeup Call
Gary Levine
WSI Brand Reputation Expert
Agenda
• Why the wakeup call now?
– Problems & opportunities
• What do you do about it?
– Research & Monitor
– Improve your visibility
– Engage
– Tools you can use
• Checklist of Next Steps
Ok, so I heard…
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, its all over the
news. But they’re for kids, right?
 Despite overwhelming shifts in media
behavior, most executives still put more
weight on mainstream media channel
messaging than online communities.
 Fewer than 40% have Googled their
own name.
Source: Weber Shadwick, Reputations Online
http://www.online-reputations.com/findings.html
The Impact of Social Networks
• Half of survey respondents said they considered
information seen on their social networks when
making a decision
• 65% in the 18-24 age demographic
• 25% posted links to
company, product or
service
Source: Bereford Research
Why a wakeup call?
1. Marketers used to control the
conversation: Radio, TV and print
advertising was expensive and we
listened because it paid for our
entertainment.
2. Customer Controls the
conversation: Before blogging and
online social media gave every internet
user a platform to publicly broadcast
their observations and opinions in an
instant.
The Bottom Line:
3. Learn to listen or proceed at great risk
Its time to turn the megaphone around (ref. Tara Hunt, The
Whuffie Factor)
For example
Venerable brands like Pepsi and
Domino’s Pizza were exposed to
near-immediate criticisms on a
worldwide basis.
When they listen, they can respond.
Doesn’t it work both ways?
“It” does, if you do!
AlpacaDirect.com implemented an independent review
service on their site, and “saw sales climb 23% on
products that had reviews.”
Internet shoppers rank reviews as the most desired feature
of a Web site, according to a recent survey by Forrester
Research.
Learning from this Example
• No PR is bad PR
– Transparency is Key
• Customer is King
– Develop and Foster the culture of
• Trust
• Conversation
• Engagement
WHERE DO YOU START
3 Things that you can do
1. Research and monitor
communications about your brand
2. Build up your brand visibility
3. Engage with customers and clients
1. RESEARCH & MONITOR
A: Check Your Name
• Research and protect your
brand and trade names
• Don’t let someone else become
“Facebook/YourCompany”
• KnowEm.com – free or paid
B: See where you are being found
• Do Proactive Searches:
– Google
– Twitter
– Technorati
C: Setup monitors
• Google Alerts, RSS Feeds
• Search.Twitter.com/advanced
More Sophisticated Monitoring Tools
• Monitter
• Filtrbox
Now You Know Where You Are….
What Next?
2. BUILD BRAND VISIBILITY
A: Search Engine Optimize (SEO) Your
Website
– Is your brand name prominent on
your site?
– Is it the HTML Title of a page about
you?
– Does the Description of your About
page contain the brand name?
– Are your key employees or reps
included on the site?
B: Local listings, profiles & social pages
–
–
–
–
Google.com/profiles
Facebook.com/pages/create.php
LinkedIn.com
ShowMeLocal
C: Publish
– Blog
– Press releases
– YouTube video or Flickr
images
3. ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS AND
CLIENTS: Social Chatter
A: Respond to what you hear
– Respond to what you hear
B: Invite feedback
–Use a 3rd Party Review Service
• “Reviews” are different from “Testimonials”
–Impact of Reviews on Buying:
Marketing Experiments Journal study found the conversion rate
increased from 0.47% to 0.88%, an increase of 87% when customer
reviews were present
C: Allocate resources
•
•
•
•
In house or outside service
Daily monitoring
Daily responding
Alerting and reporting
The Checklist
Survey clients and develop your responses
Check your Google search engine result
rankings for industry keywords
Setup daily Google Alerts
Start or add to your blog: top 10 things you
have to explain over and over
Pick a social media site and engage
Assign someone to monitor the feedback
Summary
• Research and Monitor
• Build Brand Visibility
• Engage with Clients
Download the Whitepaper at:
www.getWSIpowered.com/Brandreputation