User-generated content (UGC) online is quickly growing as the major reputation builder or destroyer for products, services and the companies that provide them. Some companies are already taking action by responding to blogs, posts, comments and tweets directly, curtailing the wildfire of negative feed back. When negative comments are posted online, health companies in particular don’t have the luxury of letting them go unanswered. However, in such a highly regulated industry most are struggling with how to engage.

Online Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the awareness, research and analysis of online content and it’s effect on your brand, and the preventative and reactive steps taken to control the outcome. While literally every company in business today needs an effective ORM plan, steps can be taken now to review and understand your current online reputation and help you analyze appropriate ways to influence it.

Ignoring UGC

In the pre-internet age some believed that “no news is good news” but today that belief can mean an irreparably tarnished reputation and a significant decrease in sales. Legitimate problems, slander, and unanswered questions can negatively impact your bottom line even if you’re not aware of its presence as user-generated content spreads across the web.

At the very least, you’re missing valuable opportunities to interact directly with consumers and reinforce a positive image. Without that presence, consumers will turn elsewhere.

Steps to Take

By monitoring social media regularly, analyzing threads that pertain to you and utilizing online avenues to influence the result, you can successfully manage external effects on your online image and lay the groundwork for a positive reputation.

Monitor
First, you must have a plan in place to monitor and track mentions of your company, products and services online. Perform regular search audits on your brand. Social media sites such as Twitter and YouTube have built-in search options to help you find new mentions pertaining to your company. Google Alerts will send you an email every time your name is mentioned in a blog or website. Social Mention allows you to search across all social media platforms for the most relevant results. Use these and media-site specific search tools to stay abreast of online comments.

Analyze

Once you’ve established where users are talking about you and what you’re saying, you must determine what to respond to and how to respond effectively. Good mentions deserve your attention as well as negative press. People like to know they’re making a difference, so appreciate good comments, especially during waves of negativity. Analyze negative comments to determine if they’re legitimate, such as a bad product or experience, or if they’re simply slander. Problems should be addressed publicly and respectfully.

Slander should be addressed by politely requesting the poster to remove the comment or post your response as a follow-up. If the slanderer does not comply, turn the matter over to your legal team.

Influence

Create a plan for responding to UGC online. Have a clear system in place and make it known to all employees and vendors what they can expect from you in the event of negative press. Once you’ve identified the need to respond, simply hit-or-miss answers and inconsistent information will not benefit your company; it could in fact do more damage. Have clear roles defined for responders and hold them and yourself accountable for your reputation.

Your influence shouldn’t start nor end with responses to existing comments. Take control of your reputation by creating and regularly updating a blog, building brand awareness over social media outlets, and creating a community that you can control for consumers to discuss your products and services. Once a comment is made outside your own online sphere, you stand on the power of an established online presence and already have the forum in place for your response.

Your scope of influence should include your marketing team. A company that works together online and offline to create a strong brand will be recognized and respected by consumers. Ensure your marketing, legal, and customer service departments are aware and supportive of your online efforts.

Benefits

The risk involved in ignoring your company’s need for ORM is significant, and the benefits of ORM might surprise you:

• Build confidence and trust in your brand by delivering interesting, useful information, rewarding good feedback and building a strong customer-service team.
• Educate online users by posting follow-up information to negative press, publicize steps taken to rectify the situation and list positive results. If the follow-up steps aren’t made aware to the public, the assumption will be that your company did nothing. Take the time to inform them otherwise.
• Brand Awareness, which your marketing company works so hard to establish, can be worthless if not carried through online. By taking advantage of social media outlets and interacting with  consumers, you create a strong brand awareness in the medium that’s holding their attention in increasing quantities.

While it might not seem so important at first, user-generated content and it’s effect on your online reputation can be substantial enough to cripple even large corporations. By taking the time to plan and implement the above steps, you’ll successfully take the reigns of your online reputation back from the consumers.

This article highlights the fact that businesses today are in need of two big things when it comes to doing business in this age of engage. Those two things are Insights into conversations that are taking place on the Social Web and Education on how to deal with the insights that they find.

For those who want to “dabble” there are plenty of free tools and hours worth of blogs that they can comb through. However, this does not scale for larger organizations. Larger organization will need to know what is happening not just on one single site, but what is being said anywhere about a topic of interest. Therefore, they will need to partner with organizations such as SOMA and ManoByte to help them gain insights, learn, and act.

Previously we outlined the 8 levels of Social Media Analytics as being:

1. Standard  Reports
2. Ad hoc Reports
3. Query / Drill down
4. Alerts
5. Statistical Analysis
6. Forecasting
7. Predictive Modeling
8. Optimization

In this blog post we will discuss the second Level of Social Media Analytics Reports, Ad Hoc Reports. In the realm of Social Media Analytics, Ad Hoc Reports should help you define When & Where are the conversation occurring?

The Where

Knowing “Where” conversations are occurring is extremely important. This information can help you identify the appropriate Social Media sites where the majority of conversations that are of concern to your organization are occurring. Once you know where there conversations are occurring; now you can participate appropriately. Remember Social Media involves two-way communication and active participation.

The When

Knowing when conversations are occurring helps you determine if customers are responding to new product or service releases? Decreases in conversations over a certain time period can identify a PR or Marketing issue. Analyzing when conversations are happening can help to answer why increases or decreases in sales are occurring. Effectiveness of Marketing and Adverting campaigns be identified by comparing online chatter happening during comparative time periods.

Type of Level 2 Reports

Reports that would fall underneath the category of Level 2 Social Media Reports would include:

• Conversations by URL
• Conversations by Domain Name
• Conversations by Social Media Type (I.E. Photo Sharing, Blog, Microblog, Video, Forum)
• Conversation by Date
• Conversion Comparison of Date
• Conversations by URL by Date
• Conversations by Domain Name by Date
• Conversations by Social Media Type by Date

Taking your organization to the next level with analyzing data collected from across the Social Web means putting it into context of when and where. Having this king of Social Media Analytics can help you in making better marketing and advertising decisions that connect you with those who are truly interested in your products or services.

Social Media Analytics Company

ManoByte is a Social Media Marketing company the specializes in Social Media Analytics, Brand Monitoring, and Reputation Management

The ManoByte team will help you achieve your business goals and ensure that your Web site is an integrated and effective part of your marketing strategy. In the on-line world of business, your Web site must drive traffic, attract visitors, and create new customer opportunities.
ManoByte will help you understand the impact that Social Media Marketing can have on your organization and assist you in making the needed transformation to leverage its awesome power. We will help you create a strategy that aligns your business objectives with Social Media Marketing, and then we’ll help you execute the plan.

Consumers are talking about you. So give them something to talk about and a place to do it!

These class are geared towards the small business owners but the information is valuable for organizations of all types. The Social Media classes will explain:

• What is Social Media
• Why is it important to your business
• How do you get involved

The classes will be held at ITT Technical Institute and are open to the public.

For more information contact ManoByte at 888.631.5757

Join the ManoByte FaceBook Page to stay up to date on class schedules

Follow ManoByte on Twitter

How do you do this? Walk your customer through the 3 why approach?

• Educated your customers Why the problem that they are experiencing occurs.
• Show them Why other attempts to address the problem are ineffective.
• Then teach them Why your solution is superior to other solutions.

The key here is to truly interact with your potential clients. Listen to their concerns and offer the best solutions. Do not try to force them into your solution just to make a sale. Refer them to a better source and he will come back to you when their needs align with your solutions. Better yet, this gives you the opportunity to refine your offerings so as to add value. Then you will be focusing on the customer in your marketing efforts.

Remember: Byte or get bitten

 

It is important to understand your customer’s buying cycle so I created this graph to help you understand it. Regardless of the business you are in this buying pattern holds true. Your understanding this model will help you in managing the relationship that you have with your customers. Each of these phases can be performed online. Today most consumers perform at least one of these phase activities online and are increasingly moving to performing the majority of these activities online.

The cycle begins with the research phase. During the Research phase consumers endeavor to find as much information as necessary to make them feel comfortable regarding the products of interest. This phase includes understanding features, comparisons, and cost. Many times consumers search the internet by keywords looking for product explanations, reviews, and ratings to assist them in become informed.

The next phase is Selection. This is the phase in which based on the information gathered in the research phase the consumer makes a value based decision regarding which product to purchase and from what vendor. Many businesses make the mistake of assuming that the selection in cost based. However, this is completely false. Consumers make their selection based on perceived value. Customers will select a higher cost product over a less expensive product, if the perceive the value of what they are purchasing as being high. Also, factored into the selection is who they are buying it from.

The third phase is Purchase. This step can and many times is done online however; certain products consumers still and perhaps will always fell more comfortable purchasing from a brick and mortar location.

The next two steps are Use followed by Evaluation. Based on the consumers’ experience of using the product they make an evaluation. Usage involves not only the function of the product (what it does) but also experience (how it got done). Online support tools help to increase the user experience. Based on the consumer’s experience they make an evaluation of the products. A product that may not function as high as expected might still receive a high evaluation if the experience is high.

The final step is Recommendation. This is the most important phase of the lifecycle for business owners. Your products and services live and die based on recommendations. It cost more to regain a customer then it does to keep a customer. A consumer may only a few people about a positive experience but they will tell many more about the bad experiences. Now on the internet disgruntled consumers can blog your business to death.

Understanding each of these phases and putting together a strategic plan to address each of them will have a tremendous affect on your business.

Byte or get bitten!

I have read some great books over the past 2 months. This weekend I just read one of the best that I have read. Age of Engage When it comes to MANO (Marketing, Advertising, Networking Online) I have to agree with the CEO of Google that “Every marketer must read this book!”.

This books validates a lot of the things that I have been saying and talking about.  It is a marketing paradigm shift that if Marketer do not byte into the will get bitten.  Byte or get bitten means that you need to strategically use technology  in a collaborative way to compete and thrive in the marketplace today.

Byte or get bitten