Social Media and online reviews, when used effectively, can help grow your business. I tell clients social media marketing is best explained as Public Relations and Marketing all rolled into one. Social Media platforms allow you to have a 2-way conversation about your business with clients and/or customers. This can help your business or hurt your business...especially when it comes to online reviews sites like Facebook and Yelp.
I like to think of an online review as a published comment card. However, the only difference is doing it online you now have a chance to respond back publicly. Comments and/or conversations about your business are going to happen online one way or another... It's a matter of if you want to join in on the conversation. Responding to reviews online is just another vehicle to show how your company handles customer service. Think of social media as a platform that allows you to gain trust and build relationships with your target audience. Online reviews can also be used as a platform to build confidence back in a customer who may have written your business off because of a negative experience. When looking at a customer lifetime value and their potential for additional referrals this could largely impact your business. Seeing as current statistics say only 14% of people trust advertisements but over 70% of people trust peer recommendations.
You can easily turn "Word of Mouth" recommendations to "World of Mouth" by sharing comments left by others. Just remember, what you post online is written in ink not pencil- what you write is permanent; meaning act professionally because you never know who could be reading what you're posting. Don't waste an opportunity to highlight how your company handles customer service.
Below are two examples of how companies have used online reviews. One company will serve as how not to use online reviews and social media. The other will show an example of how one company used social media to highlight their brand effectively.
First, let's take a peek at how one company used social media in the wrong way..and I mean a really bad way!
Amy's Baking Company, an upscale bistro in Scottsdale, Ariz., learned a thing or two about social media etiquette the hard way this week. Read how this company created quite a negative perception of their business by arguing back with customers verses solving their problems:
Take away: Don't be that company that lashes out unprofessionally and turns others off your brand as well.
Now let's take a peek at a company using social media to promote their brand effectively.
Domino's is using customer reviews and social media to reinvent and rock it's brand!
Take away: Be smart and use online marketing to your advantage. Remember, the more present you are, the bigger your presence is received so online reviews are a good thing. The more people talking about your business the more opportunity you have to market your brand.
Online reviews are real-time, so the faster your brand responds, the better your customer service will appear.
There are several online reputation monitoring tools ranging from free to more advanced enterprise-level and tools that only monitor certain platforms. Although online monitoring tools capture a large amount of mentions on the web, no tool can capture every mention due to privacy policy settings. So I recommend signing up for a couple monitoring tools depending on your industry and have a dedicated person that will be responsible for monitoring when your brand is mentioned online.
If you haven't already set your business up for online monitoring tools here are a few worth checking out:
- Google Alerts is a free tool that monitors all sites that Google can index with options to be notified as it happens or weekly.
- Trackur is an affordable tracking tool that monitors several social channels, as well as forums and news sites.
- SocialMention now BrandMentions is a free tool that's like Google Alerts but for social media.
While people have the right to voice their complaints, it’s up to you to remedy the situation and turn negative comments into positive opportunities. And positive comments into free PR and Marketing! Since social media is public, your quality customer service will be seen by other users and may influence their purchase decisions.
Sad to say, but Harvard Business Review found that most companies use social media ineffectively and need help.
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