Reputations take years to build and only moments to destroy, especially when it comes to brands and businesses. With modern consumers being highly attentive to their peers’ judgements, what others are saying about your brand can directly influence whether or not anyone becomes a loyal customer. Staying on top of your business’s online reputation doesn’t need to be costly, frustrating, nor difficult. In fact, it can be managed quite easily using some simple tools and techniques. The following are a few tips to keep your brand’s social media reputation on the right track.
1. Use Tools like Facebook Business Suite
If you already use a paid tool like HubSpot or Hootsuite to schedule social media posts, you’re probably already familiar with that specific platform. If not, or if the platform doesn’t allow you to engage with audiences, we recommend taking advantage of Facebook’s Business Suite. This free tool allows business pages to schedule and publish content across both Facebook and Instagram, and will also permit admins to manage and respond to messages and comments on either account.
Account management tools are incredibly helpful for streamlining social media listening and engagement. Taking advantage of these tools means you don’t have to manually monitor mentions and notifications on each individual account, as they’ll all be displayed on a single user-friendly dashboard. Unfortunately, some small business owners are discouraged from monitoring and engaging on social media because they wish to avoid negative reviews at all costs. We suggest that instead of avoiding it, admins and managers consider any feedback to be beneficial, even if it’s highly critical. Positive reviews are always welcome, but rarely do they offer sincere, constructive advice which challenges your brand to grow and mature. The ultimate goal should be to listen and engage with your audience in order to best meet and respond to the needs and expectations of current and potential customers.
2. Celebrate Positive Posts
User-generated content (UGC) plays a major role in social media reputation management. This kind of sticky content provides brands with an easy way of giving users social proof. Naturally, consumers value what others think, so amplifying and engaging with positive posts not only reinforces your business’s values, it also encourages those who are unfamiliar with or uncertain about your brand.
Account management tools like those mentioned previously can assist in this process, too. Once a mention or notification appears, many platforms will allow you to react and quickly re-share across multiple networks. Furthermore, you can also use positive UGC in other ways, such as part of a greater digital marketing strategy. You could easily feature them in your next email campaign, highlight them in a blog post, showcase them on your website, or even give them a shoutout in your next video.
3. Engage Regularly
Organic engagement is what social media is all about, even for businesses. Interacting with followers and responding to their questions, comments, and feedback is one of the best ways to maintain and improve any brand’s social media reputation. Since they will actively shape the company’s voice, it’s helpful to assign this task to one or a few confident individuals who are upbeat, well-spoken, and enjoy the responsibility. We suggest regularly thanking followers for their reactions, comments, and all feedback, positive or negative, ideally within a few days. Again, management tools like Business Suite can significantly help simplify and organize this process, but it will take attention to detail, regardless. Make your followers feel heard and valued—they will return the favor with gratitude and loyalty.
Proper social media management is essential if businesses wish to cultivate a positive online brand image. Various free and paid tools exist to help admins get the most from these platforms, and selecting the right one can make a world of difference when regularly engaging with audiences and highlighting specific content. We encourage you to contact us or visit our social media management page for more information on this important marketing strategy.
Latest Posts
