• What we do
  • The People
  • About Us
  • Why Innovation Africa
  • Contact Us
Innovation AfricaCreating the Future Today
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Feature Articles
  • Innovation
  • Agriculture
  • ICT
  • Technology
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Health
  • Store
  • Contact Us
  • Monitoring the Conversation; Managing Your Brand Reputation Online

    October 2, 2012 Editor 0

    By Carlo Pandian
    Reputation is everything is everything in business, and nowhere is this more true than online.  While online retail is one of the few growing segments in the economy (local, national or global), building trust and maintaining it is a hard task for start-ups and established businesses alike.

    Brand is not always enough to convince customers that they can trust you, and if you are only just establishing a brand then creating a trustworthy presence on the web is essential.  In addition to many bright and shiny new internet marketing techniques you should also look at one of the oldest tricks in the book; word of mouth.

    The growth of social networks (and social network marketing) allows you to use this tool even today in the age of global marketing.  Managing your reputation online using Twitter and other social networks is one method that you can’t afford to ignore.
    Owning your Brand

    If you aren’t actively managing your company profile on a range of social networks, the danger is that somebody else may be.  Even if you don’t intend to start a full blown social networking marketing campaign from day one, you need to own your brand name presence on some of the main social networks; Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn should be your immediate focus but Quora, Tumblr, Pinterest and Fancy should also be considered.

    If you haven’t signed up for a company profile on these sites a competitor could do so and begin eroding your reputation whenever they like.  If your company name or brand is similar to others there’s also a danger that not owning these sites could mean that search engine results could include competitors with similar names, rather too close to your own results.  By having a presence on several platforms you’ll increase the chances that your brand will appear in numerous channels in the search results.

    Customer Tracking

    There’s a range of tools to help you track mentions across a host of platforms including mentions in blog posts, on Twitter and Facebook.  This is crucial for any business and some major players including Dell and Amazon have made massive efforts to track and monitor comments about their brands.  By finding negative comments you can address them quickly.  This can be crucial when it comes to defending your company reputation.  There are two approaches to managing your reputation in this way.  For bigger problems, a site that’s collapsed for example, you can keep customers updated via social networks.

    For specific customer issues you can respond initially on social networks and offer a direct route for the customer to contact you.  This has two effects, firstly it shows that you’re reliable enough to be concerned and secondly it gets the conversation ‘offline’, or at least away from public view.  As long as you handle the complaint well, the chances are that the formerly unhappy customer will be singing your praises online once the complaint is resolved, and this is called ‘free advertising’!  Google Alerts is a great basic package to monitor mentions and is worth signing up to for any business.

    Good Airtime and Bad Airtime

    It’s a well-established fact in customer service that one bad customer experience gets rather a lot of “airtime”.  A good one gets less, but by using social media to identify issues you can turn the bad into good and manage the process for maximum effect.  Most customers who have been at the receiving end of this kind of customer service are not only surprised but become extremely positive ambassadors for your brand, which is something that no business can afford not to capitalise on.  Managing your reputation online via social networks not only allows you the chance to create a trustworthy brand but effectively help to spread the word about your company – in a good way.

    Social networking is the ‘word of mouth’ marketing tool of the 21st century.  Allowing you to manage, defend and promote your brand online, whatever size of company you run.  Remember, if you’re not part of the conversation, you may well be the subject of it. 


    Carlo Pandian is a freelance writer based in UK and blogs about business, accounting software and marketing covering everything from tutorials on QuickBooks Online to social media management tools. 



    Image Credit

     

    Go to Source

    Related Posts

    • Social e-entrepreneurship and technological innovations: the role of online communities, mobile communication and social networksSocial e-entrepreneurship and technological innovations: the role of online communities, mobile communication and social networks
    • What Does Your Brand Sound Like?What Does Your Brand Sound Like?
    • Embedded resources and knowledge transfer among R&D employeesEmbedded resources and knowledge transfer among R&D employees
    • Demographics are dead: the new, technical face of marketing
    • Taking Your Brand Global Is Easier Than You ThinkTaking Your Brand Global Is Easier Than You Think
    • Understanding Willingness to Pay for Social Network SitesUnderstanding Willingness to Pay for Social Network Sites
    Sovrn
    Share

    Categories: mLab

    Tags: brand, Carlo Pandian, reputation online, social network

    Four key trends changing digital journalism and society Skill relatedness and firm diversification

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    You must be logged in to post a comment.

Subscribe to our stories


 

Recent Posts

  • Entrepreneurial Alertness, Innovation Modes, And Business Models in Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises December 30, 2021
  • The Strategic Role of Design in Driving Digital Innovation June 10, 2021
  • Correction to: Hybrid mosquitoes? Evidence from rural Tanzania on how local communities conceptualize and respond to modified mosquitoes as a tool for malaria control June 10, 2021
  • BRIEF FOCUS: Optimal spacing for groundnuts in smallholder farming systems June 9, 2021
  • COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa June 9, 2021

Categories

Archives

Popular Post-All time

  • A review on biomass-based... 1k views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Y... 834 views
  • Can blockchain disrupt ge... 816 views
  • Test Your Value Propositi... 779 views
  • Prize-winning projects pr... 740 views

Recent Posts

  • Entrepreneurial Alertness, Innovation Modes, And Business Models in Small- And Medium-Sized Enterprises
  • The Strategic Role of Design in Driving Digital Innovation
  • Correction to: Hybrid mosquitoes? Evidence from rural Tanzania on how local communities conceptualize and respond to modified mosquitoes as a tool for malaria control
  • BRIEF FOCUS: Optimal spacing for groundnuts in smallholder farming systems
  • COVID-19 pandemic: impacts on the achievements of Sustainable Development Goals in Africa
  • Explicit knowledge networks and their relationship with productivity in SMEs
  • Intellectual property issues in artificial intelligence: specific reference to the service sector
  • Africa RISING publishes a livestock feed and forage production manual for Ethiopia
  • Transforming crop residues into a precious feed resource for small ruminants in northern Ghana
  • Photo report: West Africa project partners cap off 2020 with farmers field day events in Northern Ghana and Southern Mali

Tag Cloud

    africa African Agriculture Business Business model Business_Finance Company Crowdsourcing data Development East Africa economics Education Entrepreneur entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship ethiopia ghana Health_Medical_Pharma ict Information technology Innovation kenya knowledge Knowledge Management Leadership marketing mobile Mobile phone nigeria Open innovation Organization Research rwanda science Science and technology studies social enterprise social entrepreneurship south africa Strategic management strategy tanzania Technology Technology_Internet uganda

Categories

Archives

  • A review on biomass-based hydrogen production for renewable energy supply 1k views
  • Apply Now: $500,000 for Your Big Data Innovations in Agriculture 834 views
  • Can blockchain disrupt gender inequality? 816 views
  • Test Your Value Proposition: Supercharge Lean Startup and CustDev Principles 779 views
  • Prize-winning projects promote healthier eating, smarter crop investments 740 views

Copyright © 2005-2020 Innovation Africa Theme created by PWT. Powered by WordPress.org