By Tanya Henderson, Advertising & Membership Relations Director
An’ I don’t give a damn ‘bout my reputation
The world’s in trouble, there’s no communication...
Lyrics from Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation”
More than 30 years later…a lot has changed. Joan may still not care, but in today’s word-of-mouth world, businesses need to be a step ahead and understand how they are perceived. We’ve all heard of the phrase that “perception is reality” and today that is never truer with people commenting, blogging and reviewing their experience for the world to see. In an IMA Reputation Management webinar last week, Shannon Kinney, Founder and Client Success Officer of dreamlocal shared their company’s philosophy and strategies when working with clients. It’s more than providing technology to a client. You have to be constantly monitoring a brand, their listings, search and directories.
They monitor 125 web sites and they are looking for brand mentions, social mentions and things that should be more obvious that may be overlooked. She mentions a client who had great reviews and comments but when checking their address online, it was wrong. People were going to that address and the sales were scooped up by another business at that address resulting in lost sales for their client.
If you don’t think this is high stakes, think again. In my own recent experience with ebay, the seller went to great lengths to ask for a favorable rating as they had a 100% positive reviews from their transactions. When I returned the item and asked for a refund, they did so very quickly but did not want me to mention the return on their site – my thought is that they didn’t want me to say anything negative although my experience wasn’t a bad one.
It’s evident the importance of reputation management in categories such as car dealerships, realtors, hospitality/travel. Many of you have seen the reviews on TripAdvisor. Companies that are on top of those reviews will listen to the customer and respond, whether the review is positive or negative. If done correctly, even a bad experience may be turned into a positive one just by listening to the complaint and responding. According to Kinney it makes the business seem more credible.
Responding the right way is important. Think of all the phone calls over the years from our customers. Unlike hearing the harsh criticism on the phone from a consumer or advertiser, in the social media space you have the chance to diffuse a bad customer situation by using the right tone through your typed response. You can take the time and craft something meaningful and not say the wrong thing when someone is screaming in your ear (okay venting).
Social media becomes important in different communities as there are influencers that will sway people one way or another based on their comments. Look at the recent Republican debates when the audience could stand and clap and show their support of a candidate. It was noted that the level of enthusiasm can affect the popularity of the candidate regardless of how they responded to the question.
Reputation management is another example of the services that can be extended through a media company and their digital agency. Time and time again we find that businesses don’t have the time or the desire to do this type of monitoring, engaging, and tracking on an ongoing basis.
If you’d like more information on IMA (Interactive Media Alliance) and how to access this presentation, contact Local Media Association headquarters at 888.486.2466 or by email at info@localmedia.org.