Margie Barkley: The 2023 Guide to Social Media Reputation Management

Jeff Bezos said, “Your brand is the things people say about your company when you are not there.” In an age of social media and virality what others say about you could reach millions. You can at least make yourself visible to the next customer. Social media reputation management is important for this reason.

It’s not about controlling the narrative. Listening to customers, taking their feedback into account, and then responding in a manner that builds trust for your brand is what reputation management is all about.

The stakes are high. More than 2,000 executives were surveyed and 63% of the value of their company was attributed to online reputations. According to the survey, online reviews influence 93% of consumers’ buying decisions. Even hiring decisions are affected, as 86% employees read reviews and ratings prior to applying for a position.

This is not an ill-fated tale. This is a story about you as a hero. You’ll be able to “hear”, or understand, what your customers are saying about your brand by reading this article. You will be able respond in real-time. You’ll also create a positive online reputation for your business that will make it more appealing to customers.

Download our free guide today to learn how you can use social media to increase sales and conversions. There are no tricks or dull tips, just simple instructions that work.

What is social media management?

Social media reputation management involves observing how users perceive your brand across social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok.

The online reputation of your organization is built by the comments and reviews that people leave about it. Every post, Tweet or TikTok that mentions your company, as well as every comment, review, or TikTok that mentions it, adds to the reputational foundation of your organization.

See this post on Instagram A post shared by National Park Service (@nationalparkservice)

Your reputation will shape itself without attention and guidance. It’s okay if your customers have a positive experience.

Unfortunately, it is more common for people to talk about a bad customer experience. Sometimes, people will spread false information. You could have a bad reputation on social media even if your customers are overwhelmingly supportive.

A reputation management plan will let you know when your brand is mentioned and what the tone of the mention was. You’ll also have a strategy to deal with it. You can spread positive messages to the world. You should also address any negative comments before they turn into full-blown crises.

@janellewinn

@geico is THE WORST PLACE FOR CAR INSURANCE. They are the worst! #moneywasted #geico #screwgeico

Original sound – Janelle winn

Three components are usually included in a social media reputation management strategy:

A comprehensive audit of your online reputationQuantitative and qualitative monitoring of social media channelsProactive and responsive messaging to improve or repair customer trust

Let’s take a look at how you can build a social media fan base that is loyal and loves you.

Manage your social media reputation

Listening to what others have to say about you and your brand is the first step in a good social media reputation plan. The plan continues with steps that will mitigate any negative sentiment. This includes ways to humanize and promote your brand, as well as the positive vibes that your fans share.

Monitor brand mentions in conversations

Online reputation management is centered around social media brand monitoring, sentiment analysis and sentiment analysis.

Brand monitoring monitors all social media conversations and posts that mention your brand, your products, or your key spokespersons (like your CEO). Many people don’t @ your company, while others do. You’ll also need to track untagged mentions and #branded mentions.

If I’m running late, I go to Starbucks

C Sweet

(@csweetnsour ) April 18, 2023

Keep track of common misspellings. Starbucks would miss some great conversations if they didn’t track common misspellings.

Are you looking for social media monitoring tools that will help you find brand conversations? Hootsuite is the answer.

Sentiment analysis is a contextual review of brand mentions. It is more than just counting the number of times your brand is mentioned on social media. It takes into account the sentiment and opinions behind those conversations.

Say that thousands of people have spoken about the performance of your product.

@sarahbaileyreads

Making Some

forbidden

Chocolate milk

#cleantok #bissellclean #littlegreenmachine #weekendvibes #teachersoftiktok

Beautiful young twearkalator

yUh

The language used by the person will give you a clue as to whether they are in a positive or negative mood.

Quantitative analysis will reveal your social share-of-voice, social ROI and social sentiment score. You can learn from qualitative analysis what hashtags and trending topics people are using to associate your brand.

Monitoring online conversations about your brand doesn’t only surface superficial sentiment. You will learn how to improve your business and even your product. This is what The Isle of Paradise has done here.

@theisleofparadise

We listened to what @foamy3 had to say!

The NEW Pro-Glow Spray Tan Mister is here! Shop @sephora and @Boots UK

#isleofparadise

Original sound – The Isle of Paradise

The spray applicator was not a favorite of a TikTok creator who had a lot to say about tanner. Brand listened to the TikToker, updated the spray bottle and shared the story. This one interaction led to a focus group for free, an advertisement, user-generated material, and a customer testimonial. The company demonstrated that they listened to the customer’s concerns and gained a great deal of goodwill.

Listen for competitors and keywords

Your online reputation can be affected by what happens in your industry and to your competitors. Remember the viral video showing security officers dragging United Airlines customers off a plane that was overbooked? Other carriers also felt the pressure and changed their policies on overbooking.

Social listening is the answer. Social listening goes beyond just looking for mentions about your brand. It tracks keywords and conversations involving your competitors as well.

Check out how Mavix, a maker of gaming chairs, jumped in on this thread.

You can stop looking now if you’re interested in a gaming chair.

— Mavix Chairs (@mavixchairs) April 18, 2023

Someone tweeted a video that was not flattering to their competitor. Mavix’s gentle trolling attracted gamers in need of a new chair. This situation was made possible by social media monitoring.

Set your software to search for important words, as H&R Block did.

Tax Day is here in the USA. I’m counting the beans

Filling out tax forms is easy!

https://t.co/XK6juft8p6 #taxday #fileyourtaxes #CPA #taxaccountant #beancounter

#roughday #roughcollie #collie pic.twitter.com/xL9EdmYDYY

— Collie Crusader (@CollieCrusader) April 18, 2023

They were able to find a way to participate in a conversation. It didn’t mention the company. Tweeted about a cute pup doing taxs.

Engage and respond rapidly

Listening to what people are saying about your brand on social media is not enough. It’s important to respond quickly and appropriately. Why? 75% of U.S. customers expect brands to respond to questions and complaints on social media within one day. 20% of consumers think that the response should be instant!

Each mention can be used to build your brand’s trust and increase engagement. Some conversations are friendly and fun. Some conversations may begin because your customer feels frustrated or confused. Social media listening tools can help you quickly find these conversations and respond. Let’s now look at the different ways you can interact with social media.

You can start by turning your social media account in a customer service center that is visible to the public. This will help customers understand what you’re doing. Social media is a popular place for people to seek help. It’s therefore a good place to provide guidance and answer questions.

Nike, for instance, uses a Twitter account to help its customers.

What’s the latest on this issue? This issue is still happening to me.

J. Strand @DJ_Ajaxx September 15, 2022

Nike uses @nikeservice for more than just answering individual questions. The brand posts updates in general that are similar to an FAQ. The brand’s followers can get answers before they have to ask any questions. This means less work for their customer service representatives.

Often, people will talk about your brand with a positive and humorous tone. These are excellent opportunities to join in the conversation. Wendy’s never misses an opportunity to discuss square burgers, or…historical architectural?

Wendy, why the sunrooms? Let me tell you some history!

Jaxsaid

(@jaxsaid ) April 18, 2023

But not all posts on social media will be positive. It’s crucial to respond quickly when a customer shares their disappointment.

It’s not clear why I was on hold with @dominos for so long, or why my food still remains in “prep”, an hour after ordering. Okay

— liv (@oliviafyeager), April 25, 2023

Remember that the person at the other end of the conversation is important, no matter what type of conversation it may be. Imagine what you would say to someone if they stood in front of your face. You can use this to make your responses seem more human.

Reduce response time (and your workload)

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Enable and respond to reviews

When nurtured and managed, online reviews are a great type of grassroots, word-of-mouth marketing. They’re also an important part of cultivating your social media presence. A Brightlocal survey found that nearly half of consumers look at Facebook reviews.

The same survey also revealed that buyers think it’s important for brands to have at least a four-star rating. And more than half of buyers say they want to see both positive and negative reviews from the last two to four weeks.

You’ll need a steady stream of positive reviews. To get them, make sure you’ve turned on Facebook recommendations. Then don’t be afraid to ask. Over 50% of shoppers are “likely” or “highly likely” to leave a review if the business asks them to. And what’s the most effective way to request a customer review? It’s a pretty close race between email, in-person, on a receipt, and through social media, according to the survey.

Gathering a bunch of recent 5-star reviews is great. But if you really want to wow customers, reply to your reviews. 88% of consumers said they’re “likely to use a business if they can see the business owner responds to all reviews, whether positive or negative.”

When you do receive a bad review, you’ve got to tackle it head-on. It’s a signal to all customers that you’re willing to solve whatever issue may come up.

A good rule of thumb is to address bad reviews publicly. But then solve them privately. Those conversations may contain private information. That’s especially important if you work in a regulated industry like healthcare.

But don’t be shy about sharing the wins, either. You’ve worked hard to deliver a product or service people love. Use their hard-won feedback to earn more business by placing it on social posts or your website.

Cultivate your reputation proactively

You don’t need to wait for a customer to post about you. There are ways to establish and manage your social media reputation proactively.

One option is to publish content on your channels that shows the world what your brand is all about. Take the Irish leader of low-cost air travel, for example. The company is infamous for cut-rate services, but one look at its TikTok account and it’s clear that Ryanair just doesn’t care.

@ryanair

Welcome back to the party

#ryanair

Original sound – Ryanair

Ryanair does not stop there. Its social media team has masteredly spun its bad rep into a Stockholm Syndrome relationship with those who malign them on the internet.

Source: Ryanair TikTok

RyanAir’s tricky blend of snarky savagery suits them perfectly. RyanAir’s customers are aware that they won’t be getting a luxurious ride. Any complaints can therefore be met with an “See, We Told You” attitude.

GoPro views social media reputation from a different perspective. They don’t let shoppers know what their brand is. Asking current users to demonstrate it.

See this post on Instagram

Ali Ahmed (@aliahmed_fpk), shared a post.

GoPro collects UGC by asking its customers to tag their images and videos with hashtags like #gopro. UGC that is authentically produced by users has a higher level of trust among consumers than other content types. This strategy instills confidence in the GoPro Brand.

Brand guidelines: Establish (and enforce) them

Consistency is key to maintaining a positive reputation online, no matter whether your brand is serious or snarky. Your reputation can be damaged in no time by a rogue employee who posts off-brand responses.

Source: Facebook

It’s a fake Facebook “customer service” account that is trolling. You want to avoid situations where your employees react in a manner that damages your reputation. You’ll also need a social-media policy and a style guide.

The social media policy sets out the expectations of how employees should post on social media channels that are branded (or on their personal accounts when posting on behalf your brand). This policy includes content types, responses to positive and negatively rated feedback, and legal compliance. This guide will help you create your social media policy. It includes a template that you can use to get started.

A social media style guide answers questions about how you’ll craft individual posts. What will your tone be on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook? What buzzwords or jargon do you want to use, and which ones should you avoid? Are emojis included in the plan?

Want more? This detailed post will tell you all the things your social media style guide should have.

Software for social media reputation management

The social media world is huge. You can’t be in all relevant conversations. These tools help you to find, analyse, and respond to mentions relevant to your business.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite allows you to easily track and respond when your brand, competitor or keyword is mentioned across all of your social media accounts.

Try it for Free

Hootsuite Streams is the secret. It’s a flexible way to see a variety social media activities all in one place. You can create a streaming to monitor hashtags, competitor or brand mentions and keywords.

You can reply to important conversations from your dashboard once your streams are running. You can respond quickly to someone who shares your Tweets or mentions your service.

Hootsuite comes with Inbox – a social media communication tool that allows you to keep track of all your DMs, comments, and other messages in one place. This helps you address sensitive issues quickly, before they threaten your reputation. This includes:

Private messages and DMsPublic messages and posts on your profilesDark and organic commentsMentionsEmoji reactions

More…

It’s easy to use the all-in one agent workspace.

Handle messages with a team using intuitive messaging queues, task assignment, statuses and filters. Track response times and CSAT metrics

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Inbox also comes with useful automations.

Automated message routingAuto-responses and saved repliesAutomatically triggered customer satisfaction surveysAI-powered chatbot features

Brandwatch

Brandwatch is an online listening tool that scours through millions of social media interactions. It provides insightful data on your brand’s image.

Brandwatch helps you to discover the words that are most often associated with your company. Also, you can see how frequently people mention your brand. You can also see the emotions behind those conversations.

Brandwatch is fully compatible with Hootsuite. From one location, you can monitor and respond to both big-picture and specific trends.

ReviewTrackers

ReviewTrackers is a great tool to help you manage your social media reputation. It gives you an easy way to view and interact with your online reviews.

ReviewTrackers

You can use the ReviewTrackers Hootsuite plugin to arrange your reviews in streams, just like you would social media posts and mentions. You can also respond in real-time to your reviews without leaving the platform, just like you do with other streams. When those 5-star reviews start coming in, you can hop to your Hootsuite Creator workspace to share them on all of your social channels.

Hootsuite helps you manage your social media presence more efficiently. You can manage your social media presence from a single dashboard. It allows you to publish and schedule content, track conversions, engage with the audience, and measure results. You can try it for free today.

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Hootsuite allows you to manage all of your social media from one location, track ROI and save time.

Book a demo> The 2023 guide to social media reputation management.