How to Manage your Brand’s Reputation on Social Media

Social media management is crucial to building brand reputation, whether it’s about creating a positive brand image or handling negative reviews.

The value of your brand’s reputation is irreplaceable. So, you should protect it by all means. An important aspect of brand building is being aware of all the reviews and comments your customers publish online and being ready to manage them 24/7. 

Combining the key aspects of social media and brand reputation, these handy tips will help you to get your social media reputation management right.

Respond to Negative Reviews

No matter how great you are at your job, you will always run into dissatisfied customers. It’s part and parcel of doing business. However, the internet has made it even more difficult for brands to conceal when customers are unhappy with their products or services. 

Over time, such negative reviews and comments can degrade the trust built with your loyal customers and limit the possibility of future business. They also portray a wrong first impression to your to-be customers.

So how should you respond to such negative reviews and comments on social media? Keep the following points in mind:

• Take time to think through your response. 
• Acknowledge the problem.
• Apologize for the inconvenience.
• Be genuine and polite.
• Take the conversation offline. 
• Don’t ignore it. 
• Try to manage conflict with humor (if possible).
• Never argue with your customers if it’s your fault.

Remember, negative feedback or criticism is also an opportunity to learn and grow from your mistakes. The next time you see one come in, don’t be afraid of it. Approach it with an open mind and show everyone that you care!

Image Source: Twitter 

Combat Trolls

If your brand maintains an active presence on social media, you have probably encountered spam comments or a troll. They are the ones who are motivated to wreak havoc on your reputation (maybe just for fun).

If you want to deal with a spam comment or troll, here are some things you can do:

• Remain polite and cordial. 
• Follow up your response with facts. 
• Don’t engage in an argument. 
• Don’t delete their comments. 
• Know when it’s time to stop. 
• Take control of the comments section. For instance, you may choose to hide facebook comments when things go out of your control under your Facebook posts.

Plan for a Social Media Crisis

It’s important to develop a crisis communication plan to prevent a social media crisis. You can also run a reputation risk analysis. Auditing your social media pages can give a feel about the kinds of messages that are being said about your brand, services, or products. 

Social media monitoring tools can help prevent further reputation damage during a social media crisis. Complete your social media profile to differentiate your original account from the fake ones. This will also help differentiate responses of your account from fake accounts. Your profile bio is an excellent place to show your authenticity. Instagram bio ideas for businesses can help you create an amazing Instagram bio that conveys the right brand messaging to your audience

Encourage Customers to Share Positive Reviews

If you wish to improve your brand reputation on social media, you should do your best to generate a bunch of new and positive reviews. Here’s how you can do that:

• Encourage customers to use your branded hashtag or mention you when sharing reviews.
• Offer discounts on their next order in exchange for a positive review.
• Create high-quality content to engage your audience.
• Thank your customers for every mention, post, and positive comment they share.
• Always ask your customers for permission to share their posts.
• Select any one theme to apply to all user-generated content on social media. It will help you to create a cohesive profile aesthetic.
• Group several posts together if your customers generate tons of content. For instance, use 11 user-generated posts to create one Instagram carousel post. You can also create Twitter quotes out of your customer reviews.

Image Source: Twitter 

Focus On Getting Reviews Rather Than Followers Or Likes

Even though likes and followers are great, you should focus on increasing your reviews and feedback. 

Put more resources into getting customer reviews and showing them to other potential customers. Having enough positive reviews can help you get new customers. Content posted by a customer holds more influential power than the content posted by a brand.

Use Social Media Data as Insights

Social media data can be used to understand your customer’s experience with your brand. Smart brands look at the data regularly and observe patterns. Because patterns reveal a trend, and this trend points to what the customers want.

Using this data, you can get actionable insight and make smart decisions that will improve your brand’s reputation on social media.

To Sum It Up…

A brand trying to build its reputation on social media is a very effective marketing strategy. But, the process of making it happen can be both simple and tricky at the same time. 

The inability to properly conduct business on social media can backfire on your brand’s reputation anytime, so it’s essential to focus on the things that can massively help build and maintain your brand’s reputation on social media.