Dealing With Negative Reviews
Your response shows potential customers how your business deals with complaints.
Some refer to them as haters. They usually make you want to fire off a quick response in return because they’ve evoked negative emotions. A social media troll is one who deliberately posts negative comments or reviews to provoke others. Whether true or not, their intent is to cause trouble in your social media communities.
Customers are looking for reviews to see positives as well as how a business responds to complaints. The way you react to trolls can impact your reputation. Here are a few tactics to keep in mind.
1) Always respond
It’s important to always engage with a comment, whether it is positive or negative. A response shows that you took time to try and find a resolution.
2) Restate The Complaint
In your response repeat back what the customer is posting about. Is the complaint about your company or product factual?
3) Highlight Your Strengths
Show the customer that your products or services have a reputation.
4) Don’t Make Excuses
Don’t place blame on an employee or situation. Take ownership of the complaint.
5) Resolve the Issue
An offer is usually the easiest way steer the complaint towards a position outcome. This doesn’t have to be extravagant, a simple $5 gift card can often make a customer happy.
6) Don’t Be Afraid To Ask for Proof
If you feel the complaint is fraudulent don’t be afraid to ask for proof of the complaint. You loyal fans will see this complaint for what it is and support your actions.
There’s no way to completely stop negative comments or reviews, but using these tips you can help you keep them under control should you find yourself going head-to-head with a troll on your brand’s page.
Have you been looking for help with your marketing? Your online presence plays a big factor in your marketing success.
What’s the difference between a digital marketing agency and a traditional advertising agency? A lot. However, many traditional advertising agencies claim to offer a full suite of digital services, when, in fact, they do not.
This isn’t a big secret. But, traditional ad agency sales pitches can seem like smoke and mirrors, hiding the fact that they are not capable of providing true digital marketing services such as search engine optimization (SEO), social marketing, and efficient website redesign and development– and let’s not forget the ever more critical content and UX strategy now necessary for any brand to truly succeed online.
This is why you see award winning creative ads, like the Susan G. Komen Addy Gold winning “Race Never Ends” by GSW with so few YouTube view counts (862 at last check after over 12 months online). The ad is remarkable, it makes an impact, it stirs your soul on an emotional level and may actually persuade you to donate or join the race – but where is it online? Perhaps that wasn’t the intent or strategy behind the ad, but if not, why not? Clearly the ad would have done very well online and the Komen Foundation would have been better served to hire a true digital marketing agency to ensure the video also had an impact online.
If you’re looking for inspiration, check out the past year’s DoGooder award winners on YouTube. Watch the videos and then find their website’s and the campaigns behind them. Video is just one element of a successful marketing and advertising strategy in today’s segmented digital marketing world. Same goes for your website, your social marketing platform or your direct mail piece. Every element of your brand’s marketing needs to be built for digital in one way or another, and the truth is, most traditional agencies simply can’t offer digital services.
To that end, many brands are now pairing agencies together, rather than turning to one traditional agency for all of their services or to one digital agency. If you’re a CMO, marketing director or brand manager, I don’t need to tell you how expensive hiring the wrong agency can be. Sure, there’s the dollar figure and investment, but even more costly is the time lost. In digital, every day you’re not truly optimizing your brand online is a day lost to the competition that you’ll never gain back. That’s why you have to hire the best digital marketing agency. End of story.
Check these scenarios. If you’re in one of them, there’s a solution below.
You’re bound to a large traditional agency by contract or political obligation.
Hire a digital agency to compliment their work with an audit or content strategy. Depending on the size of your website, these audits and content strategies cost between $300-$3,000. A small price to pay to ensure the traditional agency’s beautiful creative work actually succeeds online. Digital agencies, like ours, play very well with traditional agencies.
You love your traditional agency and don’t want to offend them by questioning their work.
First of all, you’re being too nice. This is your business and/or your career and if your agency isn’t bringing in the results you’ve spelled out then it’s okay to question the quality of their work. Now, clearly, there are always egos involved and for a true agency partnership to succeed your approach as the client is paramount to that success. Introduce the idea of a digital agency audit as something that can help the traditional agency’s team to succeed. And be sure to choose a digital agency that will play nice with your traditional agency. Make it clear to both sides that the relationship will not be a pissing match or competition for the other’s work. “I’m happy with your agency for this reason, but we need this agency for this reason. Play nice, or I’ll have to find an agency that can do both.”
You can’t afford to hire both a traditional and digital agency, but your brand has to perform online.
Skip the traditional agencies all together, and explore a relationship with a creative digital marketing agency like Speaking Socially. We are a full service advertising agency with digital marketing at our core. So, the digital is in the bag and the traditional is just gravy. Your campaigns are then designed from the outset to perform offline and online.
The first step in social marketing is to choose the right social platform to market your business. Even if you plan to use two or three different platforms, you still need to choose the ones that suit your company the best. What works for one company may not work for you. Therefore, you have to determine which one to use based on your specific needs.
You need to go where your customers/clients are!
A good place to start is with your targeted audience because different age groups are attracted to different social media platforms. If you’re targeting another business, LinkedIn may be your best option.
Consider what type of content you’ll be posting most of the time and this will also help you choose the right platform. Instagram or Pinterest are excellent choices for restaurants because of the visual effect you can achieve with photos while YouTube can work for almost any type of business.
The reason for using social media will also determine which platform to choose. For example, if you want to enhance brand awareness, Twitter is a great option but Facebook may be a better choice if you’re interested in getting consumer feedback.
Choosing the right social media platforms for your business will help to ensure you get the most from your marketing efforts.
Social media is a great way to enhance brand awareness and drive traffic to your site but before you set up your account, it’s a good idea to have a plan outlining your strategies first. This will help you stay focused on your goals so you can get the most from your online marketing. Below are four great social media strategies to help you get started:
1. Use more than one social media platform- This will allow you to reach a wider audience because some people prefer Facebook while others prefer Twitter or Instagram and so forth.
2. Encourage users to communicate with you- When you encourage engagement, you’ll generate more interest in your account, learn more about your followers and attract new fans.
3. Be selective who you follow- You can’t follow everyone so choose the people you do follow carefully. You want to be associated with those who have a positive influence in your industry.
4. Set goals and monitor your account- You need to have some idea of what you want to accomplish with your social marketing, so set your goals and then monitor your accounts to see what’s working and what needs changed.
You can use these four strategies with any social media platform to help you get started.
You wouldn’t ignore a customer in your store asking a question at the customer service desk would you? Or even one that called in on the phone? Of course not! For years the customer service desk and telephone calls have been perceived as a normal way for customers to interact with business to get answers to questions about products or services. However, for the last ten years, a new player has been on the field of business to customer engagement and it is one that, although it is here to stay, goes unanswered 7 out of 8 times.
That new playing field is social media and it is where more and more consumers, young and old, are turning to get their questions resolved. According to a recent study, customers seeking support on social media is up 21 percent in just the last two quarters of 2015 alone and seven out of eight customer messages go unanswered within a 72 hour period.
Unfortunately, most businesses are 4 times more likely to post things to their social media then they are to answer a customer’s question or reply to a comment. If your response is “If they want to know something they can call or come in person to my store” then you can probably expect to lose that particular customer. And as it was with the telephone, it is a trend that will continue to grow.
Statistics show that the Real Estate industry is currently struggling the most with this trend, as they are 11.7 times more likely to post something than return a message from a potential client on social media and consumer goods based business are 40% slower than educational establishments which have the quickest response time.
So now that the scary numbers are out of the way what is the good news , you ask? Why is this important to your business? Customers who engage with companies on social media spend 20 – 40% more with those companies. 71% of those who have positive customer service through social media will recommend the brand to friends. So what is a small business who does not have multiple employees to do with limited resources in the face of this new surging trend? Simple! Follow these four steps:
- Develop a social media customer care strategy for your business.
- Equip yourself with the right tools to execute that plan.
- Listen and provide timely answers to questions and comments.
- Be genuine. You wouldn’t be otherwise in person, and your online persona should reflect the same.
If your business needs assistance setting up and implementing a social media customer care strategy or someone to maintain it for you, contact us today for a fee consultation.
“Oh, I just loved that color.” That is the response that you will often hear from business and shop owners if you ask them why they chose a particular color scheme for their advertising, sales board, logo or even shop color. However, color plays a much more important role in convincing your consumers about the quality of your brand, product, and sale items than you might think. Studies show that they already have formed a subconscious judgment about your product or environment within the first minute and half and that up to 90% of that is based on color alone.
You know that you need social media for your business but there are so many options. Where do you begin? How do you ensure you are getting the benefits you need without busting your budget? How do you make sense of all the different things this expert or that expert say you need?
Don’t worry. You are not alone.
Social media can be a real jungle and if you’re not careful, it can also be a money sink. But the cold, hard facts prove that social media works. When you have a solid social media strategy and the right resources to implement it, you can gain a great deal for very little investment. It all begins with the right plan.
This is where social media coaching can help. No matter where you are in your journey – launching a new campaign, creating a strategy, improving an existing strategy or even overhauling your entire social media process – a coach can help.
Here are some things that a social media coach can assist you with:
- Create a social media strategy or examine your current strategy
- Audit your current accounts to look for improvements
- Walk you through set-up or improvement of your existing accounts
- Answer questions about content, conversions and interaction
- Teach you to use social media as a customer service tool
- Train and/or lead your social media marketing team
- Help you create a social media marketing team if you do not currently have one
- Assist you in any areas of social media marketing you require help
How a social media coach helps you will really depend on where you are in the process and what your personalized needs are. In fact, that’s really the main point of a coach: having someone who can give you a personalized, expert opinion and advice on things. You can read generic info for yourself online and from books but when you need more than that, a coach is a great option.
If you are seeking a social media coach or have questions about the coaching process, contact us today!
They happen every day, but taking a look at some of these mistakes can help your business avoid them. Remember, always review and think of potential double meanings before you post.
Have you ever wondered if your social media and content marketing strategies were the best they could be?
Social media and content marketing, you see, are always changing. There are few “right answers” and best-in-class strategies for capturing leads and converting followers into customers. Instead, half the battle is using your gut to find what works best for your brand, budget, and style.
To help, we decided to compile these “I might be doing this wrong” tips to avoid common marketing pitfalls.
1. When you don’t engage with followers…
A lot of businesses on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) are so overwhelmed with creating content they forget to interact with their followers. Followers are the ones who actually promote your content, too, because each like, share, and comment boosts your post’s (on Facebook, of course) visibility.
To optimize your follower engagement, you need to check Facebook a few times a day and answer any comments and re-share and like content your followers may have posted. The same goes for blog comments.
2. When you aren’t consistent…
Consistency is key on social media and blogs. This is the only way to bring back repeat readers and eventually turn them into leads.
To stay consistent, the best advice we give our clients is to follow an editorial calendar. We create these ourselves, too, and provide clients with social media content we post throughout the week. This ensures that your channels are active and your brand is always showing up on newsfeeds.
3. When you publish subpar content…
Publishing content that is just “OK” is a bad idea. Not only does this risk the chance that followers may be displeased, it makes your brand look bad. This is why it is crucial to work ahead on editorial calendars and to create engaging, informative content.
4. When you ignore certain platforms…
Another flaw unexperienced business marketers make is to stretch themselves thin. This often happens if you are trying to engage customers on every level through multiple platforms. But when you think about it, isn’t it better to emphasize two or three marketing strategies rather than five or six?
This is why we encourage our clients to focus on only a few platforms like Facebook, WordPress, and Twitter. It is much easier to stay organized this way, too.
5. When you give up…
One of the leading reasons people give up on online marketing is when they don’t see results. The thing to remember is that it takes time and a lot of patience, especially when it comes to blogging and social media.
In the beginning, it’s often best to think of social media and content marketing as building blocks. Your first goal should be to build up a base that will later allow you to launch bigger, further-reaching campaigns that actively convert followers into customers.
By Amanda Clark
Read more at http://bit.ly/1nuHvSc
