How to Promote Your Brand by Interlinking Social Media Marketing and Online Reputation Management
Social media marketing is becoming increasingly a requirement for businesses to prosper. Most people are turning to social media and a business’s online reputation to make decisions on the product. Therefore, social media reputation management and online brand reputation management is essential.
Social media reputation is what people are saying about the business on social media, and what the business is saying in the same platform. On the other hand, online brand reputation is the presence the business has online including what is said on the business website and others sites.
Social marketing and online reputation management are becoming a requirement for brand management. As a business, you will have to manage it because it is revolutionizing the internet, as we know it. Therefore, managing your online reputation is becoming a vital task for every organization. It is important to remember brand reputation management in social media will finally impact your deliverable and sales in today’s day and age.
A recent study on the impact on social media marketing and online reputation management suggests people are more likely to give extreme reviews more than mediocre reviews of their experiences. Additionally, negative reviews are more likely to be provided by users rather than the positive ones. All of these reviews tend to influence the online reputation of a brand in the real world all thanks to its online feedback. Therefore, this points to the online reputation management in digital marketing an important part of the brand building exercise of any business.
Another survey by SDL found that many respondents tend to take promotions on social media seriously and tend to act on it. Additionally, many share experiences on online platforms such as Facebook and be inclined to look for feedback on products and services from family and friends rather than just what the brand says about itself.
It is, therefore, clear social media marketing and ORM in digital marketing are vital to any business. Therefore, businesses must ensure they focus on both parts of the digital experience while looking at your experience. The following are some of the tips that could help you promote your brand by interlinking social media marketing (SMM) and online reputation management (ORM).
Here are 15 ways to promote your brand by interlinking social media marketing and online reputation management.
1. Clean up your website: Your website is the doorway to your brand, products, and services offered. So, make sure you only share message that is accurate and managed appropriately on that website. It is vital that users that access your website know exactly what you stand for. Ensure that the messaging on all pages is consistent and is saying the same thing. A shoddy website often bores and sends potential customers away.
2. Focus on your social media presence: What you say about yourself in the social media space often gets heard more than when on any other platform. So, ensure your message is in line with your brand message. This includes the posts you post and the promotions you make using this space. Check that the communication is clean and aligned with what you are saying everywhere else, including offline. For instance, ensure that your LinkedIn profile, Facebook profile, Twitter profile all the say similar things about you.
3. Monitor: Ensure that you monitor all that is being spoken about your brand. This includes what is being said in social media and offline. Also, be sure that you are aware of what you are monitoring. On the internet right now, there are many hackers, so ensure that you are keeping an eye out for any trolls or hackers that are messing with your name and brand.
4. Use Search Engine Optimization: Search engine optimization (or SEO) is a big thing in today’s world. If you are not on top of the food chain, chances are users will forget that you even exist. Therefore, don’t miss out on search engine optimization. Not just with your website but also with your social media websites. Make sure your social media websites are on the top of the charts for your product and service when it comes to a Google search, this will increase both brand awareness and footfalls.
5. Use positive communication: Always ensure that your communication on social media or online is positive. Positive messaging always help a brand grow its fan base. So, keep the messaging as positive as possible; negative messaging or shaming your customers never helped anyone.
6. Respond to Negativity: When you get negative feedback, online on social media, don’t be afraid to respond. Brands that do not mind apologizing for their faults are better appreciated than those that delete negative comments or ignore them. So, ensure that you respond to them with politeness; and if you are in fact at fault, then go ahead and apologize gracefully.
7. The Problem of Plenty: Often business tends to think they must be available for all kinds of online platforms. Do not make the mistake of doing that. Often it is better that you figure out which platform better suits your audiences and invest in that whole-heartedly. Do not try using all platforms, instead, have an SMM strategy and do that well. Not only will customers take you more seriously they will also know where to go for answers related to your brand.
8. Engage with your audiences: These days, with the multiple options available for every product, often your audiences may forget that you even exist if you do not have high visibility for their needs. Therefore, this is vital to keep them engaged. However, ensure that you engage just enough not overtly that they get annoyed with your appearance in their screen.
9. Communicate consistent messages: Though you may address your audiences using different platforms, see to it that the communication you send out on all of these platforms, though tailor-made for different platforms, communicates the same information. Customers may be confused with multiple messaging from different platforms and may not know what you are expecting of them.
10. Listen to your customers: When you get feedback online, do listen to your customer. A lot of brands have fallen by the wayside because they created a product or service but did not bother to listen to customer feedback or what the customers wanted from the product. Ensure you have your ears on the ground as far as customer feedback is considered and the kind of features they require and how they want your brand to perform.
11. Do not be afraid to protect your reputation: There are trolls all over the internet as specified earlier. There are people that are trying to duplicate brands, impersonate pages and brands, and worse tarnish brand images. Do not be afraid to protect yourself and your brand from these kinds of menaces. Take all the steps legally available to you to protect the sanctity of your brand and brand image.
12. Pay attention to your first impression: When SEO is done and you have a landing page that Google pulls out as your representative, ensure that it is a work of art. First impressions mean a lot in the internet age. So, it is important that your landing pages are attractive, impressive and effective. If you do not get your end user in the first look, chances are he or she will go elsewhere for the same product or service.
13. Be transparent: Transparency is becoming increasingly important in the world that is all about sharing information. So ensure that you are transparent in terms of what your product or service entails in your social and online communications. That will develop trust with your organization and brand.
14. Connect your networks: Do not let your communications stay in isolation. Ensure that all your online efforts are connected while ensuring they are communicating the similar thing. Also, all your platforms should be linked to each other to ensure you send out the messaging at the same time between all these platforms.
15. Hire professionals: There always comes a time in the lifetime of a business when you should consider hiring a professional to do your SMM and ORM. They typically know how the market functions and can provide you the right kind of advice to protect and promote your brand reputation online.
Finally, it is safe to say that social media marketing and online reputation management is taking the forefront of most businesses that want to succeed in this age. So, it is best that this part of the business is taken care of with precaution and care from the start so that the image of the brand is not damaged by external forces or in advent ignorance.
It is very important to monitor both your social media marketing to make it more effective from your competitors and ensure that your online reputation is instead with what you want to communicate to the world as a business. So ensure that your monitor and follow up on both these aspects and remember when you focus on them both they work better for you.