Leveraging Social Chatter:Leveraging Social Chatter:Online Brand ReputationOnline Brand Reputation

Monitoring and ManagementMonitoring and ManagementA Wakeup CallA Wakeup Call

Gary LevineWSI Brand Reputation Expert

Agenda• Why the wakeup call now?

– Problems & opportunities

• What do you do about it?– Research & Monitor– Improve your visibility– Engage– Tools you can use

• Checklist of Next Steps

Ok, so I heard…

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, its all over the news. But they’re for kids, right?

Source: Weber Shadwick, Reputations Onlinehttp://www.online-reputations.com/findings.html

Despite overwhelming shifts in media behavior, most executives still put more weight on mainstream media channel messaging than online communities.

Fewer than 40% have Googled their own name.

The Impact of Social Networks• Half of survey respondents said they considered

information seen on their social networks when making a decision

• 65% in the 18-24 age demographic

• 25% posted links to company, product or service

Source: Bereford Research

Why a wakeup call?1. Marketers used to control the conversation: Radio, TV and print advertising was expensive and we listened because it paid for our entertainment.

2. Customer Controls the conversation: Before blogging and online social media gave every internet user a platform to publicly broadcast their observations and opinions in an instant.

The Bottom Line:

Its time to turn the megaphone around (ref. Tara Hunt, The Whuffie Factor)

3. Learn to listen or proceed at great risk

For example

Venerable brands like Pepsi and Domino’s Pizza were exposed to near-immediate criticisms on a worldwide basis.

When they listen, they can respond.

Doesn’t it work both ways?“It” does, if you do!

AlpacaDirect.com implemented an independent review service on their site, and “saw sales climb 23% on products that had reviews.”

Internet shoppers rank reviews as the most desired feature of a Web site, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research.

Learning from this Example

• No PR is bad PR– Transparency is Key

• Customer is King– Develop and Foster the culture of

• Trust• Conversation • Engagement

WHERE DO YOU START

3 Things that you can do

1. Research and monitor communications about your brand

2. Build up your brand visibility

3. Engage with customers and clients

1. RESEARCH & MONITOR

A: Check Your Name

• Research and protect your brand and trade names

• Don’t let someone else become “Facebook/YourCompany”

• KnowEm.com – free or paid

B: See where you are being found

• Do Proactive Searches:– Google– Twitter– Technorati

C: Setup monitors

• Google Alerts, RSS Feeds• Search.Twitter.com/advanced

More Sophisticated Monitoring Tools

• Monitter• Filtrbox

Now You Know Where You Are….

What Next?

2. BUILD BRAND VISIBILITY

A: Search Engine Optimize (SEO) Your Website

– Is your brand name prominent on your site?

– Is it the HTML Title of a page about you?

– Does the Description of your About page contain the brand name?

– Are your key employees or reps included on the site?

B: Local listings, profiles & social pages– Google.com/profiles– Facebook.com/pages/create.php– LinkedIn.com– ShowMeLocal

C: Publish– Blog– Press releases– YouTube video or Flickr

images

3. ENGAGE WITH CUSTOMERS AND CLIENTS: Social Chatter

A: Respond to what you hear– Respond to what you hear

B: Invite feedback–Use a 3rd Party Review Service

• “Reviews” are different from “Testimonials”–Impact of Reviews on Buying:

Marketing Experiments Journal study found the conversion rate increased from 0.47% to 0.88%, an increase of 87% when customer reviews were present

C: Allocate resources

• In house or outside service• Daily monitoring• Daily responding• Alerting and reporting

The ChecklistSurvey clients and develop your responsesCheck your Google search engine result rankings

for industry keywordsSetup daily Google AlertsStart or add to your blog: top 10 things you have

to explain over and overPick a social media site and engageAssign someone to monitor the feedback

Summary

• Research and Monitor• Build Brand Visibility• Engage with Clients

Download the Whitepaper at:

www.getWSIpowered.com/Brandreputation