Don’t hide your head in the sand over negative reviews
When your company gets a negative review on Yelp or some other social media, what do you do? Do you do nothing? “Nobody reads those reviews anyway.” Hiding your head in the sand is not the best social media reputation management strategy.
Bad reviews online can be bothersome. So much so, that there are business owners who deny the whole Review Site concept, at times making the unsupported comment, “They don’t work!” Here are 7 reasons for Social Media Reputation Management that will keep you from hiding your head in the sand.
- Review Sites Are Reality. Social media reputation management has become one of the most important marketing strategies in our digital age. Review sites are a real part of that, as are good and bad reviews. Bad reviews cannot be ignored. Businesses whose owners have their heads in the sand over bad reviews, are perhaps unwilling to face the reality that the bad review speaks more of their business than of the Review Site. Review sites are growing due to the positive impact of customer reviews. Reviews are appreciated by consumers, whether good or bad. Because no one wants to be burned. And everyone wants to be benefited.
- Potential Customer Benefits. The reason for social media reputation management, is to give the potential customer confirmation of the good review and context for the bad review. Your business reputation can be affected in the eyes of the public by what a reviewer says. If the reviewer has the wrong facts, you suffer. If they speak a glowing report, you soar.
- Power to Business & Customer. Why do customers spend the time making a review? Because they know the power of a review. They have had their decision influenced by reading a helpful review. So if they are burned or benefited, they will want to warn or encourage others. As a business you will want to join the conversation to give your perspective regarding the review. Social media reputation management is really a significant activity.
- Genuine Reason for Concern. At the same time, not all review sites are equal either. There are some review sites that will list your business for you – and they may or may not let you know they have done so. On these sites almost anyone can say virtually anything about the interaction they had with your business – whether it is true or not. But there are also reputable review sites whose listing of your business carries weight simply by the depth of their reputation as a review site. Reputation management minimizes the former and emphasizes the latter.
- Nugget of Realty. Another reason for social media reputation management is that quaint possibility that hidden under all that negative verbiage, there is the smallest nugget of reality and that as a business you could improve. Nobody is perfect. No business bats 100% every day. Growth itself is the correct response to business shortcomings on a daily basis.
- Money Isn’t Negative. The customer may be obnoxious and give your business a hard time. But their money still represents business. In fact, that particular negative customer represents a slice of the market that may be larger than you think. To assume that you don’t need this kind of customer is to place yourself in the position of rejecting business – a rather perilous position to take when with some simple social media reputation management strategies you can turn the whole thing around.
- Management Rises Above Negativity. When you proactively manage what others are saying of your business you are able to rise above the emotional impact that drains. Face the negative review and deal with it, if for no other reason than that unmanaged it tends to poison all thinking and disrupt all efforts. You can’t be two separate persons. You are a whole. Think badly about “that person,” and you retain within you the subtle influence of damaging thought. How much smarter to spend some moments in social media reputation management.
Social media reputation management is a great way to enhance business. Alliant is here to help. You can wash that sand right outta your hair and have a great heads up in Social Media Reputation Management. Give us a call. We’re here to help.
