Showing posts with label Social Listening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social Listening. Show all posts

Monday, October 29, 2018

Maintain YOUR Social Media Brand Reputation?


How to take care of your brand reputation on social media..

What is the importance of brand reputation on social media, and how does one keeping it safe and sound? Read on for more.



Social media has changed the way we see the world and the way we look at brands.

Brands need to fight constantly for their positions, and one careless move can cost them a lot. For many, social media is a chance to sparkle, and they're successfully managing a great presence.

Others, however, are afraid of even entering the social arena since it's not all fun and games. It requires lots of time and full-on procedures to build brand awareness. The road can get really bumpy if they don't care about their online brand reputation.

So, today I will show you the importance of online brand reputation and the ways of keeping it "safe and sound."




--90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a particular business.
--49% of consumers need a 4-star (or higher) rating to choose a particular business.
--97% of consumers search online for local businesses.

There are also four things that a good brand reputation helps with:

--Trust: Audiences trust brands with a spot-on reputation.
--Credibility: In the eyes of customers or employees the brand seems to be more credible when they have a flawless brand reputation.
--Profit: All brand reputation activities can impact revenue.
--Talent: Brand reputation leads to brand awareness and a desire to join the workplace.

Brand reputation is not a buzzword! It can drive your results and sales and impact brand awareness, but not always in a positive way. And social media is a "slippery dance-floor" for brands if they don't know how to "dance."



Be Consistent

Social media, when used well, really delivers.

Prepare a strategy of what to post and where. Show your strengths and the story behind your product. Care about the quality of your communication and the message you provide. Analyse your performance, to ensure that your brand is going in the right direction on social media.

Regular posting can help to gain trust and credibility by building brand recognition.

Once your brand is recognizable, you need to put more focus on brand reputation to maintain what you already gained. However, you will also need to be then responsive.



Be Responsive

Social media is not about talking at people; it is about talking with people. You need to be responsive to them! To do this successfully, you need to make the following checklist:

--Have you made a timetable of duties for your team? What happens to messages, comments and reviews left over the weekend? Is there anyone there to answer them?
--Have you prepared a social media playbook with procedures for crisis management? Do you know what to do, and what to answer when a crisis escalates, or even when a single neutral message appears?
--Have you set up KPIs for response time? Customers hate waiting for answers on social media - they need to have it almost immediately. If they don't, they may prefer your competitor instead.



Social Listening

Monitor brand mentions.

According to this RadiumOne survey, over 67% of brand mentions go on in "dark social" - i.e. emails, forums, and apps. While social media platforms are essential, you shouldn’t forget the rest of the internet.

Monitoring mentions can prevent a crisis, or identify brand ambassadors you had no clue about.

It can also show you the sentiment, the context, and the places where your brand is mentioned the most.



Personal Branding

Does personal branding really matter for your brand reputation? Oh boy, yes it does! That is why so many CEO's are in love with their privacy settings. But all employees should also be careful about what they post, and what they say about the company they work for.

There have been quite a few cases where an employee impacted a company's brand reputation. In my opinion, the most tricky topic on social media is politics, and it's perhaps not always worth taking a political discussion public. Whatever you say about your brand matters and the Internet is not about to forget about it. That's a reason screenshots exist.

It doesn't matter if you are in the C-suite or just a junior assistant. Try to provide value on social media when it comes to the brand you are connected to. Everyone loves parties, but if you party too hard, maybe it’s better to keep some photos to yourself - or configure your privacy settings beforehand.



Social Proof

Reviews, oh dear... reviews.

Be responsive and answer all of them, no matter if they appear on Facebook, Tripadvisor or Booking.com.

Remember that people are more likely to leave negative reviews (and put off other people) than leave a few kind words.

Be thankful for all of them, and regard them as valuable feedback, answer their doubts and requests. Don’t get offended, and try not to take them personally. You can turn complaints into an amazing customer experience.



Influencer Marketing

Last but not least, a topic we covered recently. Influencers can become your brand ambassadors and can affect the reputation of your brand a lot. If they are chosen wisely, you shouldn’t be worried. However, if you selected random people without checking their stats first, you can be in trouble, and your brand can be hurt.

Keeping your brand reputation in good form is not a single activity - it is a constant process that pays off in the end! Brands that can show off with an excellent online reputation are well-loved, trusted, and deliver better results. Look around.

Guest Authored By Kinga Odziemek. Kinga is a Social Media Designer. Social Media is her blood type. Follow Kinga on Twitter.





How many brands do you know that have a good reputation? Is your brand like them? If not, our guide may help you! -KingaOdziemek


    • Post Crafted By:
      Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, CO. where I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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    Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

    Tuesday, August 29, 2017

    2018 Future Social Media Trends?


    When it comes to reaching audiences, effectively distributing your content, and building a following around your brand, social media offers a wealth of possibilities.

    It's where your audiences already live and engage with content, which makes it a convenient platform for brands. Its built-in analytics allow you to track and improve your efforts over time. Plus, all the free social-media tools make it easy to use and maintain an active presence.



    As you look ahead to 2018 and begin planning for ways to strengthen your social strategy, it's important to keep a pulse on trends. To help, here are six social-media trends you need to prepare for if you want to hit the ground running in 2018:

    1. More robust social analytics signal more opportunity for content personalization.

    Nobody likes content that's irrelevant to one's needs. This is especially true when you're interacting with a brand you know and love -- the last thing you want is a piece of generic content that doesn't offer anything unique to you as a member of that audience. In fact, nearly three out of four of us get frustrated when content isn't relevant to our interests.

    Improved personalization for audiences is a major trend in content marketing, and it extends to social media, too. As social platforms evolve, their analytics tools and business-specific features will become more detailed and valuable to brands.

    This kind of data means marketers will have the insights to craft better and more personalized content for their audiences. It's past time for marketers to be creating and distributing content that truly speaks to and engages audiences on a personal level; social media will help make that easier.



    2. Platform feature overlap means you'll have to be more selective.

    Both Snapchat and Instagram feature timed videos and visual content, so the main points of differentiation are audience and reach.

    Instagram Stories has a significantly wider reach and receives more engagement; Instagram influencers see up to 10 percent of their audience members open their Instagram Stories on a daily basis, which is more than can be said for Snapchat.

    On the other hand, Snapchat continues to dominate among members of younger demographics.

    As more platforms continue to offer overlapping features, brands and marketers will have to be increasingly selective about which ones they invest in. Take advantage of analytics and reporting features to identify which platforms could offer you the best return, and start there.



    3. Social listening will give brands an edge to their messaging online.

    Instead of just tracking what kind of content your competitors are developing or what they're sharing on social media, you should also monitor their mentions and what people are saying -- and use it as a metric to compare your performance.

    "Using web monitoring, we can collect an enormous amount of data on our company and our competitors that can be used in our marketing strategy. At Brand24, our research showed that in one month, 14,000 online searches started with 'Can anyone recommend?' and about 30,000 searches started with 'Where can I buy?' About 60 percent of these questions never received responses from companies; this is a huge opportunity," says Magdalena Urbaniak, global communications manager at Brand24.

    Urbaniak says monitoring these social mentions can show you what people in your shared audience like and don't like, which can give you insight into where your brand can improve. Social listening can give you valuable information about your competitors' performance and your own audience that you can use to your advantage in your content strategy.


    4. Video will only take a stronger place in content strategy.

    Everyone and his mother knows that video content is popular and, therefore, important for brands. And as social algorithms keep updating, video will only grow more valuable for generating engagement and building your following.

    In fact, in our experience at Influence & Co., videos on Facebook receive higher engagement; we see more people commenting on them, and they get more likes and more shares. Facebook's reporting features let us know how video content performs compared to our other posts, and you can't deny how good video is at engaging audiences.

    Instagram's Stories feature and Snapchat's entire platform also give brands the chance to create video content and share it immediately with their followers. Obviously, video is only becoming more important. Having the ability to create that kind of content -- and the strategy to tie it to your written content for your blog and outside publications -- will be critical for brands in 2018.



    5. Facebook is becoming almost entirely mobile.

    By 2020, it's predicted that 59 percent of U.S. users will access Facebook through mobile exclusively, and 80 percent of the company's ad revenue already comes from mobile ads.

    Facebook was one of the last social media platforms that wasn't really designed from the beginning to be on mobile.

    Looking at popular apps like Instagram and Snapchat, we've seen the trend of mobile-only (or mostly mobile) social apps for a while.

    Sure, mobile optimization has been an industry best practice for savvy marketers for a while, but with Facebook not far from being dominated by mobile use, brands will (finally) have no excuse for creating or distributing content that's not optimized for mobile.



    6. Chatbots will make customer service faster and easier.

    Instant connection and widespread internet access have conditioned us to want things yesterday or, when that's not possible, in the next five minutes. Unfortunately, I've seen this prompt a lot of brands to do one of two things: respond so quickly that mistakes are made and service quality suffers, or freeze in their tracks because they're not quite sure how to meet this demand for speed.

    That's part of what makes chatbots -- especially through Facebook Messenger -- so valuable. Chatbots give you the chance to interact quickly with your audience in a way that feels personal; you can customize your brand voice and send personalized content directly to users. Maybe that's why there are at least 100,000 monthly active bots on Facebook Messenger -- and the reason two billion messages are exchanged between brands and their audiences each month. If you aren't already, 2018 might be the year to test chatbots for your business.

    Guest Authored By John Hall. John is CEO and Founder of Influence & Co, Author of Top of Mind, and Expert Speaker. He's a columnist for Forbes and Inc. Follow John on Twitter.

    Related Article: The Future Of Social Media?



    “Social media presents so many opportunities for marketers to connect with audiences, create and distribute better content, and build their brands (and their following).

    To take advantage of all that opportunity, you've got to understand that these shifts happen frequently, so staying ahead of the trends is imperative.

    We're only four months away from 2018, so what are you planning for??" -John Hall


      • Authored by:
        Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at YourWorldBrand.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
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      Location: Loveland, CO 80538, USA

      Thursday, January 26, 2017

      Shut Up And Listen Social Media?


      What do you consider social media marketing? For most businesses and brands, the answer is simple: an opportunity to publish relevant content, grow your follower base, and generate both thought leadership and engagement..



      But what if we told you that in limiting yourself to this definition, you're missing out on what might be the most important part of social media marketing?



      Every day, countless members of your target audience discuss topics that relate to your brand, either directly or indirectly. They don't care whether you hear about it or not, and they're not taking special steps to comment and discuss their topics of interest on your social media channels.

      To engage this audience, you have to know where to find these conversations, and how to engage with them. In other words, you have to engage in social listening. It sounds reasonable, but only few brands do it; in fact, only 24% of businesses engaged in social listening in 2015. Don't be one of those people, and build you social listening strategy using these 5 steps.

      1. Prioritize Social Listening

      Should you really spend a significant part of your resources browsing through social media posts rather than posting your own? While most brands understand the general value of social listening, they don't quite get just how important it can be to business success. The answer to that question, though, is a clear yes.


      Consider Twitter. Of all the Tweets about your brand, only 30% actually include your Twitter handle. Even more importantly, only 9% use the @ in addition to your handle. In other words, 91% of updates that you should know about will never show up in your notifications. If you don't search for them yourself, you may never know about them.

      In addition, if your goal is to grow your brand awareness, you should think beyond your brand and toward your industry. Experienced content marketers already know about the importance of reaching beyond promotion and toward thought leadership.


      If you can find relevant discussions within your industry, the value of injecting thoughtful and valuable information without directly selling your product is immense. Of course, that's impossible to do if you don't know how to find these conversations.

      2. Find Relevant Keywords

      Once you and your team understand the true importance of social listening, it's time to build a strategy that helps you structuralize and scale the process. Similar to SEO, building that strategy begins with finding the keywords and phrases your audience regularly discusses.


      Naturally, that keyword list should include the various iterations, abbreviations, and even misspellings of your brand name. The more variations of your name you can come up with that members of your audience may actually search for, the less likely a comment about your product or service will slip through your cracks.


      In addition, begin to research industry-specific phrases that tend to encourage discussion. A graduate school looking for potential students, for example, may want to begin listening to keywords such as graduate school, grad school application, and goal statement (a crucial part of the application process).

      Finally, consider including keywords for your competitors, as well. You may not want to directly engage with all of the conversations concerning your competition, but it's valuable to understand the greater discussion not just around you, but your entire competitive environment.

      3. Use the Right Tools

      Social listening would be impossible without a number of tools that can help you conduct automated searches through social media for the keywords you found above. Fortunately, a number of services can help you streamline that process without a significant time investment.


      Some social media management tools, like HubSpot and HootSuite, offer integrated listening services. Others, like Social Mention, are free but require manual searches. Yet others, like Keyhole and NUVI offer more comprehensive, dashboard-based services for a fee. This list provides a more comprehensive overview of the best listening services available for your brand.


      4. Create an Engagement Strategy

      Of course, even the best keywords and tools matter little if you don't know what to do once you actually find relevant discussions for your brand. That's why the majority of your time should be spent not listening, but responding to the relevant conversations you find on social media.

      To streamline that process, create an engagement strategy. You will find all types of comments, from complaints to praises, comparisons, and general industry discussions. Create a rubric that allows you to be strategic about the best response to each type of comment.

      You should also be strategic about the various networks on which these discussions might occur. A comment on LinkedIn, for example, requires a very different type of response than a Tweet. Understanding the medium should be a core part of how you engage with each user.



      5. Evaluate and Adjust

      Finally, as is the case with any type of marketing efforts, build your social listening strategy in a way that allows for adjustments over time. Not every response will be viewed favorably. Some users may feel they are intruded upon, while others will use it as an opportunity to lash out at your brand. Keep track of your wins and losses over time, in order to better understand how you can best treat each individual comment.

      In addition, give yourself the opportunity to adjust your keyword strategy overtime. If you find that some keywords never seem to gain any traction, eliminate them from your reports. On the other hand, if you keep coming across keywords you're not tracking yet, add them. That way, you can be sure that when a discussion relevant to your brand occurs on social media, you at least know about it.

      Guest Authored By Mike Templeman. Mike is an entrepreneur and writer who is passionate about startups and marketing. He's also the founder of Foxtail Marketing, a digital demand generation firm that is one of the fastest growing agencies in the country. When he's not working, writing, or speaking, he enjoy watching 80's action movies and spending time with his family. Follow Mike on Twitter. Follow Mike on Twitter.





      "Given the weight we give others' opinions on social media, it's baffling to see just how few brands prioritize social listening as part of their social media marketing.

      At the same time, it's also an invaluable opportunity: by creating a strategy around it, you can get a leg up on your competition and more effectively reach your target audience.."

        • Authored by:
          Fred Hansen Pied Piper of Social Media Marketing at GetMoreHere.com & CEO of Millennium 7 Publishing Co. in Loveland, Colorado. I work deep in the trenches of social media strategy, community management and trends.  My interests include; online business educator, social media marketing, new marketing technology, skiing, hunting, fishing and The Rolling Stones..-Not necessarily in that order ;)
        Follow Me Yonder..                     Instagram
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