Word of mouth, both positive and negative, has always had a huge impact on business success. In today's online world, one person's words can be heard by many more people than ever before. It is therefore highly important to manage your online reputation, and have some say in what is being said about your company.
However, it is easy to make mistakes when trying to manage your reputation online. Below are some common mistakes you should strive to avoid.
- Failing to respond to negative comments or reviews. You cannot please all of the people all of the time. Somebody is going to complain, and try to influence other people to avoid your business. Do not avoid these negative comments. Failure to respond implies either that you do not care whether your customers are happy, or that the claims being made are true and cannot be refuted.
- Failing to monitor your online presence. Oftentimes, the reason that business owners do not respond to negative comments is because they do not know the comments exist. Make sure that you do not have "orphan" social media accounts that you no longer manage, and check regularly to see what people are saying about you on online review sites. Google Alerts can be helpful in this regard.
- Responding defensively or angrily in an online forum. You want to respond to negative comments, but sometimes the responses themselves can paint you in a negative light. Your responses should show that you care and are willing to take whatever steps are needed to rectify the problem. With a winsome response, you can sometimes turn a negative review into a net positive for your business. See also our tips for responding to negative blog comments.
- Discussing politics, religion or other controversial topics. We live in a rather polarized society. Whatever your beliefs or opinions, it is likely that about half the people strongly agree with you--and about half strongly disagree. Now, perhaps there are issues that you feel are important enough that your business needs to speak out about them. You have the right to do so, but make sure you are aware of and willing to deal with the potential backlash.
- Having no social media policy for employees. Employees can be an advocate for your business online, or they can be a liability. You do not want to control what they say online, but you do want to talk with them about the potential impact their tweets or insider comments could have. By setting a clear social media policy, they will know exactly where the line is drawn and what is considered unacceptable.
- Posting or paying for misleading reviews. Even if the review is genuine, compensating a customer for posting a positive review is considered misleading unless they disclose that they were paid for the review. Otherwise, it can be in violation of FTC truth-in-advertising rules.
