In Erie, PA there is a hot topic going on about a proposal for a low income housing development in one of our Townships. HANDS, proposed a new development that would be used to house low-income people employed within the Township. But local residents in the area do not want this to happen. It comes across as if they don’t want people living close by who do not make as much money as they do, or who may have a physical disability, or suffer from a mental illness.
The discussion crossed over into my Facebook account as a subscribed “Friend” on my Facebook page made a comment that came across (whether it was intentional or not) to be prejudice in relationship to this hot topic. For a few days I watched and read the flurry of comments going back and forth, all the time shaking my head as I knew what would come down the road for this “Friend”. And just when I thought it was cooling down, the daughter of this “Friend” popped into the discussion making even worse comments and even adding exploratory swear words as well. At this point I blocked off the daughter so her comments would not be shown on my Facebook Wall, but I still wanted to continue following the discussion so I left the “Friend” access to my Wall alone.
To my surprise, the “Friend” defended her daughter (as I know is only natural) but she should not have done it within an online social site, especially an online social site that is so visibly ranked high within the top search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. From now until eternity there is a great probability that the comments that were made within this Facebook discussion will appear within someone’s search results for some reason or another by as simply as someone typing into the search box this woman’s name, or maybe only typing in a word that relates to this woman’s business. When this happens and the person doing the search feels offended by this woman’s comments then the bricks will start to fall and her business will start to feel the impact her Facebook comment actually had on her online reputation.
“Good News travels fast online. Bad news travels at the speed of light!”
Maintaining a strong online reputation is becoming increasingly more challenging as we see more social community websites popping up. It’s important for any business to track and monitor what people are saying about their company, and themselves, and how they are being perceived in the online community. Things spread like wildfire on the Internet and social media has made it crucial for companies to be on top of their reputation. It takes years to establish a business but it only takes days to wipe out a company’s reputation and tarnish them significantly as the Internet runs on digital speed.
So what can you do to monitor your online reputation? Well a lot of companies will hire someone like myself as their online reputation manager as it can take up to 20 hours a week to thoroughly track, report, engage and evaluate what is being said about a company online. But here are a few suggestions that you can start out with if you feel fairly safe that you have a good online reputation right now.
- Be sure to keep your business “friends” and your family and acquaintance “friends” separate on social sites like Facebook and Twitter.
- Never post any political or personal views within your online business social profiles.
- Be sure to track what is being said about you or your company throughout the social community by using applications like Google Alerts or Google Reader.
- If you come across a negative comment about you or your company, never let it sit longer than a week before responding back.
- Evaluate the threat level. Make sure you know the difference between a misunderstanding comment and a complaint before responding back.
- Always, always take the higher ground. Don’t criticize the person who made the comment.
- Explain how the situation or problem is being addressed.
- Indicate your willingness to take questions via email.
- Evaluate to determine if further engagement is required by you. Check to see if the negative overtone has been turned on this comment thread.
- Track negative Search Engine listings for complaint board listings based on particular keywords.
Monitoring your online reputation is an absolute pre-requisite for any business that wants to thrive in the Social Media realm. Make sure you are intune with what everyone is saying about you and your company so you have happy consumers who will naturally become your product evangelists.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can receive email alerts when new articles are available covering online media. Just click on the "Subscribe" button above.
Comments