6 Quick-Fix Tips For Reputation Repair

When you launch a business, your company’s reputation is kind of like the pristine snow at the top of a steep, beautiful mountain – it’s all smooth and glistening and free of dirt.
But then a careless skier or snowmobiler comes along and carves ruts into the snow, leaving behind a scarred landscape that’s really tough to repair.

In some cases, this unthinking individual triggers a landslide that starts slowly, but gains momentum fast. Before you know it, your company’s reputation is plunging downhill and quickly roars out of control.

Unless you police the top of your mountain regularly – and have safety procedures in place early – you run the risk of losing your innocence really fast. And, once it’s gone, your business reputation is hard to get back.

A friend of mine once told me how his company, a dieting website, had discovered a series of negative food reviews on a third-party website. By the time this trash talk was discovered, it had grown into a substantial string of rambling complaints. Company officials rallied and decided to fight fire with fire.

The company’s social media director reached out to a dozen or so existing customers and asked each of them to write about their experiences with the company. Many of these customers – satisfied with the dieting website – responded to the request, posting their positive reviews on the site where the negative feedback had originally erupted.

The end result: the onslaught of positive reviews appeared at the top of the thread, successfully pushing the negative reviews “down” and out of sight – unless a reader scrolled quite a way through the deep snow.

A reactive strike can work, but you’re far better off being proactive in your push for positive online play.

I have had a hand in launching over 500 products. Not all have been greeted with ticker tape parades or It’s a Wonderful Life outpourings of love and devotion.

Over the years I’ve learned it’s better to craft the way the world is going to view you and your company (or product) than to sit back and hope the glowing reviews come rolling in.
Social media allows anyone with a bone to pick to launch an attack and shine an unflattering light on you and your business. The surge of social media is partly responsible for the fact that online reputation management (ORM) is now a $5 billion industry. There are hundreds of companies devoted to monitoring, repairing, improving, and policing the reputations of individuals and businesses.

If you build reputation building into your business plan, you can avoid the hassle and cost of reacting to a negative campaign down the road. Building a positive online reputation is critical for your business.

How many times have you rushed to Google or Bing to research a company or individual? When others head to the search engines to check you out, you want to do all you can to make sure the majority of what they find is positive in nature.

If you haven’t done this lately, Google your business name (and your name) and check out the first-page results. Congratulations, if what you find is accurate and positive in nature.
If the results are not so great, it’s time to get reactive and start working to fix the damage. 

For startups and entrepreneurs, there are steps to take before you launch your business. A good creative approach can be:

1. Create Google Alerts for your company, products, and top executives.
2. Create social profiles on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Tumblr, and Pinterest.
3. Create a public relations strategy and use it frequently.
4. Create positive postings for the major social media outlets.
5. Create a YouTube channel and populate it early and often.
6. Create an online forum and closely monitor what’s being posted there.

WARNING: While it’s hard not to respond to a basher, I urge you to step back, breathe deep and avoid such an online confrontation. The usual end result of such a direct response is that the negative posting remains high in search results and you often come away without the vindication you seek. You MUST control the arena in which you defend yourself or your company.

Here is what you don’t want to do – flood the web with phony news releases, accolades, awards, or customer reviews. A savvy consumer can smell a rotten egg very quickly; a savvy journalist can use that rotten egg to whip up a nasty omelet of negativity.
If you find yourself unable or unwilling to put up the good fight, then by all means turn to a respected reputation control company. But do your homework first. There are many firms anxious to make a buck on your best intentions.

As I said before, reputation repair is big business. The Wild West of the Internet allows people to roll into your town and trigger chaos – warranted or not. There has been a major jump in devious efforts to cast aspersions against good companies or good products. Frankly, it’s an easy thing to do.

What can you do if your online reputation has been damaged?

1. Own up to your indiscretions. You can’t be blindsided if you control the story from the start. Be honest and spell out the circumstances surrounding a blemish on your record or your company’s history.

2. Apologize. When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. And there’s nothing the public loves more than a public apology. Just be sure you sound sincere rather than defiant or defensive. Then get back to business and make sure there’s no more dirt to dig up.

3. Seek and destroy. We’re talking about the source of pain – not the competition or person who may have uncovered an issue with you or your company. It’s not always easy to have a damning post or video removed from the web, but it is in your best interest to work your butt off to do just that.

4. Take control. Review the creative strategy we laid out above and start working on it. The best way to polish a reputation is to do so on your own terms. Make sure you roll out positive news and content on a regular basis. It’ll make it harder for anyone with a grudge to ruin your reputation.

So, make today the day you take control of your good name and do all you can to prevent an avalanche of bad publicity. Like Richard Branson said: “Your brand name is only as good as your reputation.”

Article curated from Forbes

Want Better Marketing? Take a Note From Bill Murray (Yes, Really)

Bill Murray stated that your ads should suck less. Here he and Inc. columnists share how you can make them do just that. 

 

In a live thread conversation on Reddit last week, Bill Murray (the actor) responded to a marketing presentation: "Making Ads Suck Less (Or Why Brands Should Be More Like Bill Murray)".  Here was his exact response:

"Well I don't know if brands should be more like Bill Murray, but there's no question they should suck less. I think if you just hold that thought in front of yourself, like a marching brand trumpet player has the music mounted on his trumpet, about how to make ads suck less, then that will inform your daily life. It will be the last thing you think before you go to bed, and the first thing you think about in the morning, and you will add up the cumulative data of which ads are bearable to you, which ads you respond to. Ads aren't bad in themselves. It's just the attitude. We all have to go to the store, we all have to have groceries, but there's a way to sell you things to make the exchange more of a human one. Sometimes you buy things from someone because you like their style. They watch with some fascination about the way YOU choose. If you think the ad will work backwards to what you're trying to tell them in the first place."

Murray has managed his brand successfully through five decades, gaining respect in comedy, drama, TV, film, stage and standup--no easy feat. In fact, the first year he was on Saturday Night Live, he was struggling to get approval after replacing the breakout stardom of Chevy Chase. In a bold move he wrote and performed a brilliant monologue where he confronted the audience directly, admitting that he sucked and wasn't very funny.  The irony of him seriously apologizing and vowing to do better won him laughs and popularity, sending him on to a lifetime of opportunity and adoration.

Want to make your marketing suck less? Do like Murray: Own it, improve it and be transparently human about it. And if that doesn't work, follow his lead and at least attempt some humor.

Here are additional insights from my Inc. colleagues.

1. Be True to What You Do
The mistakes made most often in marketing communication are targeting the message to everyone, and changing messaging too abruptly. Instead, you should focus on your best customer, speak only to them, and pay careful attention to when your customer is changing so you can keep up.
 
Bill Murray has done this throughout his career.  He has stayed true to his talents and his fans, taking on roles that made sense and fit his overall body of work.  In doing so, he has remained relevant, which is difficult to do in the ever-changing world of Hollywood and pop culture.

Your company can do the same by understanding how your best customers perceive your brand and the products or services you provide.  Use this knowledge to build marketing communications that fit within this perception and to create products and services that are natural extensions of your core.  
Eric Holtzclaw--Lean Forward

2. Let the Consumer Have Choice
When ads suck, it's for a simple reason: The advertiser isn't on the customer's side. So many seem intended to deceive or annoy. "Your computer may be at risk--click here!" is a notorious example. But what about an ad for a "free" article that turns out to be nothing more than a promotional piece for your paid service? Or the dreaded "Your page will load in 15 seconds." Do customers want to spend those 15 seconds watching your ad? Or have you turned into the enemy? Better to offer real information or entertainment and let consumers choose when to consume it. That's how ads stop sucking. 
Minda Zetlin--Start Me Up

3. Give Worthwhile Value
Most ads do indeed suck, and one of my personal joys in life is skipping TV ads with my TiVo. However, sometimes an online ad will catch my eye, and there's a reason why: because it's actually worth watching. So, what makes an ad worth watching to me? First it's got to have an immediate hook that grabs my attention. Second, once my attention is grabbed, then it's got to be entertaining--it has to be funny or dramatic or show me something I'm really interested in. Third, it's got to be relevant to ME. I'm not going to watch even the most entertaining ad in the world for Spanx--just doesn't float my boat. So advertisers, give me something worth watching and I'll watch. Anything less, and I'll use my remote to click right on by.  
Peter Economy - The Management Guy

4. Put on Your Customer Cap
The key to making your marketing suck less is to take off your marketing / business cap and put on your customer cap. We're all customers as well as entrepreneurs--so put yourself in the shoes of your customer. Ask, "If I saw this ad (or tweet, or email, etc.) would I click the "Like" button? Would I share this, retweet this, or comment?" If the answer is yes, great! If the answer is no, then your marketing sucks, and it's time to try again.  
Dave Kerpen--Likeable Leadership     
 
 Article curated from Inc. Magazine

Protecting Your Online Reputation: 3 Key Tasks Your Business Must Complete

Fake Internet reviews and attack websites are becoming more and more common.  For example, John Wender, a Manhattan architect, recently filed a $1.25 million defamation lawsuit against his ex-lover who he claims created a web posting stating that “he sleeps with anything that moves.”  These kind of “ex-file” attacks are appearing on websites ranging from ripoffreport.com, thedirty.com, Yelp.com, to Google Places, let alone the standard customer service rantings on Twitter or Facebook. There are literally thousands of websites appearing that make it seemingly appropriate and legal to trash a business or individual’s reputation online.

In a recent project, Cyber Investigation Services performed a study on dentists in a variety of local markets. They found the average dentist had an average of only four reviews of their business, but the website on which the reviews appeared ranked very highly when you Google searched the dentists’ company names.  The chart below shows the number of top 30 dentists in the Gainesville, Florida market, indicates that most dental practices have very few reviews.

The downside of having only a few reviews is that a single bad review, whether from a legitimate customer or a disgruntled attacker, can have a profound impact on a potential client’s perception when they are doing their online homework about the services they intend to use.

I recently spoke with Dr. Chris Anderson of Cyber Investigation Services (CIS) about this problem. CIS was founded in 2010 to help clients who come under attack on the Internet. Today they receive more than 5,000 requests for help every year.

Dr. Anderson shared an example of a physician he helped to deal with an unfair attack against him on Yelp.  The doctor was being falsely accused of sexual misconduct in three different prominent reviews, all submitted by anonymous parties. The reviews were written in a way to make it appear as though they were coming from three separate people who were chiming in with their comments. Unfortunately, like many professional practices the doctor’s office had only one positive review online outside of this issue.

It’s easy to understand that having only four reviews, three of which are not only bad but accuse you of sexual misconduct, would be the kiss of death for a business. Fortunately, Anderson’s company was able to determine it was a disgruntled ex-employee had posted the phony reviews. The problem was quickly resolved and the antagonist now faces a lawsuit.

The best steps a business owner can take to protect their brand from these types issues, Anderson says, boils down to three steps: Protection, Monitoring and Defense.

1. Protection. First, businesses need a program to regularly encourage satisfied customers to write reviews. From there they need to build out additional content on the Internet so that positive material eventually occupies their first page results on Google.  As I have pointed out in previous articles as well, Anderson notes that is much more effective to focus attention on prevention than on trying to fix the situation entirely after a negative situation occurs. Anderson also notes that these actions of protection also serve as positive marketing and substantially helps a business’ credibility when potential customers “Google” their brand. He also notes there are additional advanced protective techniques available that small-mid companies should consider such as requiring employees and sometimes even customers to sign contracts ensuring that they won’t post detrimental materials to the web.

2. Monitoring. On the topic of monitoring, Anderson stresses the importance of uncovering online problems quickly. Entrepreneurs can frequently solve problems easily if they find the issue right away, but issues become much more difficult or even impossible to deal with as time goes by. In his practice, Anderson has seen businesses sometimes wait until they’ve lost 50% or more of revenues before they come in to seek professional help.  At that point there is much less remedy available because of the age of the material. Anderson recommends doing a complete scan of your brand name weekly to include first page results and review sites. I would suggest going further still by putting a Google search in place that brings forward new mentions of your company’s name instantly, as quick as the new items appear.

3. Defense. According to Anderson, the hardest issue of all lies in defending your brand when you come under attack. Suppose you wake up tomorrow and find something negative online about you or your business. It is sticking out like a sore thumb and the material is 100% fictitious. What do you do?

Anderson suggests the first step is to take a deep breath. The moment you become aware of an online problem is invariably scary. You will feel helpless but will also feel a strong need to act quickly. This is a scenario where PR and reputation management counsel is necessary, but in short, you need to rationally assess your ability to handle the issue.

According to Anderson, your options include the following:

• Doing nothing
• Crafting a polished written response
• Trying to resolve the issue with the poster
• Asking the website to step in
• Identifying an anonymous poster
• Using legal letters to threaten the poster
• Filing a lawsuit to seek damages and force removal

If you (or your team) react badly, you can quickly make matters worse. Your decision may feel a bit like a high-stakes game of poker.

Article curated from Forbes

How To Get More Positive Reviews

Consumers rely on online reviews when making purchasing decisions. 90% claim that reading a positive review online influenced their buying decision. A whopping 85% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses.

The Harvard Business School did a study that focused on online reviews for restaurants, and found that a one star increase in Yelp rating led to a 5 – 9 percent increase in revenue. And Cornell University found that a hotel can get away with increasing its price up to 11.2 percent with each one-point increase in its review score.

Just last week, the New York Times reported on how user reviews are making consumers smarter, helping us make better purchase decisions, but it is also making marketers more savvy. The article shared insights from a Stanford study that looked at how consumers use Amazon reviews when purchasing. Technology gives consumers power, but it gives marketers data.

Businesses, large and small, should be concerned about how they are reviewed online because consumers take reviews seriously. “One should have systems in place to ensure that a couple of negative reviews don’t harm their business,” notes Vedran Tomic, local Internet marketing expert and the co-founder of Local Ants, LLC.

It takes more than awareness and concern to tackle the complicated online review ecosystem.

Customer-Centric Culture

Of course, the best defense against negative reviews online is making sure they never happen. Easier said than done. Whether you’re a one-man-band or a big corporation, your goal should always be providing the best customer service possible. You can use tools like FreshDesk or ZenDesk to manage the customer service process.

Every customer that experiences remarkable customer service will tell their family and friends about your business. They might also provide you with a great review.

If you have employees, make sure that they know what great customer service means for your business. Put it up on walls, send emails about it – train your employees to provide remarkable customer service. I’m sure you have read about Zappos and its incredible customer satisfaction and service.

However, even if you make great customer service a pillar of your company’s culture, bad reviews are bound to happen.

The Harsh Reality – How To Deal With Negative Reviews

“There are really only two types of local businesses in this brave new world: those that have gotten a negative review and those that will. If that negative review is the only thing that potential customers see about your business there is no doubt they will choose a different one. And a business owner has two choices on how to deal with this new review reality: ignore it and face the consequences or approach it proactively and start giving all of your customers a voice in how your business is perceived,” says Mike Blumenthal, the co-founder of Get5Stars and a local search expert.

If you’ve been in business for a considerable amount of time, you will be faced with negative reviews. After great customer service, your best line of defense is to make sure your good reviews outweigh the bad. As the New York Times piece pointed out – most reasonable people are going to discount the gushing, positive accolades and the scathing negative customer who expects you to give him or her the moon.

Right after you receive a negative review, you should try to identify the customer and do everything in your power to make things right. Under no circumstances should you confront the customer publicly, even if they’re using insulting or derogatory language.
Too many small business make a mistake of defending themselves and not acknowledging their mistake, sometimes even threatening the customer with legal action. This type of behavior makes the situation much worse – without exceptions.

Are You Aware Of Your Online Reputation?

The technology to monitor and track online reviews is affordable and easily accessible. Online review monitoring tools such as ReviewTrackers.com are easy to use. I think the $29/month for Review Trackers is a bargain, but if not; you can use Google Alerts to monitor the web for mentions of their business name, products and/or key people – for free. One of my favorite tools is a site called: KnowEm which lets you search for your name or your brand across just about every social network on the planet.

How To Get More Positive Reviews

Increasing the number of positive reviews is both delicate and important. Some review platforms don’t encourage review solicitations and faking reviews can cost you more than your business reputation. The State of New York even prosecuted an SEO company that was selling fake reviews. Yelp has filed a lawsuit against a law firm for planting fake reviews on their platform.

Instead of incentivizing your customers to give you a positive review, you can take a survey-based approach to online reviews. Send surveys to your customers, asking them about their experience with your company, and use this data to improve your customer service operations.

Mr. Tomic advised that you should only occasionally ask your customers if they would like to share their experiences online. Give them plenty of options and make it extremely easy for them to leave a review.

Article curated from Forbes

Facebook echoes Twitter, launches trending topics with explanations

 

In a move that echoes Twitter, Facebook is adding a feature to its service that lets users know the topics of discussion that are trending among the site's 1.2 billion users, whether it's the death of a world leader or the Oscars.

Users in the U.S., U.K., India, Canada and Australia will begin seeing a list of trending topics on the right side of their Facebook pages in coming weeks. It will be available in more countries later on.

Trending topics won't be available on the mobile version of Facebook, but the company said it is testing the feature in its app for smartphones and tablet computers.

Facebook, which signaled last year that it would introduce trending topics at some point, said Thursday that the topics people see will be tailored to the user's interests and location. On Thursday afternoon, two users saw topics that included the Academy Awards, American Idol and Republican Sen. David Vitter from Louisiana.

Unlike Twitter, which simply lists topics, Facebook's trending section explains why a particular topic is trending. In this case, the 2014 Academy Award nominations were announced, American Idol named new judges and promised a new attitude and Vitter introduced a bill that would require people show photo IDs to make purchases with food stamps.

Chris Stuhar, a software engineer at Facebook who works on the site's news feed, said the feature is designed to uncover the most interesting content across the site and fits into the company's broader effort to make Facebook "your personal newspaper."

Facebook is already seen as a place where users go to find out what their friends and family are up to. Stuhar said learning that a friend got married or discovering what his friends are doing on a Friday night is "certainly news," but Facebook has a "much broader vision of where we want news feed to go in the future."

Facebook's new feature represents another move onto Twitter's turf. Right now, Twitter is seen as the place people go to have public conversations about events as they happen, whether that's live TV, sports or news. Mirroring Twitter, Instagram and other services, Facebook in June introduced hashtags, the number signs that identify topics being discussed and that allow users to search for them.

Article curated from Newsday

How to Attract the Right Kind of Twitter Audience

 

In his book Tweet Naked, online marketing expert and Social Media Firm CEO Scott Levy provides the critical information entrepreneurs need to craft a social media strategy that will boost their brand and their business. In this edited excerpt, the author offers tips that can help you figure out how you want the world to view your brand.
 
While some large, national companies, like McDonald's, are happy to have followers from anywhere and everywhere, smaller, niche businesses can benefit greatly from reaching people and growing a following in their own industry. A small business in a specific town, city or region, such as a spa that can only serve 50 people a week, may benefit more from a select local following than a mass following of 100,000 people from all over the world that it could never accommodate.

You need to decide whether your strategy is to build local leads, a national following, or international branding and visibility. It's important to keep a few things in mind when building a following:

• Your potential reach as a business. Are you trying to brand locally or internationally?
• Your resources. How much time and money do you have to monitor--or have your staff monitor--your social media activities and interact with followers? If you have numerous followers on Twitter but have no time (or interest) in responding to them, you'll lose them as brand supporters.
• The type of product or service you offer. If you're a software manufacturer, for example, you'll want to reach as many people as possible. But if you're selling high-end furnishings, you may be better served with a smaller following of top designers and those who can appreciate and afford your goods.

Here are 10 easy ways to build a following:

1. Have an excellent photo, bio and profile. Every form of social media lets you provide some information about yourself. Make sure your Twitter profile and bio includes a succinct mix of who you are and what you do, but do not sell! Your photo should be a nice close-up of you alone--preferably sporting a smile. Make sure the photo is clear and close; if it was taken from 50 feet away, your face will look like a dot on mobile devices. And leave the photos of family and friends to your Facebook page.

2. Cross-promote. Let people on Facebook have your Twitter handle, and people on Twitter find your Facebook page. Do the same on LinkedIn and other social media sites. A recent LinkedIn thread in a networking discussion group simply asked everyone to share their Twitter handles--and they did.

3. Put your Twitter handle everywhere. Don't be shy about letting everyone know where you can be found on social media. Some folks even have bumper stickers with their Twitter handles on them. Are personalized license plates next?

4. Reciprocate. If they like you, like them; if they follow you, follow them; and if they endorse you, endorse them.

5. Be human. Use your own identity rather than your brand or logo. On Twitter, very often the people behind the business have more followers than their businesses. Also connect with the people behind other businesses; this can help you establish a relationship and you can even talk about and cross-promote each other's companies.

6. Use photos. They can be very effective in your Twitter tweets. Photos grab people's attention. Make sure they're good quality and appropriate for your audience.

7. Pay attention. Each social media platform is trying to remain fresh, new and innovative. As a result, there are new options introduced, some of which can benefit you in your effort to build your following and grow your brand. You may not use the many features each social media platform has to offer, but it's worthwhile to stay abreast of the latest development.

8. Set up a schedule. While you may monitor social media all day long, you might not have the time to be an active participant. If this is the case, you may want to set up a schedule to carve out time for making your presence felt.

9. Review what's working and what isn't. If growing a following and building your brand is your goal, you'll want to monitor your results. If you're putting yourself out there and people aren't responding, you may need to change your approach. If many people are responding to your tweets on Twitter but ignoring you on Facebook, then focus on Twitter, or vice versa.

10. Be interesting. I can't reiterate this enough: If you're interesting and engaging, people will engage with you; if you're boring, they won't. Choose your tweets carefully.

Building a following will take some work; the good news is, you can do it from your office, your home or while sitting on the beach with your trusty tablet. Remember to tweet often.

Article curated from Entrepreneur Magazine

8 Powerful Social Media Marketing Tools for Savvy Businesses

New social media tools seem to pop up every day. Here are some definitely worth checking out.

With a seemingly endless list of social media tools out there today, you might need help sorting out the best from the rest. Here are my picks:

1. Mention: Google Alerts for the social web. Mention is one of the best tools to monitor your brand's presence across the web. It includes mentions of your brand or keywords you want to monitor on social networks, forums, blogs and more. Mention also includes social features that allow you to respond to mentions of your brand and to share industry news that you find.

2. Buffer: Social media publishing plus powerful analytics. Buffer is a powerful social media tool that sends your updates to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and App.net. It also has built-in analytics to help you understand why certain posts are working well, and the best times to publish updates based on your audience. Plus you can collaborate with your team to keep your accounts topped up with fresh content.

For an easy to use tool to manage your company's social media presence, check out the newly launched Buffer for Business.

3. Feedly: Content discovery. Finding great content to share with your audience is easy with Feedly. Not only can you subscribe to RSS feeds to keep on top of industry blogs or news sites, you can also use Feedly to discover new content related to your topics of interest.

4. Twitter Counter: Track Twitter progress. It can be easy to lose track of how your Twitter account is growing; that's where Twitter Counter comes in. It's a free service that tracks changes in your follower count and predicts future growth over time.

Twitter Counter can be useful in understanding how quickly your number of followers is growing, and using that information to make decisions about the content you share (like re-sharing older content that new followers would have missed.)

5. Zapier: Link favorite social services. Zapier is a connector for all of the services you use independently, connecting those services to make your workday simpler and easier. For example, if your team uses HipChat to keep in touch you can use Zapier to set up automatic notifications inside HipChat rooms for Tweets, MailChimp campaigns, or new RSS items.
And you can connect productivity apps like Trello, Asana and Evernote to social networks like Twitter or even business products like Dropbox and Github.

6. Bottlenose: Intelligence for social networks. Bottlenose now features a real time search engine that queries all public information from social networks and groups and displays it in algorithmic order of importance. The result? An awesome stream of content ranked by most to least important. Try, for example, "startup insights." I feel sure you'll find a number of great resources.

And of course you can easily share the top results. (If you come across a bunch of cool resources, add them to your Buffer so you don't forget, and don't overwhelm your followers. 

7. Followerwonk: Follower analysis for Twitter. Although you can use a tool like Twitter Counter to watch the growth of your number of Twitter followers, you may need to analyze your followers more carefully. Followerwonk breaks down your followers into demographics so you can understand them better. The best part about Followerwonk could be its analysis of what time your followers are online, helping you to know what times you should tweet to reach more people.

You can also find out when the people you follow tend to be online--just in case you're trying to start more discussions with those Twitter users.

8. Quintly: Social analytics for brands. Quintly is a powerful tool for in-depth social media analytics, helping you track your business's social media performance on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, LinkedIn and Instagram. Quintly also has benchmarking features that help you understand how your performance compares to competitors and industry averages.

Plus the quintly dashboard is easy to customize so you can focus on the stats that matter most to your business.

Article curated from Inc. Magazine

How to Handle Negative Online Reviews

Q: How should small businesses respond to negative reviews through social media and on sites like Yelp? - Dara Khautisen
Chicago

A: Negative social media reviews, especially those that are potentially malicious, are near the top of the list of nightmare scenarios for small business owners and entrepreneurs. But don’t panic. The last thing you want is to become the next Amy’s Baking Company, the restaurant that became famous for lashing out at customers.



As a business owner putting your heart and soul into pursuing your passion, it’s all too easy to act first in the face of negativity and have regrets later. Hold your tongue.

Before you formulate a strategy for addressing criticism, you need to determine if the comment or review is true. Investigate before taking action. Could this be a competitor spreading a rumour or something that has happened that nobody’s told you about? Once you figure out the basis of the comment, follow the below steps: 

The statement is factually incorrect: If a statement made is untrue (not just an opinion you disagree with), you have the right to ask for the comment to be removed or retracted. While in theory that seems simple, in reality getting a comment removed can be a tricky. 
It can only be successful if you are able to provide conclusive supporting evidence which shows, without a doubt, the comment is factually incorrect. If you can't provide proof, the sad truth is you won't get anywhere asking for removal. 

If you do have factual evidence and the site doesn't take down the negative statement or review, you should consider correcting the post in the comments section. Lay out the conclusive facts in a professional manner and don't make it personal. 

If a comment is factually true, but negative: Make sure you present your side of the story, and be honest. If you can, add a comment to the post explaining your rational in a non-hostile way and how you plan on addressing the situation. 

If you sense a protracted back-and-forth could occur, it’s a good idea to try and take the conversation offline. State your willingness to receive any questions or comments through email. Make sure you, or a senior-level staff member, personally addresses the complaint. 
One tactic you need to avoid is creating new “personas,” or fake accounts, to support your position in blogs, forums and message boards, as you’ll likely be caught.

Remember prevention is better than a cure. This situation can often be avoided (or at least substantially mitigated) by ensuring you are tuned into social media at all times, not just when there's an emergency. Cultivate your business’s fans to proactively share their experiences and recommendations online. Consumers are smart enough to sniff out and ignore one odd-ball negative review in a sea of positive ones.


Article curated from Entrepreneur

Facebook to roll out video advertising in test

 

Facebook has confirmed it is testing video advertising, following media reports that it will roll out video commercials later this week.

The social networking website said on Tuesday that it would be promoting a series of videos for the upcoming film "Divergent" this week -- but stressed it was only a test run. 

It comes after the Wall Street Journal reported that video ads would begin appearing in Facebook users' feeds on Thursday. 

"As this is a test, we don't have additional details to share at this time, but rest assured we'll continue to refine this new way for brands to tell stories on Facebook," a company spokesperson told CNBC in an email. 

The videos will run automatically in Facebook users' news feeds without sound; users will be able click on the video to hear the audio.

If the test is judged to be successful, Facebook will be in a good position to capture a share of the lucrative U.S. television ad space -- which is expected to hit $81.6 billion in 2017, according to PwC.
Earlier this year speculation that Facebook would introduce 15-second video ads surfaced, but it is unclear how long the "Divergent" commercials will be. 

Facebook is looking to further increase its advertising revenue which saw a 66 percent rise in the third quarter of 2013 compared with the same quarter last year, with mobile advertising representing almost half of that figure. 

But earlier this year, it struck a cautious note about advertising amid fears that an increased number of commercials would push users away.

The social networking giant must balance its drive for revenue with the user experience, according to Ian Maude, an online media analyst at Enders Analysis. 

"So far there hasn't been a negative reaction from Facebook users and video advertising will really reinvigorated Facebook's business. The tricky part is getting balance between maximizing revenue and not annoying users to the point they leave Facebook," Maude told CNBC. 

Article curated from CNBC

Pinterest Is Gaining Ground on Facebook and Twitter for News

When it comes to sharing news online, Facebook and Twitter get most of the attention. Pinterest, a platform more traditionally known for retail, food and travel-related postings, is gaining ground in the news category as well.

A new study from Gigya, a social login provider for many media companies, including ABC, NBC, and FOX, found that 20% of all "media/publishing"-related content shared to social networks in Q3 was shared on Pinterest. Facebook (40%) and Twitter (30%) maintained leads in the category, but Pinterest gained some ground after accounting for 18% of media and publishing shares in Q2.

Pinterest also claimed a higher percentage of social media shares in other categories, including 44% of ecommerce-related shares, higher than any other social network. The chart below shows the media/publishing social shares for the third quarter of 2013.
A social share means that a user utilized a page's share plugin or clicked on the "share" button, which is often located near the top of the page. Thus, Gigya's data does not include instances where users share by copy and paste. The company has more than 700 clients, including Gannett and Hearst, so the data incorporates a significant sample size.

Many now get their news on social networks. A Pew Research study released in October found that 30% of U.S. adults find their news on Facebook. Gigya's data was released just a few days after Facebook announced changes to its News Feed algorithm in an attempt to surface more "high quality" content for users.

Pinterest also made changes in September to encourage users to upload article pins. Articles posted to the site now include more details like the title, author and short description of the article.

Article curated from Mashable

To learn more about how Pinterest marketing can help your business, click here.

5 Top Social Media Trends For 2014

What's next in the realm of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and social business? See if you agree with our experts. 

From social media faux pas to a prominent IPO, 2013 was full of social media highs and lows. According to Brian Solis, principal analyst at Altimeter Group, this year marked social media's move into the mainstream.

"It's no longer passed over as a fad or something that's going away any time soon," he said. "Social media is now part of our fabric of society, like mobile phones and computers -- it's a staple of our everyday life."

In 2014, expect a shift in priorities: a bigger focus on social media monetization, user-generated content, a great acceptance of sharing information, and more. Here's a look at the big trends for next year.

1. Businesses will learn how to better monetize social
"The big question everyone wants answers to is how does social media make money?" Solis said. "Everyone thinks that if these platforms don't make money at the outset, it's not a viable platform, and that's not true."

Neither Twitter nor Facebook made money in the beginning, but Facebook has found a way -- quarter after quarter -- to beat revenue expectations. Expect social platforms to generate new revenue streams and try new things as the sector sets a precedent for the best new ways to make money.

2. Social media users will be comfortable sharing more
As people start to live a digital lifestyle, they open up and become less concerned about privacy. "We don't lose the desire to have privacy. We change the value proposition of what it is. The more we share online and the more people react to it, the safer you think it is to continue sharing."

This is good news for Facebook, which has started pushing users to share more often. The social network recently allowed teens to share posts publicly and removed a privacy setting that prevents people from finding you.

3. User-generated content becomes more important
"Next year will be the year that retailers go bananas over user-generated content," said Apu Gupta, CEO of the social analytics company Curalate.

Expect to see more initiatives like the one from Urban Outfitters. The retailer encourages customers to take photos of themselves in its clothing and to post them to Instagram with a hashtag. The company moderates the content and picks some photos to include in a gallery that links to the pages where you can then buy those looks.

"Not only is user-generated content free, but they're interested in it because every business wants to measure the ROI of social," he said. "This is a really easy and effective way to do that."

4. Google+ gains momentum
It's becoming harder and harder to ignore Google+, the search giant's social network, Gupta said. Take its most recent news: Google redesigned YouTube's comment section and now requires users to have a Google+ account or a YouTube channel to comment. And last month, it announced new details about its user base, confirming that it now has more than 300 million monthly active users.

One reason Gupta says Google+ will gain more momentum in 2014 is because of its visual appeal. "Brands love Google+ because it's so visual, and it seems like there's this undercurrent of people gravitating toward platforms in which content can be expressed in much more visual forms."

5. Facebook gains respect
After Facebook's IPO flop last year, investors remained skeptical of the social network. In 2014, that will change, Solis said.

"Facebook will finally be regarded as the powerful digital platform that it is. It's incredibly undervalued because investors haven't known what to make of it, and many of them probably don't even use Facebook," he said. "The same will probably happen to Twitter. It has tremendous room to grow into its own and will probably follow the same path as Facebook. The market will be a little wary and leery of it until it starts making money."

What do you think 2014 will bring to the social media realm?

Article curated from Information Week

Top 5 Digital Trends For 2014

I am starting to think marketers and astrologers have more in common than meets the eye. We are both asked to stargaze and look into the future on a regular basis. Every year around this time, I see similar emails from clients and reporters alike, all wanting to know what 2014 holds in store. Luckily, I don’t need the stars to predict what comes next because technology always leaves telltale signs. Here are the Top 5 Digital Trends you can look forward to for 2014.

1. An Identity Based Eco-System. As a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, I did my thesis on Twitter. (No, it wasn’t in 140 characters.) One of the pivotal questions of my thesis was this: Why do people use social networking sites at all? My incorrect hypothesis was that people wanted to connect to each other. My research revealed that this was only the secondary reason. The primary reason was to showcase their own identity. I’ll pause while you give a moment’s thought to the narcissism of society. Then, I’ll urge you to think deeper. We, as humans, have always had an innate need to express ourselves. By that very expression, we further our identity. Smart companies, such as Facebook (with their timeline feature) and Amazon (with their personalized recommendations) are already taking advantage of what I refer to as an Identity Based Eco-System. The digital world of tomorrow, be it consumer or business, will revolve around the individual identity. The companies who want to take advantage of this trend will proactively create ways to harness the idea that showcasing our identity is the most human and primary of desires.

2. Content Curation and Aggregation. Remember the movie You’ve Got Mail, with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks? It was a blockbuster hit and romantic comedy at its best. But, they can never create a remake of that movie. Why? Because no one is that excited to receive email anymore! We have gone from an information hungry to an information overloaded society. However, we still require information on a daily basis – now more than ever. Hence, we see the rise of websites such as Pinterest, Quora, and List.ly. Pinterest is technically nothing more than an organization system for images which already exist, but because we desperately need that system for aggregation, it is a success.

3. Video = Device Agnostic. When was the last time you uttered the phrase “I am watching video on television.” Chances are you may watch a video on TV, but you may just as easily be watching it on your tablet or smart phone. Video continues to become device agnostic. (Much to my chagrin, my husband takes advantage of this fact by pausing the episode on TV only to continue it on his tablet at the restaurant. I’ll save the net etiquette for spouses article for later.) From a business standpoint, online video will continue to play a bigger role in the digital space.

4. The 4 Screen Revolution. The last Super Bowl showcased this trend better than any other event. While people watched the game on TV, they were checking their work email on the computer for the next day, tweeting about the game on their tablet, and texting their friends at the same time. The number of screens we are used to will only increase with time. When I say screen, I don’t necessarily mean a solid box. Google glass would also qualify as a screen. Any surface (tangible or not) which you interact with can be considered a screen. Look for advertising to innovate as the available surfaces, on which to interact, increase.

5. Social Literacy Skills Required. Social media literacy will be required by companies for most jobs, but especially for the C-Suite. It expands beyond understanding social platforms to making the digital landscape an inherent part of your professional repertoire. As a skill set, social media literacy will be divided into two areas – personal and organizational. On the personal level, professionals will have to know how to create content, curate relevant information, and connect people and resources. On an organizational level, agility (in thought and strategy), the ability to aggregate multiple points of data for decision making, and authenticity (the real deal, not the perception) will be required.

As I gaze into my digital crystal ball, one thing is certain. 2014 is sure to be an exciting year on the digital front.

Article curated from Forbes Magazine

How Bad Online Reviews Can be Good for Your Business

Not only do bad online reviews scare customers away; they also strike fear (and understandably so) in the hearts of business owners conscious of their reputation.

That’s why, according to media-research firm BIA/Kelsey, as much as $700 million have been spent this year by US businesses on cleaning up their image and managing their online reputation.

Sometimes, though, negative reviews and low ratings on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google can actually be a good thing. Here’s how:

Bad reviews lend authenticity to your online presence. Think of it this way: in the era of astroturfing, you don’t want to appear too good to be true. If your business' page on Yelp and TripAdvisor consist exclusively of glowing reviews and five-star ratings, you actually run the risk of looking fake in the eyes of potential customers.

Bad reviews identify key areas for improvement. Even the most highly-rated businesses have weak points, areas to improve in and issues to address. But without valuable customer feedback, these may not always be readily obvious, especially in the daily craziness of running a business full-time. It may take a painful but truthful review to realize that, say, your receptionist needs more training, or your blackhead extraction services need gentler hands.

Bad reviews allow you to stay competitive. Business owners with a competitive streak will find that online reviews offer an opportunity to gain that crucial edge over their rivals. Moreover, being called out online can also serve as an effective motivator that will enable you and your employees to deliver a better customer experience next time. If, say, your ratings were merely average last year, you can set specific new goals this year to achieve higher ratings and stamps of approval like Best of Yelp, TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice, and OpenTable’s Diners’ Choice.

Bad reviews give you a chance to prove critics wrong. Many businesses adopt a helpless attitude when it comes to negative online reviews; they feel like the content, because it’s consumer-generated, is out of their control. But reviews can serve as a platform for changing the conversation about your business, and they provide qualitative data that may otherwise be difficult to observe. If you only look on the bright side, you’ll quickly be able to leverage the information in order to turn unhappy customers’ frowns into smiles.

Article curated from NBC Chicago