Studies reveal that negative reviews /comments posted on social media have almost ruined many businesses because they were handled ineptly and in a delayed way by the business owners.
The plain truth is positive information tends to be somewhat sidelined by the social media whereas bad reviews spread like wild fire.
There are instances of some unscrupulous competitor and disgruntled employees posting a disgusting spoof video onto YouTube.
It took a week before senior management at the affected business house became aware of it. Meantime, a lot of damage had been done.
Online reputation of business organizations in social media is a tedious and tricky affair. You must be ever watchful about mention of your brand/products in social media.
No sooner a positive review appears in the social media, immediately seize the opportunity to thank the person concerned and also highlight the positive news.
Likewise, the moment you see a complaint about your product/services, contact the person concerned and do everything possible to assuage his/her feelings. If the complaint is genuine, do not hesitate to publicly express regret.
Never ever ignore a negative review unless you are willing to lose business to your competitor. Negative reviews in the social media, if not promptly attended to, will blow over and it will be difficult to contain the damage thereafter.
If the negative review in the social media is unwarranted, ask the writer to delete it. In most cases, the original writer will readily oblige once he/she is convinced they are in the wrong.
Track as frequently as possible mentions of your company name/brand/products in social media.
Use also the primary ‘keywords’ relating to your company that you want to track in social media.
Closely monitor social media conversations that are likely to include your Company name, Company website address, names of products you deal in,names of major competitors etc.
Set up accounts on free social media monitoring tools – there are, in fact a plethora of such tools available. Set up alerts and searches so that you do not miss any mention of your company/products on the social media.
When you are alerted to a comment (positive or negative) about your company, you need to be in a position to respond promptly.