A good reputation will take years to build, but can be brought down by a single misjudged social media post. It is important that you manage your social media activity carefully to ensure minimal risk of harm to your reputation. But why is your reputation so critical?
What will a great reputation offer?
Higher conversion rates
Users are looking through social media to determine whether or not they should engage with a brand. By being active on social media and having a good reputation, brands will increase users’ ability to engage in business with them, which could drive up conversions. A good reputation will contribute to boosting users’ confidence in your brand enough to make a purchase.
Improved user trust
Did you know that majority of social media users who are researching brands on the platform are determining each outfit’s trustworthiness? You could stand to lose out on potential revenue streams if your followers do not trust your brand. With a good reputation, you will be attractive and trustworthy to these users, which can play a part in boosting sales revenues.
Higher user engagement and satisfaction
A good reputation will increase user engagement, which can contribute to higher visibility and a better display of brand vales. With a good reputation, you may be able to interact more often with your followers and improve customer satisfaction levels through value added service.
Improved opportunity for personal selling
Unlike traditional media platforms, social media facilitates personal selling. Users will monitor the performance of brands in interaction with other clients and in its responsibility to the community and employees. It offers comprehensive interaction, which enables brands to showcase their values. This personal interaction allows for personal selling, which may boost brand revenues and play a art in increased growth. Having a good reputation will be key to being able to attract more followers and potential clients.
Brand loyalty
Customers will be more willing to engage with brands which have a great reputation. If the quality of service meets the expected standards, they will be less likely to move to other brandsforproducts or services. This highlights the development of brand loyalty, which can be essential to long term success.
How can you improve your reputation?
These social media best practices are designed to help you maintain and improve your brand’s reputation on social media.
Post regularly
Being on social media alone is not enough for your brand. You should interact with your followers to enable you maximize on the personalized nature of he platform. You should consider posting regularly to build some relationship with your followers. You will be better able to keep their interest by sharing informative and attractive content on a satisfactory schedule. If you are unable to post regularly, you could take up a content scheduling tool.
Engage with your followers
You need to engage with all your followers in a timely and professional manner to boost your reputation and enhance user trust levels in your brand. By engaging with followers, you are able to appeal to the personal nature of social media, which could work to your brand’s benefit. You may also be able to address any issues they may have, which could translate to value added customer service. Brands that engage with their followers will be more likely to fortify their reputation with them, improving their ability to sustain great relationships.
Handling critical comments
Yourreputation could take a bigger hit by ignoring customer engagement than it could by offering substandard goods and services. With the prevalence of the use of social media for customer service, more people are looking to brands to offer solution-oriented help. By ignoring people who may have comments that could be perceived as negative, brands lock out this crucial group. Users will be less likely to engage with brands that ignore certain customers because they find little guarantee of help should they need it. Instead, you could consider maintaining a professional, solution-oriented approach to try and win over these followers for a positive domino effect to your reputation.
Diversify your posts
You do not want to come off as drab and uninteresting to your followers. For the best results on social media, you need to consider a diverse array of posts that are designed to offer value and entertain your social media audience. Brands that engage excessively in one type of content, especially if it is advertisement-oriented, will harm user perception of their values which could impact their reputation. If you are interested in raising the performance of your post, you could consider paid adverts such as the 1000 like Instagram boost available for brands.
Train your social media team
Since there are no take backs on social media, there is little room for error. Any content that causes a bad reaction could have significant and lasting consequences. It is important that you put all your content up for screening to prevent this. You may train your team to develop more appropriate content in line with your brand by using tools such as a social media content guide. You could even detail out expectations in terms of interactions with your followers for a comprehensive outline of your expectations in terms of you r social media activity.
Watch other brands
While you cannot always predict social media reaction to certain types of posts, watching other brands could help you develop a framework for safe social media activity that will not harm your reputation. You could consider looking into the risk level and performance of different brands’ social media marketing efforts and their impact on the specific brands’ reputation before taking these measures up. Remember, you do not have t learn social media lessons the hard way. You can just watch and learn from other brands’ blunders.
Analytic tracking
By keeping up with these assessment tools, you will be better able to understand and gauge user response to specific posts, helping you to understand their preferences for reduced risk in future marketing efforts. Analytic tracking tools can help fine tune marketing strategies for improved performance, as well as reduced overall risk to your brand’s reputation. They can also be a great tool for setting actionable social media targets to help raise your brand profile.