You already know not to yell at the customers or allow employees to work with you who consistently promote extreme political views. These are the novice lessons that practically everyone is aware of. And yet there are still hundreds of companies destroying their online reputations through causing bad interactions with customers and managing their social media channels badly.
This guide is going to introduce you to some online reputation protection tips for social media, in the form of some of the most horrific mistakes.
Not Vetting and Monitoring Your Social Media Manager
Companies consider it standard practice to hire a social media manager to help them with their social media activities. It can save them a lot of time and having someone dedicated to this can be perfect for managing responses quickly and reacting to changing situations.
But they are also the face of your online presence. If you employ the wrong person or give them total freedom, they could bring your company down.
Take American Apparel as an example. To celebrate the fireworks of Independence Day, their social media manager posted a picture of the Challenger space shuttle explosion. The manager was born after 1986 and so wasn’t aware of this incident. But if there was some vetting involved, this would have never happened.
Responding Badly to Negative Feedback
You may think that responding badly to negative feedback is about keeping your temper and not insulting the person who gave you that feedback. But one of the worst things you can do is to not respond at all. This is not intentional. Many companies simply don’t monitor their online reputation so they never come across these comments.
By not replying you are not showing due respect to your customers. Remember that you are not just making an impression on the person who sent you the comment. You are making an impression on anyone looking on.
Don’t avoid bad comments. Respond to them calmly. It could be as simple as thanking them for their feedback. The point is you are demonstrating your professionalism.
Buying Anything to Improve Your Social Media Channel
Anything that can artificially improve the standing of your social media channel should be avoided. This includes anything like buying fake followers and likes. The truth is that as well as getting your account banned these numbers don’t actually matter.
Just because you have a lot of irrelevant followers doesn’t mean that it’s going to translate to any sales. Your updates will only be going to fake accounts who aren’t interested in what you have to offer anyway, so what’s the point?
More importantly, if anyone ever discovers that you have been buying followers, try explaining that away without looking desperate and pathetic.
Becoming a One-Trick Social Media Channel
Every company wants to give off the impression that they are creative and they are pioneers within their industry. It’s the building block of social media. You can do this, but if you hit upon something successful the worst thing you can do is post the same content over and over again. It may be tempting to do so, but you risk becoming a one-trick social media platform.
You need to continually change things by posting lots of different content pieces. Keep things fresh or people are not going to keep coming back for more. It’s like telling the same joke over and over again. How do you expect to retain customers like that?
Selling All the Time
Social media can be used to sell, but if you want to grow a huge following on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram you need to cool down on the product pushing. The fact is 46% of businesses don’t even know if social media is making them money. Too many brands are becoming corporate robots because they are using their social media channels just to push a marketing message.
Most people are annoyed by this and they will soon stop coming to your channel. Nobody wants to listen to a non-stop commercial. Plus, much of the younger generation has a condition known as banner blindness, where they will simply ignore many ads without thinking about it.
Social selling is about building relationships and going from there. If you are unable to stop selling and start engaging, you are never going to land the sales you want.
Last Word – Preserving Your Online Reputation
Think about social media in terms of your ability to build relationships on it, as opposed to how you can sell. By operating on this principle, you are going to preserve your online reputation and get your target audience interested.
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