Monitoring your brand and acknowledging mistakes
Last week, amidst the delivery of a web marketing pitch, I was asked about the negative branding impacts social media could have on ones business. The client was particularly concerned with the open interactive company-specific groups, like those becoming common place on Facebook.
I addressed the concern by discussing constructive feedback and by pointing out that complaints or negative comments made by customers are not always a bad thing. On the plus side, they provide the business with an opportunity to respond publicly and they often bring up concerns that the management may not have been previously aware of. David Alston, a guest on Lee Odden’s Top Rank Online Marketing blog summed up the social media complaint responding benefits (wow, that’s a mouthful) very nicely in his last post Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands in Social Media.
“A complaint is an opportunity to demonstrate problem-solving abilities. A posted complaint may also draw out other comments from people with the same concern, which provides an opportunity to reach out to them as well. And who knows, impressing customers with great customer service may generate some positive posts about how you resolved the problems.”
David goes on to describe the intricacies of brand monitoring with sections on Competitors, Influencers and Auditing, among others. Whilst this is all relevant for larger corporations, our readers here at Tactical Thinking may find this a little excessive – but interesting none-the-less.
Actively acknowledging mistakes
What I’d like to draw your attention to in this post is how many ultra-savvy web professionals utilise social media to actively point out their problems to their audience. Unusual? Maybe. But silly – definitely not!
Darren Rowse from Pro Blogger recently wrote a post titled Apologies to Newsletter Subscribers [and What to Do When You Stuff Up On Your Blog]. To any logical mind, pointing out that you’ve made a big mistake seems almost ludicrous. But that’s the beauty of social media.
In the past, actively acknowledging your mistake and responding publicly was reserved for major catastrophes only. These days, through the use of blogs and other web 2.0 platforms, one can turn the smallest of problems into a subtle marketing tool. As Darren demonstrates with the three steps in his post (acknowledge the mistake, respond personally, then look for positives), it’s quite simple to do.
Ultimately, we’re all human and humans make mistakes. Recognising and admitting these mistakes is the hard part. Solving them should be much easier. By doing this on a social media platform you’re giving your business a more humanistic approach. It’s just as easy as saying: “Hey, sorry about that. Here’s why it happened and how it’ll be avoided in the future.”
May 23rd, 2008 at 10:23 pm
[...] few days back I wrote a post about brand monitoring and how negative customer comments posted on social media platforms are not always a bad [...]
May 27th, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Hi Keith, interesting discussion.
I also believe in acknowledging any feedback (both negative & positive). By really listening to the demographic a business is targeting, it is offering instant and emotionally substantiated market research. I do however have one question for your team & responders.
In the news we have all heard about the American girl who commited suicide, as a result of social media, being used as tool of manipulative slander and deformation.
I was just wondering what could be done in a situation, for example, where a disgruntled employee went on a social media sabotage mission, and what tools are available to contain/block this if such an event was to occur. As a SME, one doesn’t have the time to constantly search for, and respond to everything.
May 29th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Good question, Mitch. With regards to identifying the ‘threat’ or occurrence of negative comments you’re right there is an overhead involved in constantly monitoring all social media networks.
There are tools available which are designed to notify a brand owner if their keywords appear on any of the channels being monitored (Keith mentions a couple on his later post on ‘Reputation Management’). There are also companies who offer services to do this on a client’s behalf.
Once a situation like you describe has been identified it would really depend on the nature of the comments or what has been written. The networks that require a user to register will have a set of terms and conditions to protect members of the network. If the negative comments break the terms then the network administrators have a duty to remove them and maybe ban/block the infringing user.
Most social networks will be self-policing and fairly democratic places. Users tend to make rational judgments once they see both sides of an argument and in some cases enter the fray to defend the target of the negative comments.
Will McInnes wrote a great piece on the pros/cons of social media, and also the risks involved in not innovating: Avoid risk – sprint towards the online people monster
January 24th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
[...] Companies are realising that they can’t fully control their brands online – but they can participate in the conversations that shape them. [...]