You know your own business. The thing is, do your potential and current customers think of it the same way? An accurate platform for gauging your business’ reputation is social media, where it is free to create your own profiles where you can refine and hammer home your brand’s message.
So you upload your own content, hoping it will generate word-of-mouth or be caught up in the whirl of viral information found online. But to your chagrin, there are stagnant days and periods of inactivity when all your Facebook status updates, tweets, and promotional blasts do not register as much as a comment – or the reactions you inspire fail to translate into sales.
Joining the Conversation
Jumping into the social media fray relearning many things you knew about branding. This study effectively fires you as the main brand creator and demotes you to facilitator status. Social media is a highly interactive environment where people will take you at your word only when it has been backed up by the millions of voices interpreting your brand for you through every comment, complaint, product review, or content shared.
You want to stay atop of the mayhem surrounding your brand. Obviously, being interesting and transparent works to get some initial attention, but you don’t want your presence to be fleeting. Your time in front of your customers can end as quickly as a click of their mouse, and it is important that you do not let go of potential customers already eyeing your products.
Social media is one huge virtual conversation. You need to get a word in, and you need to be remembered. This is the new kind of sales talk, the kind where you don’t jabber relentlessly about your brand. You have to let your potential customers find you, and share with others what they found out when they do.
What to Talk About
Engaging social media participants in a conversation gives you control of the flow of your brand’s identity. It is also an effective means of online reputation management, as you retain the power to steer the talk online about your brand.
Any business will face a disgruntled customer sooner than later. Your social media presence is the venue to rectify shortcomings and issue apologies to your followers. Your brand may be attacked by a competitor or their army of social media naysayers. Put a good conversation starter out there, and let your followers elbow out the party poopers themselves. The good news in all of this negative attention is that you are gaining a better search engine presence for your convivial efforts. Social media is the avenue to gain a squeaky clean search engine reputation; whatever pages you have currently own are a plus.
Your social media conversations will find their way onto search engines. When you have decidedly created enough talk, your brand’s identity – created in concert with Facebook friends, Twitter followers, Google Plus circles, etc. – will be enough to give you a solid reputation later on. Little explanation and sales talk will be needed.