With social media taking the lead as a major source for consumer information, your brand’s reputation on social networks will impact your customers’ impression of it. In 2015, Facebook influenced 52 percent of consumers’ online and offline purchasing decisions, up from 36 percent in 2014. If your brand’s image on social media is bad, users will not engage with you, even offline. If you’ve been wondering how your brand’s reputation on social media could be negatively affected, watch out for the following signs.
You’re being too pushy
Being too pushy is one of the turnoffs for brands on social media. Not only does it turn your social media followers off, it also damages your brand reputation. For greater brand trust, you should also shine the spotlight on your followers. Don’t make your content on social media about sales and promoting your products alone. Carve out time to shine the spotlight on your customers by sharing their content on your social media pages and mentioning them.
You’re ignoring user complaints
Taking user complaints seriously could net you referrals. Findings show that users whose complaints were resolved to satisfaction are more likely to recommend your business to others.
Not treating a user complaint appropriately, could result in reputation crisis. In a customer experience report by RightNow, poor-quality and rude customer service was the No. 1 reason why customers leave a brand for its competitor.
Not monitoring brand mentions
Monitoring your brand mentions is a very crucial social media reputation management strategy to adapt. According to a report from BrandWatch, 96 percent of the people who discuss brands online do not follow those brands’ owned profiles.
In a piece by Search Reputation, which examined a recent survey by RadiumOne, more than 67 percent of mentions of brands go on in “dark social”—places such as forums, emails and applications.
Taking too long to respond to messages
Responding to customer inquiries on social media quickly can strengthen your brand reputation. In some findings, 71 percent of customers who received prompt responses from brands on social media were likely to recommend that brand to others.
Keeping your customers waiting for too long before replying to their messages when they’d typically expect a response within the hour will lower your brand’s image in their perception.
