Category Archives: Social Media Monitoring

Building an Online Reputation doesn’t have to be a lot of work, you already have great testimonials from your past customers. You just have to find them.

You can achieve this task in 4 easy steps:
1. Find your reviews: Search your business name on Google and see if you have any current customer reviews on Yelp, Google+ (formerly Google Places), and read what your customers are saying about their experience with your business.

2. Monitor those reviews: Once you’ve found where you customers are talking about your business add those review sites to your Engage121 account so you can continue to monitor those reviews, positive and negative.

3. Join the conversation: If you see a great review from a past client reply to them and say thank you. If you see a negative review reply to that customer and apologize for their experience and tell them that you are here to make sure they have a positive experience and would like to contact them to discuss the issue and learn how you can help.

4. Track your success: Is your Online Reputation improving now that you’ve started engaging with your customers? Track your Sentiment and watch your progress to see if your positive sentiment is improving and your negative sentiment is declining. In Engage121 you can create a Sentiment chart in Evaluate and watch your progress improve over time.

Have you not found any reviews for your business online? That’s OK you can create some. Reach out to past clients who have had a good experience with your business and ask them if they wouldn’t mind sharing their story on your Yelp page, or Google+ listing. You can email them, send them a Thank You note in the mail, or ask them in person next time they come in.

What does your Online Reputation say about your business?

Posted in Community Manager Tips, Consumer Reviews, Social Media Monitoring

Tagged Customer Testimonials, Online Reputation, online review sites

Managing Your Online Reputation, Step One: Show Up.

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Jack Monson| 3 Comments

written by:

Jack Monson

Online Reputation Management. Is there any other kind of reputation management anymore?

The days of your brand’s reputation making the rounds via word of mouth – true word of mouth, as in one-on-one live human conversations – are over. Many brands are nostalgic for the days when unhappy customers did not have an open channel to millions of other consumers at their fingertips.

But don’t be disheartened when someone does ding you on Twitter or other places online. Even the hottest brands have detractors. The ubiquitous nature of Social Media means that if no one is complaining about your products or services, then no one is using your products or services.

The good news is – for now – that you will improve your online reputation among potential customers by just showing up. Perhaps consumers are so used to brands ignoring negative comments that the simple acknowledgement of a problem seems heroic.

Showing up also means more than just monitoring and reporting on what’s being said. Lurking in the background and reporting on what consumers are saying won’t help your reputation; engaging in the online conversation will.

Don’t ignore anything. Acknowledge every complaint, question, or remark on social channels. Your legal department will disagree. But remember, this isn’t just about the one complaining customer. It’s about the thousands or millions of consumers who see your response (or lack of) in feeds or search results. Many of them will base their opinion of your brand and future buying decisions on your response.

Posted in Community Manager Tips, Consumer Reviews, Social Media Management, Social Media Monitoring

Tagged consumer reviews, customer complaints, Online reputation management

Did Facebook’s change in EdgeRank really affect Reach?

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Jennifer MacDonald| Leave a comment

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I’ve read many articles in the last month from trusted resources in Social Media marketing that suggest Organic Reach has declined. Some argue that only a small sample of Facebook Business Pages were looked at, and so a correct analysis cannot be proven. Well, I suggest looking at your own data and seeing for yourself. Numbers do not lie my friends.

Since Facebook made their changes to EdgeRank on September 20th, I compared data from August 1st – August 31st vs. October 1st – October 31st. I took the average of the posts for those months using data I directly exported from Facebook. This is the data I compared for those dates:

In summary: it does not appear that EdgeRank has had a significant impact to our Facebook Business Page, or that Reach has decreased. The biggest change in the data above is Total Impressions, I would like to attribute this to EdgeRank but I also need to factor in my 35% decrease in ad spend for the month of October.

However, my eyes do not lie, and I do know that I have seen less likes and comments per post since September 20th. As of today I can not prove that reach has declined, but tomorrow may be another story.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook’s EdgeRank changes I’ve posted links to many helpful articles below. What do your numbers tell you?

EdgeRank Checker:
→The only new revelation is the increase in the weight of Negative Feedback.

Techcrunch:
→So to determine if any given Page post shows up in the news feed, Facebook looks at four main factors.

SocialMedia Today:
→In plain English, basically if a post has lots likes and comments it will be shown more than posts that don’t have lots of likes and comments.

Posted in Community Manager Tips, Facebook, Social Media Monitoring

Tagged Facebook Business Pages, Facebook EdgeRank

How to survive a Social Media Hurricane

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Jennifer MacDonald| 3 Comments

written by:

I pray for everyone who was affected by Hurricane Sandy. Me and everyone at Engage121 are safe and sound. I hope you can say the same for everyone at your organization. While I was preparing for the hurricane this weekend it made me think of another type of storm, the social media kind.

On the news yesterday the TV anchors were telling us to “make sure all electronic devices are charged” more than “make sure you have enough water.” It went like this “make sure everything is charged up now, here are a few tips for saving energy.” The list went on to say use less apps that drain battery power, lower the brightness of your monitor and put your device to sleep whenever possible. Being prepared for a natural disaster has definitely changed over the years, offline and online.

On that note are you prepared for a social media disaster? We read in the news everyday about brands that handle a PR crisis badly and sacrifice their brand and integrity. American Apparel made the news today for using Hurricane Sandy to their advantage, or at least attempting to. Being prepared for this can help your brand stay alive during a crisis, online and in company sales.

Tips for handling a social media crisis:

1) Have a strategy in place that you will execute if the time comes. One bad experience that gets posted on your Facebook Business Page or Tweeted by a follower can turn into a hurricane for your brand.

2) Go over the necessary steps for implementing the strategy with your manager or team. Make sure everyone knows what to do and who to call if they have questions.

3) Have a commenting policy so you have something to fall back on in your defense. List the rules for your community in your about section on Facebook, on your blog, and elsewhere. State that this community was built to positively educate people in your industry and hurtful comments that do not have cause will not be accepted.

4) Have an internal social media policy. Are you safe if one of your employees gets upset and starts badmouthing your brand? Do you have consequences for completing such actions? Make your policy part of your employee handbook so everyone is aware of it.

There are many resources online to help you build a social media policy and PR crisis strategy. What does your strategy look like?

Posted in Community Manager Tips, Social Media Monitoring

Tagged Branding, PR crisis, risk management, social media crisis, social media policy

Not just Real-Time, Your-Time Customer Service

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Jennifer MacDonald| 3 Comments

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Supplier - Customer conversation:

Thank you for inquiry, someone from our office will respond to your question in the next 3 business days. Thank you for being our client.

What?! I need an answer now. My “like” button disappeared; I need to like this post asap, in order to win a $25 gift card to TastiDLite. I can’t wait 3 days, aagggghh.

….and that’s how it starts. Everything we do today is in “real-time,” brushing our teeth, tweeting about brushing our teeth, taking the trash out, posting a picture of the garbage truck: “Aren’t they the best garbage guys ever?!”

Marketing our business is in real-time. Immediately after Ryan Lochte won the gold in swimming at the 2012 Olympics, AT&T’s commercial showed a young swimmer athlete writing a new time for his goal on his eraser board, and the number was the exact number Ryan Lochte swam in the match where he won gold, 3 seconds before air time.

Consumers today want/need immediate support for the products they love, and if they do not receive it they will no longer be a customer. To fight this new battle we’ve enabled our clients to provide real-time customer service in the Engage121 application. We previously launched Customer Care, and in the coming this weeks we are rolling out even more features to let you handle crises that arrive through social media. You can email these complaints/concerns to your support team, have them email a response back to you in the application (not Outlook), archive your discussions and export your data for the C-Suite.

Today we’re taking it one step further, and walking in our client’s shoes as the saying goes. The Engage121 LIVE chat is here!

When you are logged into Engage121 click the blue chat icon in the upper right and you will immediately be connected to a member of our client support team. They are there to help you figure out why your “like” button disappeared, as well as remind how you can re-tweet Lady Gaga. If you don’t have a problem, and instead are feeling lonely, feel free to write us anyway. We love to chat!

What is the #1 product you own that you wish provided real-time customer service?

Posted in Customer Service, Engage121 Product Features, Social Media Monitoring

Tagged customer care, customer service, real time customer service, social media customer service

Use Case: Brand and Reputation Management

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment

written by:

Engage121

Wild Birds Unlimited® owners are their local communities’ backyard birdfeeding specialists and a premiere source for nature information, as well as quality products. But who we are goes far beyond the items we sell. Wild Birds Unlimited has more than 275 stores throughout the United States and Canada.

Use 1: Wild Birds mistakenly went down the path of trying to comment against a politically charged topic. (Rush Limbaugh) Instead of receiving the support they thought they would, it quickly turned into a pissing contest between both sides. WBU quickly jumped back into action with the use of Engage121 content publishing and apps to redirect the message back to their core competency, birds. By showcasing great picture content and bird education through various Engage121 assets and apps, WBU quieted the fire and returned WBU to their business.

Use 2: Wild Birds Unlimited through the sharing of their expertise has grown into an industry matter expert on subjects relating to birds through able long-term use of their account. They have slowly become a resource on Facebook for the hobby of all pertaining to birds, thus now a peer support resource. Their vast expertise and wise use of Engage121 to manage these efforts have driven meaningful relationships like Cornell as a resource partner.

Topic support questions include; Why you shouldn’t pick up and take a baby bird. A popular topic that has become a content point within their Engage121 library amongst other popular points that their franchisees have access to and reuse.

Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Clients, Facebook, Social Media Management, Social Media Monitoring

Tagged Brand management, reputation management, Social Media Monitoring, Wild Birds Inc.

Meet Your Audience Halfway

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Jennifer MacDonald| Leave a comment

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Just because you show up to the party, doesn’t mean anyone has to interact with you. Social Media works similarly in that you can build a nice looking Twitter or Facebook profile and put out some great content at the right time, but there’s no guarantee that anyone will engage.

Listening 101
When someone is nice enough to follow you or like your page, it’s your responsibility to show them you are listening. You can do this by using the keywords and hashtags they are already using. Respond to the conversations already taking place.

Remember the questions they are posting on your page or tweeting. The answers to these questions make great blog posts, and if one person has that question you can bet others do as well.

Politeness counts
When your followers start engaging with you always say “thank you for your post/comment/RT.” You can also like their comment or favorite their Retweet.

Examples of Listening In Practice
When you see your name mentioned see what else they are referencing. For example, when I search for mentions of Engage121, I usually see #SMMS, SM tools, or community management. Then I search those hashtags or keywords on the web to seek out leads and potential customers.

College Hunks Hauling Junk is one of our clients and they do a great job meeting their audience halfway and engaging with them on their terms. College Hunks is not waiting to have someone tag them on Twitter but they are actively searching for their brand name being mentioned. Not everyone is going to take the time to search for your twitter handle before mentioning you or your services, especially when they are not satisfied!

Facebook fans can now direct message a business page. This is great for brands because not everyone wants to post their question or concern publicly on the brand’s timeline. Make sure to turn this feature on in the admin panel on your business page. Since College Hunks has enabled this feature on their business page they were able to get a new customer from responding to one of their fan’s immediate needs. Remember Social Media is in real-time and as you can see this was an immediate request. If College Hunks had waited a week to check their messages they would not have got this customer.

Are you engaging with your audience on their terms?

To read more posts about Best Practices for Optimizing your Social Media Publishing scroll through our blog here and SocialFlow’s blog to see posts written by Megan Smith.

Our next webinar will be on Septemmber 13th, you don’t want to miss this one! With the help of SocialFlow’s Head of R&D, Gilad Lotan, we will be delving into the power and intricacies of timing in social media optimization.

Posted in Community Manager Tips, Engage121 Clients, Facebook, Social Media Monitoring, Twitter

Tagged College Hunks Hauling Junk, Facebook Messages, Hashtags, Social Media Management, Social Media Monitoring, SocialFlow, Twitter search

Have you noticed anything new in Engage121?

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Engage121| Leave a comment

written by:

Engage121

Your NEW Listen tab is here! Today we launched a new design of the Listen tab in Engage121, which has many new, more intuitive features integrated. Here are the highlights:

-Ability to reply from any attached account in Twitter, not just the connection the post came in from. Also, quickly view the replies to any tweet, regardless of whether they are a connection or not.

-Keep tabs on your conversations by seeing in-stream twitter conversations you and your followers are having. When available.

-Cases/Customer Care functionality is available in Listen, as well as Explore. See Customer Care post for more information.

-Manage Facebook private messages.

-New Panels view provides a resizable expanded view of all of your filters. Especially cool for those of you with widescreen monitors.

-Email Alert settings/options for every listen filter. Create an alert for each filter or combine multiple filters into one alert.

-Additional filter options.

-When replying to a post on an outlet’s wall in Facebook, corporate can reply on behalf of an outlet’s account.

-Fan page post moderation: hide offensive posts made to your Facebook page or delete an unwanted post on YouTube.

For additional information on the New Listen Tab, please download this instructional PDF, and watch this recorded webinar on all the new Listen Tab has to offer.

We are very excited about these new features, and as always, we look forward to hearing what you think. Sign in to your Engage121 account, take a look and then tweet us @engage121 or email us to share your feedback.