Whether you like it or not, your Social Media web presence is a core part of your business. It is one of the most publicly visible components of your business that many current and potential customers will encounter. It is often even their first impression!
This is the case even if you aren’t active online. A company in our industry recently faced serious speculation whether they were a “going concern” due to their lack of Social Media and blog engagement.
As a company, you could be completely healthy and providing amazing service to your existing customers. However, if you aren’t engaged within the avenues first encountered by your potential customers, you could appear to be an unhealthy or dying company.
Have existing Social Media profiles?
Do you have existing Social Media profiles? If so, ENGAGE!
Potential customers will see these profiles. Don’t be afraid of potential negative reviews here, all reviews can and should be treated as valuable feedback. It can seem bad for these negative reviews to be plastered on such a public avenue, however you do have complete control in how you respond. Our counsel would be to allow negative reviews (within reason) and respond to them positively while maintaining the high ground.
According to the article “Handling Haters: How To Respond To Negative Online Reviews“:
Most customers won’t write you off based on one negative comment. Many, however, will gain respect for your business if you respond to the comment in a pleasant and helpful way.
Don’t allow the potential for negative reviews to prevent you from engaging on Social Media. See it as a bigger opportunity to make your company more appealing to the potential customers that have stumbled onto your profiles.
Don’t have existing Social Media profiles?
Think you can bypass some of this by just hiding away and avoiding Social Media completely? Nope! Facebook and others have made sure that’s not an option for you.
How’s that? They’re called unmanaged profiles. Users can “check-in” to your business and if there isn’t an existing profile, Facebook will create one for your business. Google Local and LinkedIn have similar tactics.
Take control of these pages and ensure your business is properly represented. If you blog you can even hook your posts to automatically be shared on Social Media.
What story is your web presence telling potential customers?
Take a second and put yourself in the shoes of a potential customer… Google your business.
What comes up? Are there customer reviews you’ve never seen before? Are there angry customers that you could’ve easily appeased but have now been left to linger and paint a negative picture of your business for the world to see? Can you respond in a frank and upbeat manner?