Take charge of your company's online image starting today with some smart social marketing.

Social media is much more than a platform for your company to post advertisements and promotions. Social media, as the name implies, is intended to be social. That implies your fans will want to interact with your brand, leaving comments and reviews, and asking questions, among other things.

Because of the huge frequency of these interactions on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, social media becomes a significant aspect "if not the primary emphasis" of your company's digital reputation management.

You can strengthen your relationship with your customers and produce positive word of mouth for your brand by taking a proactive approach to managing your company's social media reputation. Here's how to do it.

1. Keep tabs on what others are saying about your com

On social media, there are numerous talks going on. The great majority of them will most likely have no impact on your business. So, how can you track down the talks that are relevant to your brand?

Many businesses utilize social listening solutions to make sure they don't miss any company-related conversations. Brands can track branded keywords (especially when the brand name hasn't been tagged or @mentioned), as well as specific hashtag usage, using tools like HootSuite or Sprout Social.

Rather than manually checking social media, such technologies send straight notifications when a conversation regarding your business occurs. This allows you to assess the overall mood toward your business while also allowing you to intervene and communicate directly with customers.

You should concentrate on dealing with customer service concerns, both individually and in terms of broader support patterns. These tailored interactions increase brand loyalty while also increasing the likelihood of people engaging in the first place.

2. Answer each and every review and remark.

Customers frequently use social media channels to share their experiences with your company, and if they leave reviews, you must respond.

Making sure that every single remark, every single review is read and acknowledged or addressed. Even when responding to a bad review, organizations may show their commitment to customer care while also building a good narrative by replying to customer reviews. A good, individualized answer can make a big difference in the story.

A favorable answer that addresses the user's worry or complaint shows others who may read the review that your company is concerned about these concerns. Even better, according to a ZenBusiness survey from 2020, 30% of reviewers will amend their comment once the company has remedied their issue.

Those who submitted bad reviews on social media, on the other hand, were found to be 65% more likely to quit doing business with a firm if it did not reply to their criticism, according to the same study. Responding to social comments is certainly a necessary if you want to safeguard your reputation and prevent losing consumers.

3. Positive feedback should be highlighted via owned channels.

It's one thing to respond to unfavorable reviews, but the positive evaluations and testimonials that customers place on your social media pages can also help you with your reputation management efforts.

Millennials, in particular, have been proven to trust user-generated material 50 percent more than brand-created content. A favorable review is a genuine, personal assessment of how it feels to use your company's products or services. This information is considerably more persuasive to potential customers and establishes your reputation more effectively than anything else you might say.

You should aim to optimize this information across channels in addition to thanking customers for their excellent evaluations. Share these wonderful experiences on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. B2B companies who provide more in-depth services to their customers may want to construct a case study or cooperate with the customer who submitted the review to create a video testimonial to promote on social media.

These testimonials can (and should) come from any source, including Google, Facebook, and Yelp. They can be used to highlight the work of a single employee or the quality of your services as a whole. Most significantly, they enable you to use social media to ensure that the first review of your business that someone sees is one that you want them to see.

93% of buyers now read online evaluations before making a purchase, and many of those reviews will be located on your social media platforms. You can ensure that you're creating the correct impression on potential customers by taking a proactive approach to reputation management.

You can control the narrative surrounding your brand with good reputation management, ensuring fantastic outcomes and true growth.