4 Things All Small Businesses Should Do To Protect
Their Reputation On Social Media
While social media can be great for small businesses, allowing them to reach a wider customer base and build a loyal following, the wrong move on social media can ruin your business’s reputation. That’s why smaller businesses should be careful about what is posted on their social media, both by yourself and your employees. Here are some ways you can protect your reputation online:
Get HR to Put Together A Social Media Policy
A clear social media policy is important for all employees of your business. Nowadays, people often post about their jobs online, often under their real names, so it’s important that employees aren’t sharing confidential information or anything negative about your business. Some small businesses have an HR manager or use PEO’s services – professional employer organizations – to put together a social media policy, which people should be briefed on when they join.
Respond to Complaints and Feedback
No business can keep every customer happy 100% of the time. Sometimes, customers will have complaints, and nowadays one of the most common outlets is social media, with three in five dissatisfied customers venting on Facebook, and Twitter and Instagram also popular places for complaints.
There are a number of ways you can deal with complaints on your business’s social media pages while maintaining your reputation:
- Respond quickly – if you take more than a couple of days to respond, you risk the customer making further negative comments
- Be polite and professional – even if the customer is being unreasonable, it’s important to stay calm and explain things clearly
- Don’t delete bad feedback – if you delete poor reviews, people will just repost them and it makes your company look unprofessional
- Give customers a direct way to contact you – customers who take to social media have usually already tried calling your customer service number or emailing a general account. Give them a direct line or your own email so you can sort it out personally
Be Careful What You Post or Share
Many companies’ social media fails have gone viral, and while they’re often amusing or just misguided, some of them have genuinely damaged the brand by being sexist, racist or homophobic. Avoid using any automatic posting programs and carefully check any status updates before they go out. While posting memes and jokes can be fun for followers, it’s important to be careful not to cause offence.
Check What People Are Saying About Your Business Online
Some people don’t directly comment on your business’s social media page but will mention your brand in passing on their account whether it’s negative or positive. It’s worth spending some money on social media monitoring tools, so you can see what people are saying about your business and act accordingly.
When used properly, social media can be a great tool for small businesses and allows you to easily engage with customers, share news about your business and much more with just the click of a button.
