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- Sphinn It!
Went Hot: October 2, 2008 - 4:32 pm
Posted By: dsnyder 60 days ago
Topic Type: News Story (Jump to http://www.searchenginejournal.com)
Category: Social Media
They’re not talking about their own domain names or web properties either. They’re now worried about sites like RipOffReport, ComplaintsBoard and the dozens of other consumer advocacy sites created to give consumers a voice.
2 Comments
Comments
I can't stress enough how important it is to encourage business owners to understand the long-term impact of Social Media on their brand, so kudos to Eric on this post. Many small business owners are "stop the bleeding" and "I'll call you again when I need you..." types that fail to fully grasp that Social Media marketing & online reputation management are evolving incredibly quickly.
It often doesn't dawn on them to identify someone in-house to take on the responsibility of building a rapport with the online community that is their target demographic, like establishing a Twitter account where they can communicate with their audience. Doing so can help an organization proactively identify potential issues in the "I'm irritated..." phase, rather than waiting to react to the "You're fired..." that likely occurs once customers progress from irritated to mad. If not properly involved online, a company's reputation could be all but destroyed before they ever even identify a potential problem. By then, it's often too late...
It is true that consumers are getting increaing exposure to their opinions, which may actually have the positive effect of increasing competition and making products better.
Manufacturers and service providers should ideally view online networking to be a way of getting useful feedback for their offerings, which in turn could lead to better products and services, greater revenues and increasing profits.