This is the third post in a series about Social Media Strategy. You can read all of the posts here: series one – social media goals and tactics. Dosh Dosh ran a series on the Fundamentals of Social Media Marketing late in 2007, and I believe that it is worth taking another look at it in light of the changes that the Social Media marketspace has undergone since then.

The goal here is to positively influence the way a potential and existing customer/audience perceives your brand. Work of this nature is less push-orientated and may involve the creation of social media profiles and wikis that rank well on search engines for your brand name. This also includes monitoring public forums and feedback channels to track and address what is said about your site. Some view this as social media optimization, although I would classify it as pull-marketing. [from Dosh Dosh]

Reputation Management and Reputation Monitoring

Keeping an eye on what people are saying about you online is an important part of your marketing effort. Ideally this job is handled by someone at your company that surfs the internet and looks for mentions of your company, good and bad. When they find a compliment, they thank the person and add them to the overall conversation. If this employee finds a complaint or negative comment, they must be empowered to get the complaint fixed and trained on how to respond in a positive way (see a little history at “Responding to Negativity“).

Reputation monitoring is made fairly easy by the use of Google Alerts:

Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

Some handy uses of Google Alerts include:

• monitoring a developing news story
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• getting the latest on a celebrity or event
• keeping tabs on your favorite sports teams

You can sign up for as many Google Alerts as you would like, using your Google Account. Search for your name, your company name, any other appropriate keywords, and your competitors.

The benefits of getting involved

First, the people writing and posting about your company are not always going to be the big names. Most of the time they are going to be “regular” customers and they will be thrilled that you took an interest in what they had to say, good or bad. Especially bad. Thanking people for compliments will build up its own reward in loyalty and goodwill, but fixing a problem for a customer pays even greater dividends.

Irate customers can become brand evangelists if they are handled properly. And by properly I mean with respect, courtesy, transparency and professionalism. There is an old saying that goes something like this:

“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel.” ~ Mark Twain

Well, today, all of our customers can buy “ink by the barrel” in that they can publish something on a forum or blog and (theoretically) everyone in the world can see it. If you work hard at making ethical behavior the foundation of your business you will be able to earn trust and respect – the most valuable currency in the internet community. (I wrote about this a while back – “The importance of trust in the Web 2.0 economy“) and my friend Dave Seah made some great points and describes a five-point evolution of this process:

1. Trust has always been part of any successful social endeavor.
2. Our naïve trust in organizations and what they say has been eroded over the past 30-40 years because what they have stood for and said was good for Americans has proven to be a façade built from special interests.People have had to adapt by separating trust from authority and success, whereas before trust was automatic.
3. Trust is the “gut check” that people are now applying to their daily interactions, and they are growing increasingly canny. Kids today, for example, are incredibly media-savvy compared to their grandparents. The emphasis has shifted from “I trust that company” to “I trust what that person is saying is true”.
4. The next stage of actualization would be, “I trust that person to do what he says” followed by “I have seen what he said and did, and it was good.”
5. Companies that reach to consumers have had to adopt this model, an interesting combination of business brand and public relations work.

Culture serves as a beacon to more easily find a certain type of trust and compatible mindset. The social need to flock together, however, is what Community is all about. Culture is the surface expression of values, and community is the underlying sense of belonging. That’s my hypothesis, anyway.

Share your thoughts in the Comments.