This article is part of a series of writings we’ll be posting to our blog, which are excerpted from Chris Rosica’s latest book, The Power of B2B Social Media. This insightful book explores the often overlooked and undervalued benefits of B2B social media. It clearly demonstrates the advantages that businesses marketing to other businesses realize when embracing this important marketing channel.
Social media sites are amongst the most powerful sites in Google’s algorithm and hierarchy, putting your company’s reputation at risk if you do not proactively manage this critical channel. Social media can be your biggest ally in monitoring and protecting your reputation online, and it can impact several aspects of your business – from recruiting and hiring to generating sales leads.
If you are failing to use social media to intentionally dominate results for your name, you are leaving too much to chance. In fact, others might be doing it on your behalf, and you might not like what they say. Without giving it much thought, an employee or client could post negative comments about your business on a variety of social channels. A person might write an unfavorable blog or social review, which can be readily found by your stakeholders, including existing and prospective customers, staff, board members, media, distributors, partners, and other key audiences.
Without social media, you cannot participate in the online conversation. With it, you can monitor perception, contribute, engage, direct, and even redirect the conversation.
Keeping an eye on the online conversation allows you to respond with assertive communications that protect your reputation should any negative information appear in search results.
If someone does a search of your organization’s name, your social media profiles will almost always appear on page one – especially if you update them with fresh content. With this in mind, it is hard to imagine any reason for failing to establish social media accounts for your organization if only to control page-one search results for your company’s name. Managing search means managing perception, so work to manage the message and content potential customers and partners see.
Tip: Always be positive and state the facts. Take the high road, even if your company is being attacked. Responding to insults in kind, passing the buck, or pointing fingers only prolongs negativity. Your company will fare better in the long run if you can respond to criticism with concern and dignity.
Look for more excerpts from The Power of B2B Social Media by Chris Rosica on our blog in the coming weeks.
Chris is president of Rosica Communications, an award-winning national PR, digital marketing, and integrated marketing communications agency that specializes in the nonprofit, education, animal health/pet product, and healthcare sectors.