You did it. Your brand is now one that people love and trust. The work has just begun. The ride may be smooth sailing. Now, you must maintain momentum and control your brand’s reputation.
It takes work to build and maintain your brand in a crowded market. Nielsen Media estimates that there will be over half-a-million brands worldwide by 2022. This is a lot to compete with for the attention of your audience. Consumers gravitate towards brands they can trust in rapid change and uncertainty. It’s your job to build trust with others. You and your audience must work together.
This article will explain why managing your brand’s reputation on social media is essential and provide tools to help you track your reputation.
Why is it essential to have a good brand reputation?
Consumers today expect more and need to relate to a brand truly. They’re interested in more than just price and quality. They also want to engage in authentic social interactions. Positive and negative brand interactions can spread quickly on social media. By addressing the following key benefits, managing your reputation on social can help your brand remain healthy through ups and downs.
Aligning customer values
71% of consumers think it is essential for brands to take a stance on social issues. Take a stand for issues that are important to you and your customers. Make sure to share these values on social media.
Patagonia has always been known as an environmentally-conscious company. They recently changed their mission statement to one that is very clear: “Patagonia’s business is to save our planet.” These values are evident across all of their social media channels. For example, their “Worn Wear Campaign” on Twitter highlights fashion meant to last.
Patagonia Action Works is a great way to connect your audience with grassroots groups. As you can see from the comments, their customers appreciate this differentiation and their commitment to saving the planet.
Supporting Your Community
Take a stand for social causes to build trust, business, and reputation. When a company takes a stand that customers agree with, they will buy more products from the brand.
Nike is an excellent example of a company that lives up to its values and mission. Their Twitter profile displays #BlackLivesMatter proudly. The athletic brand went beyond by announcing a partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities nationwide. Nike Yardrunners Collection pays tribute to the history of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) with clothing highlighting student leaders and alums leading the way in their communities.
The brand has also focused on diversity and inclusion and pledged $10 million for scholarships and academic partnerships to increase the number of interns and direct employees from HBCUs.
Maintaining customer loyalty
There are endless choices for consumers. 90% of consumers still believe they are loyal to their brand. Social media can be a powerful tool to maintain and build loyalty. Use social media to increase your social proof. Your audience has already been invested in your story. Orange Theory has used social media to build a community of loyal fans passionate about their classes and telling their friends.
A loyal audience can boost Your brand’s reputation while generating new business. They tell their friends about your brand and provide honest reviews.
Social media and brand reputation
Brand reputation and social media go hand in hand. People are already talking about you online, whether it’s the value of your product or the quality of your customer service.
This allows brands to create and manage a public persona on social media.
Digital word-of-mouth matters
53% of consumers follow or like a brand’s page on social media to be informed about new products and services. Digital word-of-mouth is essential for growing your audience.
Brands can also gain power by prioritizing conversations online that are visible to a large audience. According to the Sprout Social Index, more than three-quarters of consumers expect a response within 24 hours on social media. Being responsive on social proves that you care about your customers. Social media allows brands to engage with customers and use reputation management to answer questions, interact, and humanize their brand.
It can take years for a reputation to be built and only seconds to destroy it
Social media is unfiltered and authentic, which makes it an ideal platform for achieving success or making mistakes. Your reputation can be ruined by a single post. Your organic conversations on social media also allow you to learn and listen to your customers. This will help to reshape your brand’s reputation by incorporating genuine feedback. Like many other hospitality brands, Airbnb has received its fair share of negative feedback from renters and hosts.
Airbnb’s reputation was improved by monitoring reviews and listening carefully to its audience. Airbnb launched its new “AirCover ” protection program in May 2022. It promises quick reimbursements for hosts and up to $1,000,000 of damage protection for guests.
Social Listening
Social Listening taps online conservations around your brand or business. Listening is a great way to gauge public perceptions of your brand and also find relevant conversations that may be happening around your brand.
Social Listening can help uncover the following:
What do customers think about your product or brand
What is the conversation about your brand?
What is the trend in sentiment?
What kind of content do people share about your brand?
With Sprout Social Listening, you can analyze the comments and sentiments surrounding your brand while gaining valuable insights about your customers’ habits, pain points, and overall experience.
Social Analytics
Analytics for social media gives you an insight into the social world. You can get a better understanding of the data that influences your reputation. This includes trends, data on the voice of consumers, engagement rates, messages or comments volume, and much more. Sprout Social Analytics lets you get a complete overview of all your social profiles while allowing you to view the larger picture of your online presence. Sprout Social’s analytics tools will enable you to gather data and apply it all at once to your social media strategy.
