News flash: Your audience doesn’t trust your Facebook branding!
But don’t just count on me with this one.

“The Myth of Social Media”, a Gallup research, found that 62% of the 18000 consumers who participated in this poll don’t find social media anyhow influential to their purchasing decision. At the other end of the ladder, only 5% of them consider social media to be a “powerful and persuasive marketing force”.

“But, why, oh why?!” we humbly ask. Well, it’s because brands and businesses are perceived to be most authentic on TV, prints and radio. Social media is yet a young communication mean, so instead of expecting the end-of-cycle purchase, we should strategize to engage and inspire to advocate. Maybe with time, when offline will become more and more online technologically, financially, etc. social media commerce will shift from marketing game plan to sales procedure.

But until we get to live that day, let’s equip you with 5 steps to boost your online reputation.

1. THOROUGHLY ANALYZE

   Why? Besides a show of respect, knowing both your crowd and competitors gives you strong, important informational leverage. It’s setting up the backbone of your business.

   What? There are two main directions you need to keep in mind and focus on. You need to first monitor preexisting information (content analysis, competitors’ websites, keyword, SEO, etc.) and then record clients’ behavior towards your brand. We’re talking about actions and words or opinions they state.

   How? HubSpot Keyoword Tool or Semalt.

2. CONSTANTLY INTERACT

   Why? Nothing builds up trust stronger than consistency.

   What? This is the part where you transcend from observing the emotional to connect with their logical system. You are supposed to become a part of their networks through a dependable, logical and persistent presence in their online manifestations.

   How? By diversifying relevant channels presence. Ask your audience to make YouTube videos while using your product, or come up with a tweetable elevator pitch on your service, or use SlideShare as a newsletter tool, or set up forums for ex-employees, etc.

3. ACTIVELY ENGAGE

   Why? If you’re engaged, they’re engaging back. This step is about inspiring your consumers to advocate for you.

   What? You approach the 3 levels of influencers – key, social and peer influencers. You recognize key influencers by their outsized impact. They have popular blogs and huge audiences. They rarely know their customers on a personal basis. Social influencers are the middle layer of reviewing experts. They comment and write articles on blogs with the purpose of promoting products/services. Finally, peer influencers are, at the same time, closest to (other) consumers and have a direct effect on the purchasing decision. They are usually family members or the customers’ inner circle.

   How? You actively engage with your group target by coming up with a performant PR strategy. You use the first layer for Op-Eds (opinion editorials). People trust specialists out to give advice and opinions on your product/service. You get to the second layer by pitch articles and inter-blog collaborations or affiliate marketing techniques. You can reach the third layer by local press related endeavors, like press releases on several usage advantages or your partners.

4. BUILD TRUST

   Why? This is your ultimate goal.

   What? Keep the conversations going between you and your consumers.

   How? Continuously ask for feedback and reviews. Luckily, our company is the only one which focuses on improving your reviews by selecting your clients. Best In Test (BIT) is committed to getting satisfied customers to sell for you. We offer quality reviews tools to smart companies by having real clients rate your business. BIT makes the difference between average Joes who poorly (or, in some cases not at all) resonate with you and your brand and your genuine promoters. We give YOU the power to choose whom and when to ask for a review, while people can rate your company in a matter of seconds.

5. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT

   Why? Because you need to keep doing what you did to generate a self-sustainable system of advocates.

   What? Collect feedback and improve entire process based on the real responses you have benefited from step 4.

   How? BIT can collect a large number of reviews and keep control over them. Our tools give a comprehensive and easy-to-act upon customer satisfaction result. With BIT, the main focus is on obtaining reviews completed on location via the Best in Test iOS/Android app. This is a personal approach with an extremely high response rate.

All these steps are both applicable for SMEs and franchised operations. So, as you decide to take your business to the next level, well, there you have your 5 steps to supercharge your online reputation.