By Phyllis Zimbler Miller
As we look ahead to 2010, our brand – what we are known
for – is something that we should definitely want to protect.
You’ve probably
worked very hard to establish this brand, and you do not want people tarnishing
that brand.
Can
you prevent people from complaining about your products or services? No.
But you can make sure that the moment someone does complain publicly on
Twitter, for example, you are brand monitoring and you then nip the problem in the
bud.
Let’s take an
imaginary scenario of how brand monitoring on Twitter can protect your company:
Jane
is a cell phone customer of Company X and she’s been unsuccessfully trying to
get her bill straightened out through customer service. She’s frustrated and she tweets “Company X
has lousy customer service – I can’t get anyone to straighten out my billing
problem.”
Now
you are Company X’s person on Twitter.
And you use various search functions to make sure that whenever anyone
tweets about Company X you know about the tweet within a reasonable amount of
time.
When
you see this tweet by Jane, you immediately tweet her publicly: “@username Call
me at xxxxx and I’ll personally take care of this problem.”
Jane
calls you, you take care of the problem, and hopefully she then tweets:
“Company X just took care of my problem.
That’s good customer service!”
Now
imagine if you hadn’t been brand monitoring and Jane’s tweet went unanswered. Then her complaint could snowball.
For
example, someone could reply to Jane: “@username I also had lousy customer
service from Company X.”
Jane
could then reply: “I wish I could switch to another cell phone company. I really dislike Company X.”
And
before you know it a whole lot of people – people who perhaps don’t even have
any complaint with your company – have jumped on the complaining
bandwagon.
This
is the way that a brand can suffer damage.
And it could probably have been prevented if you had caught it early,
taken care of the problem immediately, and then you or the now-satisfied
customer (or both) could have treated a successful resolution.
Brand monitoring can
take advantage of positive comments
Brand
monitoring on Twitter can also track positive comments. If, for example, someone tweets a compliment
for the customer service of Company X, you can retweet that compliment.
You
can also help the perception of your brand by tweeting worthwhile information
in connection to your brand. This will
enable you to build up goodwill so that, if there is a problem, people will be
more likely to forgive you (assuming you took care of the problem immediately).
In
conclusion, brand monitoring is a very important marketing activity as part of
your brand’s participation in the social networking world of Twitter and other
social media sites.
©
2009 Miller Mosaic, LLC
Phyllis
Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton
School and is the Twitter marketing expert at Site-Booster.com. If you liked this article, you’ll love her
company’s free report on “How to Become a Twitter Marketing Expert” – claim
your report now from www.millermosaicllc.com/free-twitter-report
Comments