If you’re considering monitoring your reputation in social media, don’t even think about it until you’ve covered these six important foundation steps, given by Trackur CEO Andy Beal at the recent Pubcon Las Vegas conference.

Of course, we’d love for you to use Trackur for your social media monitoring, but no matter what tool you use, make sure you heed our advice.

Always respond to comments and reviews when possible.

Be nice!

Create a community.

Don’t dawdle – address issues that may affect your reputation immediately.

Employees are an extension of your brand.  Make sure you have a great team.

Find out the facts before responding to a complaint or attack.

Goals.  Have them.  When you meet them, make more.

Help your customers out, even if it isn’t always convenient for you. They won’t forget it.

Increase trust, gain loyalty.

Join the conversation.

Know what is being said about you.

Lose the attitude.

Make the most of every interaction, whether it directly benefits your business or not.

Note your biggest supporters, and your biggest complainers.  Keep an eye on both.

Offer solutions when customers report problems.

Preparedness is key.  Have a disaster recovery plan in place, and use it when needed.

Quick response shows customers you are listening and that you care.

Reach out when someone talks about your brand, positive or negative.

Share praise.  With potential and current customers, and also with your team.

Thank you –say it.  Please too!

Understand that you can’t make everyone happy all the time.

View complaints as an opportunity to turn a situation around.

Words should be chosen carefully.

eXemplify greatness.

Years and years.  The Internet has a very long memory.

Zip it.  Know when to!

As you know, Trackur focuses on Social Media Monitoring.  People often ask us why we put more importance on the social sites than we do on the review sites.  There are several reasons.  First, many review sites don\’t take kindly to monitoring.  The second reason, however, is a bit less obvious.

Less obvious, perhaps, but much more important when trying to minimize damage to your brand.  Say you’re angry about something.  Really upset.  A representative for a company was rude to you, someone charged your credit card twice and caused an overdraft on your account, or a product you purchased is not performing as expected.  What do you do in the heat of the moment?  Do you take a minute to blow off some steam on Facebook or Twitter, or do you go straight to a review site and post a well thought out review?

If  you answered Facebook or Twitter, you’re not alone.  In times of stress or frustration, most users take to the social sites first and posts short bursts or rants about their experience.  After they’ve gotten some responses from their audience and released that initial anger, they’re often “over it” and don’t proceed to the review sites to share their experience.  If they do post a review, chances are they’ve already mentioned their negative experience on at least one other social site first.

What does this mean to you as a business?  If you can catch the complaint while it is merely a blip on the social media radar – and fix the problem – you can not only prevent a more permanent (and noticeable) piece of review history, but you may also be able to salvage the relationship before the customer has moved on.

Please know that we are not discounting the importance of the review sites.  In a perfect world, you’d know everything that is being said about your company as it is being said.  We’re simply stressing that the earlier you can address a potential issue, the less likely it is to become a lasting problem.