Ever wanted to learn what people were saying about your company, but you didn’t have thousands of dollars for online reputation management? Try a few simple things to capture a good slice of what people are saying about you or your company online.
Find your keywords
This may be harder than it looks. First, search for your company name, written in quotations, in Google. Notice what comes up. If it’s not just your business, what else is there? Note things about that listing that would differentiate it from your business.
For example, you are the company president. Search for your own name. What comes up? If your name is John Fisher, it might be Saint John Fisher and St. John Fisher College. At this point, you know that your search may not be easy. To find posts that are regarding YOU and not someone else, you will need to add some additional search terms. If you are a plumber, you could include “John Fisher plumber.” If you live in Texas, try “John Fisher Texas” in the search. OR you can include negative keywords, and list “’John Fisher’ –saint”
Also search for your company name and major products. Again, see if you get results for those items by simply using the name.
Create a Twitter search
Many small business owners don’t understand Twitter. In fact, they hate social media altogether. Twitter can be confusing certainly, and unlike Facebook, Twitter can be tough to understand with all the acronyms and abbreviations.
That said, Twitter is a great source for news and a wonderful way to monitor what people are saying about your business. In areas with heavy Twitter use, like tech-savvy Austin, many people use Twitter EXPECTING their angry rants will yield customer service. And often when they are slamming large businesses, like airlines, hotels, restaurant chains, or major stores, they are RIGHT. You many have customers expecting your response. Don’t leave them hanging.
First create a Twitter account, if you don’t have one. I recommend you choose a name that uses keywords for your company. Larry’s Lawn Service might choose “AustinLawnService”. Don’t be too long. Try to stay less than 20 characters certainly.
You can find lots of information online about how to “follow” other Twitter accounts, and manage them. We recommend you read a few.
To manage your Twitter rep, enter your account and find the “Search” box at the top, just to the right of the Twitter symbol. Enter your company name there in quotations so messages with the words out of order will not appear. Then see what is listed. Go to the bottom of the list and click “View all Tweets.”
If your company name is often used by other entities, try searching for your company name and city without quotes, or your company name and business without quotes. For example, try – Larry’s Lawn Service Austin – and – Larry’s Lawn Service Mow. Finally, click “Save Search”
Next, try hashtags. Type a hashtag – or pound symbol – and then the name of your business WITHOUT spaces. To make it easier to read, try camelbacking the capitalization. In other words, “#Larry’sLawnService.” This step is critical because Twitter users will most likely use this method to communicate with you.
Create a Google Alerts search
If you don’t have a gmail account, get one. They can be a great way to track your website, send documents to clients, and more. Of course, all that information is floating through servers you neither control nor own, so be cautious what you share, but that’s a whole other column.
Moving on, go to the Google Alerts option: http://www.google.com/alerts. As you will see, this the program is currently in Beta format, so expect things to need tweaking and maintenance for a while. Once there, enter your keywords in the search box. If you want certain words only in a certain order, be sure to place those in quotations. To get good ideas on formatting negative keywords, or searches solely on certain types of sites, go to the “Getting Started Guide.”
In settings, check the following:
- Type: Everything
- How Often: Choose Either “Once a Day” or “As it Happens.” We recommend the latter for service industries like restaurants.
- Volume: Click “All results” if your search for your company name seems to only produce things relevant to your company. Otherwise, you may want to choose, “Only the best results.”
- Deliver to: List your gmail account. Because you are looking for angry customers, you should probably manage this alert yourself. If you would like to delegate this task, that person can create the same search with their own gmail account, but you will still be notified and, in an extreme case, will be able to guide that delegate if they need assistance in responding.
Then as new items appear online, you will be notified with an email to your gmail account.
Or try Trackur
There is an affordable option currently available for small business owners to track their mentions AND social media. It’s difficult to track social media like Facebook and Digg without this type of service. Especially if your customers are heavy social media users, you have a heavy online presence, or you just want to have good online reputation management, we currently recommend this service.
Rates are now $18 a month for 5 searches, and $88 a month for up to 50 searches. The latter might be worth it if you have many products with licensed names.
Not only does Trackur filter and find the times your search terms are mentioned, it also tracks how influential those mentions may be. A man with five Facebook friends would have less influence online than a mention on the ABC News Twitter feed. You can receive email alerts when your search items appear, again a great way to intercept and manage a mad customer and convert him or her to a satisfied one. And the searches can be made very specific with the options that the searches, “Must Also Mention” or “Does Not Mention.” In other words, negative keywords are possible. There is a 10-day initial free trial.
Though there are many other services online who will do everything from find the problems to track, handle and manage them for you, these services have price tags that far outstrip the budgets of a typical small business.
If you have alternative you find to be better and equally affordable, let us know. Beta formats of Rhino360 and Social Mention are other possibilities, but seem rough at this stage.