Managing your digital reputation from Cosmic Ethical IT

2. Managing your digital
reputation
Kate Doodson
Cosmic

3. Why digital reputation?
• Meet up with a new client/consultant?
– Google them
• Booking a holiday/hotel/campsite?
– Look for reviews, Trip Advisor
• Buying a new car?
– Research it first – what car?
• Getting a builder?
– Check them out online mybuilder.co.uk
• Dating someone new?
– Check out on 192.com or 123people.com

4. What is digital reputation?
• What appears when you type in a
keyword search about you….
Your Reputation =
First page of Google results
+ Reviews
+ Real time social media

6. reviews
out clicking
A

7. Google
pulls
reviews
from all
sorts of
sites, and
posts them
under your
map listing

8. Digital reputation
Old news
can
impact
on your
business

9. And on social media

10. Agenda
1. Monitor your reputation
2. Respond – what to do when it goes
wrong..
3. Control your reputation

11. 1. Monitoring

12. Old style. I‘m in
control
New
style, Anyone
can say
anything, at any
time….

13. Your SERP real estate
What‘s there?
• Any confusion with people of the
same name?
• Any personal/professional crossover
(winning a fishing competition,
planning notice?)
• Any bad news stories?
• Any bad reviews?

15. • What about photos?
• Check Google images….

17. What should you be monitoring?
– First name Surname (if unique)
– First name Surname, Location
– First name, Surname, Business
– Business name
– Business name, location
– Directors names
– Revenue generating staff
– Anything else? Your competitors?
Create a spreadsheet

20. What about in Social Media
• www.twitter.com/search

21. Try Social Mention

22. • How do we automate monitoring?

23. Google Alerts
• Monitor
– Your name
– Your brand
– Your Directors
– Set up queries
– Once a week

25. Google Dashboard

26. In Social media
• Twitter will email you
every time someone
mentions you
• Facebook too –
notifications…

27. TweetDeck/Hootsuite
Set up Searches ….. TweetDeck is a browser for
Visiting [City] connecting with contacts across
[City] recommendations Twitter & Facebook
[City] hotel recommendations
Need hotel [City]

28. In Trip Advisor
Sign up to receive
an email
notification every
time a new review
is published for
your property.
‗Manage your
email notifications‘

29. Case study
Corinthia Hotels
monitoring mentions of our
hotel names, but also
using saved social
searches to monitor
relevant conversations
and identify ways and
opportunities we can help.
Set up Searches …..
Visiting [City]
[City] recommendations
[City] hotel recommendations
Need hotel [City]
http://twitter.com/#!/corinthiahotels

30. ….Monitoring competitors
―we once picked up a conversation where someone was
having a bad experience at a competitor hotel in our city.
We had been tweeting with him before, and noticed he had
a bad experience at this spa with his girlfriend.
We contacted him saying we were really sorry about that
experience, and asked if he knew we had a spa at our hotel.
He said he didn‘t know, but would check it out next time.‖

31. …Picking up complaints
Customer Tweeted he had to wait longer than usual before he could go
to his room.
not to the hotel but to his followers – that he had a nightmare check-in
experience.
We immediately picked up his tweet through our alerts system, and
tweeted back saying we‘re really sorry to hear about this – it isn‘t
something that we expect happening in our hotels – so let us help.
We used Twitter direct messaging to get some information to connect with
him at the hotel, and notified the management team immediately. They
resolved the issue and an hour later the guest tweeted:
―Forget my last tweet. Amazing service at the Corinthia Hotel. They
really care about their customers.‖

32. 2. Responding

35. (It happens to every business, even the best)

36. When things go wrong…..
• How to respond to negative
comments
– TripAdvisor (same for all review sites)
– Twitter
– Facebook

37. Types of Criticism
• Straight Problems – Someone has an issue with your product or service and
has laid out exactly what went wrong. This type of feedback is negative in the
sense that it paints your business in a poor light, but it can be helpful in
exposing real problems that need to be dealt with.
• Constructive Criticism – Even more helpful is when the comment comes with a
suggestion attached. Many customers — including some of your most loyal —
will use social media to suggest ways in which you can improve your product
or service. While this type of feedback may point out your flaws, and is thus
negative, it can be extremely helpful to receive.
• (Merited) Attack –You or your company did something wrong, and someone
is angry, but the response is disproportionate. While the attack itself may not
be merited, the issue that catalyzed it does have merit in this type of negative
feedback.
• Trolling – Trolls have no valid reason for being angry at you. "Richard Bacon is a [expletive]".
• Spam - will use a negative comment about your product or service (whether
true or not) to promote a competing service.

39. Responding in Facebook
• Review posting ability in settings
• Ensure you have tight rules
https://www.facebook.com/cocacola
• Respond, but move things to email as
soon as possible.
• Give them an email address or
telephone number that you can
answer
• If appropriate follow up the response
to the complaint on Facebook after

40. ASOS – here to help

42. How not to do it…

43. Responding in Twitter
• Complaining about a brand on Twitter is
relatively easy (can be anonymous)
• Twitter‘s limited character count makes
meaningful conversation difficult
– ―This @business is terrible!‖
– ―Never buy from @business they treat customers
really bad‖
– ―This @business #fail‖

44. Responding in Twitter
1. Address the tweet in one (or two) tweets
2. Try to take the conversation off the Twitter
platform so you can have a meaningful
discussion
– Ask them to follow you so you can DM (Direct Message)
– Or give email or phone number you can share publicly on
Twitter
3. If the complaints don‘t stop -from a fake
account? set up just to harass you? Report to
Twitter

46. 15 minutes later…..

47. Trip Advisor
‗Manage your listing‘ in the
top-right corner of any
page and follow these
steps:
– Click on the ‗Manage your
reviews‘ tab.
– Select ‗Respond to a
review.‘
– Choose the review you
would like to respond to by
clicking on the radio button
– Respond
– Click submit.

48. Responding to negative feedback
In your reply
• Acknowledge – thank them, apologise
• Investigate – have all the facts and
policies to hand
• Respond – address specific points,
include the investigation, include any
action points and changes of
policy/procedure

49. • Respond promptly
• Write it up in Word first, check grammar
• Keep your tone even and professional
• Respect their right to complain
• Don‘t attack the person
• Only respond to the issues – not the sub-plots
• Can‘t ask more questions (on TA)
• Don‘t respond if you are angry
• Don‘t assign the blame elsewhere

50. Trip Advisor Guidelines
• Family-friendly
• Unique and independent – only one post per site
• Original - No hearsay, no quotes from other guests or other
third party.
• Relevant to all TripAdvisor users - no responses about TA
policies.
• Respectful of Personal Privacy - personal information of any
person,
• Non-commercial - No commercial web addresses,
promotional material
• Same language - as the review.
• Written with standard e-mail etiquette
• Submitted using a valid e-mail address

51. Your turn – Respond……
“The most disappointing of 30 hotels/motels/apartments we
stayed in over 9 weeks in Australia and New Zealand. It
could/should be so much better, but non-existent
soundproofing and uninterested staff made our stay a
nightmare.
Though we had welcome support on our final day from
one staff member (Steve) it could not make up for two
almost sleepless nights brought about by noise from
neighboring rooms with young children.
When we invited one staff member to come and listen to
the children cavorting next door, his shrug of the shoulders
and comment that it is an old building so there is not much
soundproofing gives an idea of the level of service. Yet it is
a beautiful building with good facilities and a prime
location. Maybe a set of earplugs would make for an
enjoyable stay.”

52. Using other media to respond – Case Study
• Taco Bell - a rumor spread online
questioning whether the fast food chain
used real beef in its products. ―You
don‘t want people to even be
questioning if you‘re using beef in your
tacos.‖
• Taco Bell president immediately went to
YouTube with his response.
• They also contacted their over 7 million
fans on Facebook and ~150k Twitter
followers.
• As Dorie said, they already had an army
of people who were favorably inclined
toward Taco Bell. ―They were able to
quickly reach them and dispel rumors.‖

53. 3. Be (nearly) in control

54. Be in control
• Manage your presence
– Dominate your real estate
– Audit your Social Media accounts
– Use Social Media

55. Dominate your real estate
• Develop more content
– Include more web pages
– Upload more photos, title your name
– Include history of the business
– More information about you
– Press releases (in text format)
• Get listed in directories

56. Audit your Social Media
• Remember Social Media ranks highly
Set up and fully populate (in your name and
business name)
• LinkedIn profile (and business)
• Twitter profile – Bio is really important
• Facebook Page – any old pages? Delete or
claim

57. LinkedIn
Twitter ACCOUNT
Flickr photo tag

58. Audit your Google Maps
• Google Maps
• Complete profile
• Remove any old profiles
• Include 5 categories
• Include reviews

59. Use Social Media
• Blog – in your name and domain
name
• Be active in forums
– Trip Advisor destination forum
– Other forums, Net Mums
• Start to build online relationships with
your customers, create a community
– Creating a goodwill bank account

61. Thorn Tree (Lonely Planet)

62. Make a list….
• Make a list of review sites for your business
• www.ratethispark.co.uk
• www.ukcampsite.co.uk
• www.chycor.co.uk
• www.holidaywatchdog.com
• www.mybuilder.com
• Encourage good reviews
– Reminder cards, postcards, flyers, and emails,
and review collection widgets (on TA
resources)

63. Top tips to managing your
digital reputation
1. Monitor
– Set up Alerts
– Monitor Social Media channels
2. Respond
– Respond to positive (some) and negative (all)
– When crisis strikes - use AiR
3. Be in control
– Audit Social Media – and use it to build up
goodwill
– Develop more content on website, blog, PR
– Add to review and forum sites

64. Questions
Kate Doodson
Cosmic Ethical IT
@cosmickated
kate@cosmic.org.uk