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How To Track What Is Being Said About Your Business On The Web?

Written by: Gourab Nanda

Article Overview: According to the April 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 70 percent of respondents say they trust consumer opinions posted online. Keeping a track of what is said about your business online is not rocket science. And here’s how simple it is…

How To Track What Is Being Said About Your Business On The Web?

The internet makes it so easy to share information that news spreads faster than a wild fire. In times like these, businesses have to be very careful of what goes online. Set-up a process to get regular updates on your business specific keywords, competitive keywords, industry keywords, or key people, because if there's some information out there about you, it is influencing your consumers and your reputation in the market. According to the April 2009 Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey, 70 percent of respondents say they trust consumer opinions posted online.

Keeping a track of what is said about your business online is not rocket science. And here's how simple it is... 1. Join related web groups/forums/blogs: This is where all the rants and raves are shared. Regularly search through the forum/groups to spot any mentions of your business. These are a great place to get honest feedback about your business. Subscribe to RSS feeds of important industry-specific websites/blogs. For eg. A blogger went on ranting about an unhappy experience about a popular American Airline on a forum. His rant was echoed by quite a few other bloggers. The company got in touch with the blogger, addressed his grievance and assured him that whatever needed to be fixed would be fixed. The blogger went on to write celebratory things about the airline and was joined by others.

A recent survey showed online reviews are six times as likely to impact a small business positively as negatively. Twenty-four percent of small businesses say an online review has had a positive impact while only 4 percent of SMBs reported a negative business impact from an online review.

2. Google alerts: Google allows you to setup alerts to notify you every time certain words specified by you are mentioned across the web. It is a great tool to track what is being said about your business on the internet. But it is essential to be clever and set the right keywords for Google alerts otherwise be prepared for a lot of random alerts. Usually your company name with some unique words in your tagline should help.

3. Use social media analytics to the max: Social media analytics helps you figure out an optimal way to find out how your business name is being used by the people. It also helps you track what is said and how people rate your service, what are the main keywords being used along with your business name, and much more. There are great tools like Klout, TwitStats that analyze your social media activity for you and tells you how you can enhance it.

4. Track your competitors: Understanding the competition is crucial to every business and it holds true in the web space as well. For instance, if a person is looking to buy a car, he must have zeroed down to a car by company A and a car with similar specifications from company B. Before making the final decision, the person Googles up both the companies. He spots some forums that tell him company B is sloppy at customer service and the maintenance for the car from company B ends up being expensive. Which car will the customer buy?

In 2009, $757.4 billion of in-store sales-roughly a third of all sales-will have been directly influenced by the Web as consumers research products online and purchase them offline, according to Forrester Research.

5. Interact: Now that you have joined online groups and forums and are receiving Google alerts, it is important that you put this information to some use. Start by interacting with people who mention you. As you start interacting, people will direct most of their comments toward you. Be subtle and try to engage them in a manner that interests them. If there are any complaints, try to get their feedback and fix the issues as early as you can. It does not matter in which direction the opinions are moving; try to influence the opinions in a helpful, positive manner. E.g., a popular burger place in Manhattan uses twitter to keep in touch with their fans. Even if the tweet isn't directed to them, they respond to anything said about their burgers. They also organize flash mobs to promote their eatery at regular intervals. The National Association of Retail Marketing Services found almost every unhappy customer -- 95 % -- will return if an issue is resolved quickly and efficiently.

Every moment, somebody somewhere is discussing something that might be of use to your business. It is only be keeping track can you make your business agile in the tough business environment.

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Article Tags: consumer opinions, online reputation management, social media analytics



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