How To Get Your Creative and Personal Wedding Hashtag *

How To Get Your Creative and Personal Wedding Hashtag *

The post How To Get Your Creative Wedding Hashtag appeared first on .

wedding hashers creative wedding hashtag graphic

There’s truth to the saying that you blink once on your wedding day and then it’s over. After months of gathering inspiration, planning, and even rehearsing the big day, it ends in a flash. What remains from your wedding are the memories and images captured by both your expert wedding photographer and your guests. 

Thankfully, your wedding photographer will edit your images and get them back to you to enjoy forever. Tracking down images from your guests, however, isn’t always this simple. Unless you aggregate them with a creative wedding hashtag

wedding hashers image

The Benefits Of Using A Creative Wedding Hashtag

While using a creative wedding hashtag, you can begin your wedding documentation early on. This gives you the opportunity to see your wedding journey in one place—from the proposal to the final goodbyes on your wedding night. 

Utilizing your unique wedding hashtag when you post your proposal announcement, engagement shoot, and fun wedding planning adventures means you can quickly and easily see everything related to the best day of your life.

couple running down the beach with creative wedding hashtag text

How To Use Your Wedding Hashtag

Include your hashtag on your invitations so that your guests can document any pre-wedding parties or events they attend like your rehearsal dinner. 

Then, be sure to include your hashtag everywhere on your wedding day. Trust us. Be sure it’s listed clearly on items your guests are sure to see. Places like:

  • Programs
  • Menus
  • Dessert table labels
  • Seating charts
  • Photo booths and their printed images
  • Other signage throughout the wedding 

As your guests are sharing on social media, easy access to your creative wedding hashtag will prompt them to use it in their posts.

couple embracing

Junebug Tip

You should also include your hashtag as an insert with your wedding favors. Not every guest will post online right away so the insert will help them remember your wedding hashtag for later.

How To Use Creative Wedding Hashtag Inspiration

There are many schools of thought when it comes to creating a creative wedding hashtag. Most couples start their search online looking through other wedding hashtags for inspiration. However, you should avoid leaning too heavily into other hashtags for inspiration. You’re more likely to end up using the same hashtag as another couple if you do.

couple driving

Get Started With Wedding Hashtag Professionals

Just like every other aspect of wedding planning, working with professionals is the right way to go. Our friends at Wedding Hashers are professional wedding hashtag writers—seriously. Their team of writers have written wedding hashtags for thousands of happy couples. 

Their secret is getting to know their couples—a personalized approach that you just can’t get from an algorithm. 

rice toss with creative wedding hashtag text

How Wedding Hashers Works

Wedding Hashers has three different packages that include three, five, or twelve hashtag options. These can also be used throughout your wedding planning journey and can include engagement parties, pre-wedding trips, or even wedding outfit shopping. 

Once you’ve chosen a hashtag package, you’ll submit a quick questionnaire to give their writers more information about you and your love story. These include questions like your first and last names, nicknames, and what your proposal was like. 

After you fill out their questionnaire, they’ll get your wedding hashtag options back to you within one business day. That’s all it takes and then you can rest easy. Working with hashtag professionals will ensure you spend your time elsewhere, planning a day as unique as the hashtag they’ll create for you.

couple dancing with unique wedding hashtag text

Using A Hashtag Generator

With so many things on your wedding planning plate, coming up with a creative wedding hashtag can be a fun and lighthearted activity, or it can instantly feel overwhelming. Wedding hashtag generators are another option you can use for this very reason.

If you are looking for a quick and fun way to get results, Wedding Hashers also offers a free hashtag generator. While this option does get you a wedding hashtag faster, satisfaction isn’t guaranteed. Generated hashtags also lack the level of personalization that make wedding hashtags special.

couple on a swing with wedding hashtag text

The Junebug Recommendation

While the free wedding hashtag generator might sound ideal in the short term, ending up with the same hashtag as another couple can cause problems. For example, if another couple ends up using the same hashtag as you, you won’t get the same streamlined experience of reliving your wedding on social media. If your wedding budget has room for the personalization that Wedding Hashers offers, we recommend opting for the personalization of a creative wedding hashtag. 

Coming up with the perfect wedding hashtag isn’t easy. Working with hashtag professionals is an easy choice. Your wedding hashtag should be unique to you to help document your wedding—and only your wedding. Get started today and let Wedding Hashers help you document your love story.

 

Social Listening Makes Your Digital Marketing Better *

Social Listening Makes Your Digital Marketing Better *

Can Social Listening Improve Your Marketing?

 

It’s not easy to build an effective Digital Marketing Strategy.  All the content bombarding your audience every day makes it difficult to garner the attention you need.  The question is, what can you do to stand out?

It all begins with your research.  To stand out, you have to know your audience, and who they follow.  You have to understand what content they like and what they are saying and what is being said about them in online conversations.

 

Understand Your Audience

 

That’s what makes social listening so important.  Social listening helps you better understand your audience  and what your digital marketing needs to do.  Social listening also works to improve your social selling, brand reputation monitoring and customer service.

In this post, I’m going to show you how you can use social listening to improve your marketing.

 

What is Social Listening?

 

Social listening is using both paid and free technology to monitor keywords across the web generally and social media in particular.  Depending on the tool you’re using it helps you to gather relevant mentions and conversations from your audience.

This definition doesn’t fully explain the real value of social listening.  While social listening is a terrific method for you to catch mentions of your brand so that you can respond accordingly, you can actually use social listening in many other ways.

 

Social Media Complex Searches

 

Professional level social media listening tools offer a lot more than a simple keyword search.  In fact, you can create very complex searches with multiple keywords and use features like Boolean search to help you gather the relevant social intelligence that you need.  

Before you can start leveraging social listening, you need a tool to help.  Here is a look at a few great choices.  Then, I’ll show you exactly how you can leverage these kinds of tools to help improve your marketing with better information about your audience and your competitors

 

Social Listening Can Improve Your Marketing

 

Monitor Your Brand Using Social Listening

 

One of the first things you need to do with social listening, monitor for any mentions of your brand name.  That’s because social media tools usually only notify you about mentions where the user actually tagged you.  

However, what happens when someone mentions you without tagging you?  How do you find out about it so you can act?  Quite simply, you need to set up a search for your brand name.  

This will help you with customer service issues, and brand reputation management.  It will also help you discover any social selling or engagement opportunities.  Once you’ve created a search for your brand name, you can also set up alerts.  Doing this every time you get new mentions of your brand, you’ll get alerted so that you can react accordingly.

 

Create Better Content Using Social Listening

 

According to a recent study by Ascend2, content marketing is the most effective tactic for 58% of marketing professionals.  Brands need to use their generated content on their website/blog, social media, via email, and on all kinds of other channels and platforms.

 

Social Listening Helps You Compete

 

It’s a constant battle to get attention for your brand, because you also need to compete with countless other brands, bloggers, YouTubers, and all kinds of content creators for your audience’s attention.  Because there is so much competition, you need to be able to create personalized content that is super relevant to your target audience.  You also need to learn:

  • What types of headlines work?  What gets clicks?  What gets shares on social media?
  • What types of content formats does your audience prefer?  For example, do they prefer short/long blog posts, how-to guides, listicles or videos?
  • What topics interest your audience?
  • What topics does your audience talk about the most?  What are the most common keywords they use?

 

Social listening is the perfect tool for identifying these kinds of trends and information about your audience. By using social listening and experimenting with different topics, headlines, and content formats, you can ensure that you’re creating content specifically for your target audience.  Set up searches for relevant industry topics and track the most shared content to uncover trends and patterns.

 

Use Social Listening for Social Selling.

 

Another way to use social listening to your advantage is to discover social selling opportunities, including

  • People searching for products/services like yours or recommendations
  • People talking about your competitors, such as disgruntled customers, people searching for alternatives, or those inquiring about features 
  • People who have an issue that your product or service can solve.

 

Some tools can do this for you automatically – like Awario Leads, but with most you need to search for them yourself.

Look up relevant keywords from your niche.  What keywords would people use to search for products or services like yours?  Use a keyword research tool like Ubersuggest or Moz Keyword Explorer to see what keywords/phrases they’re most likely to use.

 

Monitor Your Competitor’s

 

Monitor your competitors’ brand names.  Monitoring your competitors not only helps you understand what works and doesn’t work for them but allows you to discover opportunities for lead generation. Such as people discussing your competitors’ products/services and asking about their pros and cons.  Or others looking for similar product recommendations, complaining about the competitors’ products, etc.

Monitor your brand name.  I’ve discussed the importance of monitoring your brand name online.  However, another advantage is that you might connect with some potential customers.  Possibly people who are looking at your products or services as an alternative and talking about it online.  Jump into these conversations to help convert these users into customers.

 

Be Proactive About Lead Generation

 

If you want to be more proactive about your lead generation, make sure to set up social listening searches.  Set relevant alerts so you can jump in and engage at the right moment, and generate more leads.

 

Learn From Your Competitors

 

By monitoring your competitors’ online activity, you can learn a lot about their marketing strategy.  Where exactly are they active?  What platforms do they use?  And most of all, where are they most successful.

What is their content strategy like?  What types of content do they create and how frequently?  What are their most popular pieces of content?  What is their audience engagement like?  Does their audience engage with them?

What campaigns did they run?  Which ones were most successful/least successful and why?  What can you learn from their wins/losses?  What are people saying about your competitors?  What are your competitors’ weaknesses?

This information can help you improve your own marketing strategies, as you learn more about your own industry and target audience.

 

Identify Brand Ambassadors and Social Influencers

 

Who truly influences your audience?  Who in your industry gets the most shares and the most engagement overall?  By definition, social listening helps you uncover trends, so it makes perfect sense that it would also help you discover the top influencers that your audience follows.

Most social listening tools have built-in influencer marketing tools and tell you exactly who the top sharers are for the keywords you’re monitoring.  For example, Brandwatch lets you search for relevant users and gives them an influencer score.

In addition, Awario lists all the top influencers for your topic/campaign.  In other words, these tools usually do the work for you once you’ve set up your search.

 

Learn About Your Audience Using Social Listening

 

If you want successful marketing campaigns, you need to know who you’re targeting.  Without that knowledge, how will you know where to reach them?  Or the type of content they would be interested in? Social listening can help you learn a lot about your audience.

Where do they spend their time online and which platforms do they use?  In order to reach more people and deliver a better user experience, you need to have a presence wherever your audience is active.

What do they talk about online?  Which topics interest them?  What are they reading and sharing?  Follow their conversations to learn more about their interests and needs.

How do they feel about certain topics?  Social listening tools tell you what their overall sentiment is.

 

 

Social Listening Can Teach You a Lot

 

Social listening can teach us a lot, and that knowledge, when applied to your marketing strategies will improve them.  Learn more about your audience to know who you’re targeting.

Monitor your competitors to understand their strategy.  Monitor your brand nameto ensure you never miss online mentions.

 

Discover Hidden Opportunities

 

Use social listening to discover hidden opportunities and improve your lead generation.  Learn what content works so you can improve your own content marketing strategy.  

Discover the top social influencers your audience follows and engages with.  Learn from these interactions and apply what you’ve learned.  Can you think of other ways for you for you to leverage social listening?

 

Social Media Energizes Your Digital Marketing *

Social Media Energizes Your Digital Marketing *

What is Social Media Optimization?

 

Social Media Optimization (SMO) is the use of a number of outlets and communities to generate publicity.  Doing this increases the search awareness of a product, service brand or event.  This raises it’s potential exposure in search queries.  Do you use social media optimization to raise your product awareness?

 

Types of Social Media Included

 

Types of social media involved include RSS feeds, social news and bookmarking sites, as well as social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, video sharing websites and blogging sites.

 

SMO Goal is to Increase Traffic and Awareness

 

Generally, social media optimization refers to optimizing a website and its content.  Doing this encourages more users to use and share links to your website across social media and other networking sites.

Social Media Optimization is similar to search engine optimization.  The goal of SMO is to generate web traffic and increase awareness for a website.  This is done by creating inbound and outbound links which add credibility to your website.  

 

 

Social Media Optimization Tools are Available

 

Social Media Optimization also refers to software tools that automate this process, or to website experts who undertake this process for clients.

 

Social Media Optimization Engagement 

 

SMO is Social Media Engagement

 

The goal of Social Media Optimization is to create interesting online content.  This can range from well-written text to eye-catching digital photos or video clips.  

This content is designed to encourage people to engage with a website and then share this content.  It’s all about shares and sharing , with social media contacts and friends.

 

Engagement Means Likes and Shares

 

Common examples of social media engagement are “liking and commenting on posts, retweeting, embedding, sharing, and promoting content”.   Social media optimization is also an effective way to perform online reputation management.  

 

SMO can Help With Reputation Management

 

It’s important to get out front, if someone posts bad reviews of a business.  An aggressive SMO strategy can ensure that the negative feedback is not the first link to come up in a list of search engine results.

 

Social Media Optimization Affects SEO

 

Social media optimization is becoming an increasingly important factor in search engine optimization, which is designing a website so that it has as high a ranking as possible on search engines.

Search engines are increasingly utilizing the recommendations of users of social networks.  Your likes and shares on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Reddit are used to rank websites and web pages in the search engine results page.

 

Likes and Shares Help SEO

 

It is implied that when a webpage is shared or “liked” by a user on a social network, it is as if they “voted” for that webpage’s quality of content.  Because of this sharing, search engines can use such votes accordingly to properly ranked websites in search engine results pages.

 

Search Engines Love Social Media

 

Since social media makes it more difficult to put a finger on the scales or influence the search engines in any way, search engines are giving more credibility to social search.  The increasing popularity of social search, coupled with the growth in personalized search based on interests and location, has significantly increased the importance of a social media presence in search engine optimization.

Due to personalized search results, location-based social media presences on websites such as Yelp, Google Places, Foursquare, and Yahoo Local have become increasingly important.  While social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, it is different in some important ways.

 

SMO Helps More Than Just Search Engines

 

Social Media Optimization is focused on driving web traffic from sources otherthan search engines.  Improved search engine ranking is also a benefit of successful social media optimization.  

SMO is helpful to target particular geographic regions in order to target and reach potential customers.  This helps in lead generation.

 

SMO Engages Visitors

 

Social Media Optimization helps find new customers and contributes to high conversion rates.  SMO helps convert previously uninterested individuals into people who are interested in a brand or organization.

 

SMO Taps into Viral Content

 

SMO Embraces Viral Marketing

 

Social media optimization is connected to viral marketing or “viral seeding”.  This happens when word of mouth is created through the use of networking in social bookmarking, video and photo sharing websites.  

An effective SMO campaign can harness the power of viral marketing; for example, 80% of activity on Pinterest is generated through “repinning.”  By following lifestyle trends and using alternative social networks, websites can retain existing followers while also attracting new ones.  

This allows you to build an online following and presence, all linking back to your company’s website for increased traffic.  With an effective social bookmarking campaign, not only can website traffic be increased, but a site’s rankings can also be increased.

Similarly engagement with blogs creates a similar result by sharing content through the use of RSS in the blogosphere and special blog search engines.  Social media optimization is considered an integral part of an online reputation management or search engine reputation management strategy for anyone who cares about their online presence.

 

SMO is not Only for Marketing

 

Social media optimization is not limited to marketing and brand building.  Increasingly, smart businesses are integrating social media participation as part of their knowledge management strategy.  

SMO plays a bigger role in product/service development, recruiting, employee engagement and turnover, brand building, customer satisfaction and relations, business development and much more.  Social Media Optimization is key to your online reputation and your social media presence.

 

Social Media Optimization can Build a Community

 

Social media optimization can be used to build a community of associated sites, allowing for a healthy business-to-consumer and business-to-business relationships.

 

You need to handle negative social media comments positively *

You need to handle negative social media comments positively *

Negative social media comments and reviews are sometimes amusing, but they can pose major problems for businesses. Many studies have explored the impact of online reviews on consumer behavior, and the general consensus is that:

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google are unavoidable parts of running a business today. They increasingly act as the primary connection between your company and its customers, and they also largely shape your online reputation.

While these interactions and your social media marketing efforts can be productive for your business, they’re also highly visible and can hurt you if handled haphazardly.

For instance, when someone posts negative feedback on Google, all of your current and potential customers can see it, as well as your subsequent reaction. Is that reaction calm and empathetic, rash and emotional, or something else entirely

Handling negative social media comments and reviews poorly is one of the biggest reputation mistakes that internet entrepreneurs make.

 

If you’re running your own business and haven’t found a solution for gracefully dealing with your customers online, it’s time to change that.

In this article, we explore several strategies for dealing with negative social media comments, walk you step-by-step through responding to a less-than-ideal customer review, explain what not to do when managing the comment sections of your social media profiles, and finally elaborate on the importance of responding to all comments — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Let’s get to it.

Strategies for handling negative social media comments

Not sure how to respond to negative comments on social media like a pro? These suggestions can help.

Ready? Let’s go.

Related: A beginner’s guide to social media for small business

Respond to the comment quickly

Woman Sitting On Floor With Laptop

The last thing you want a disgruntled customer to feel is that you’re ignoring their complaint or concern. Not to mention, casual bystanders (i.e. potential customers) will take your silence into consideration before purchasing your products or services.

Even if you need some time to look into their problem, there’s nothing wrong with simply posting an official statement that says you’re investigating the situation and will be in touch as soon as possible. Just make sure you remember to leave a response once you’ve figured it out (or it won’t be a good look either).

Back to top

Be sincere and transparent

Believe it or not, most customers understand that you and the individuals working with you are human. Mistakes happen. How you deal with them, however, is where you can really hurt (or boost) your reputation.

If there’s an issue with your products or services, let your customers know that you’re aware of the problem, and are working on a solution.

Leave the script behind and communicate your genuine concern and commitment toward addressing the issue.

Plus, negative comments can humanize your social media profiles. A constant stream of 5-star reviews might seem phony to some users, so engage with them sincerely to de-escalate situations and generate goodwill.

Related: 15 social media tips and best practices for 2020

Back to top

Give discounts when necessary

Sometimes people just need to know that you understand their frustration. When you back up a thoughtful response with a discount, you don’t just tell them you understand — you show them.

Think of a small discount as an extra token of your appreciation for their business, and for taking the time to provide feedback.

 

Just make sure the discount makes sense and is proportionate to the issue they’re facing, or that discount will look insincere.

Discounts can provide a variety of benefits for businesses as well. Although handing out a discount may cost you a little upfront, it often pays off in the form of a loyal customer, or even future business from that customer’s social circle (word of mouth marketing is a powerful thing).

Back to top

Interact directly with your customers

Red Phone With Cord

It’s not always ideal to handle negative social media comments on public forums. Know when to leave a polite and sincere response, as well as when to step back and directly message customers.

Not only do public forums reduce your control of the situation, but watching a Twitter battle unfold might also annoy your followers, even if you’re being kind and accommodating. And if you’re dealing with negative feedback on Yelp? Also a place where things can escalate quickly.

The bottom line is that almost every popular social media platform has a direct message feature. Use that feature to your advantage.

After you’ve handled the formalities of making a public response, move the conversation to private messages where you can explore the customer’s unhappiness and try to make it right. Just remember to conduct yourself as though everyone is watching, because people will take screenshots if they feel slighted.

Related: 3 steps to managing reviews online

Back to top

Make yourself available and visible

Your company website and social media profiles should make it easy for your customers to contact you, and for you to reach out to them.

A social media complaint response doesn’t always have to be incredibly public, either. If a customer complains on your business page, leave a polite reply saying that you’re sorry for their experience and that you’ll be in touch via messenger to rectify the situation.

You can also provide an unhappy customer your customer service phone number or email address to give them direct access to a human being — especially if the issue is ongoing or if you’re trying to troubleshoot their problem.

There’s nothing more disheartening for a customer than having to cut through red tape when they have a problem.

Back to top

Keep things in perspective

The best business owners know they have to take the bad with the good, and that bumps — like negative feedback — are part of the game. Strive to resolve negative social media comments responsibly, and stay focused on the good that can come from them. Your customers will appreciate you and your business much more if you do.

Finally, when thinking about your optimal response to negative comments, the most important thing to keep in mind is that your customers are reaching out for help (even if they do so in an angry or exasperated way).

Take care of their needs and, most of the time, they’ll repay you with loyalty and positive comments in the future.

Related: 4 ways to wow with social media customer service

Back to top

Considerations for leaving a response to negative comments

So when that negative comment inevitably appears, what steps should you take to make the situation right? We’ve got five steps below to guide you through.

1. Step back and take a deep breath

Some people are naturally laid back in every situation. But for the rest of us, it’s easy to get defensive when someone complains or attacks something we hold close to our hearts, like our business.

Do whatever you need to achieve a stable state of mind before responding to a negative social media comment.

 

You want your brand voice to be professional and level-headed, even if irreverence is on-brand for your particular business.

When you’ve achieved that mental state (or something close to it), proceed to the next step.
Back to top

2. Write out your response on paper

Don’t jump online and push out a hurried response to the negative social media comment. Take your time, and write your thoughts out on paper.

Taking notes and writing a draft like this lets you gather your ideas, consider how to best articulate your response, and determine if you think this customer deserves a discount, refund, etc. It also gives you time to think about what to post publicly, and what to keep private.

Back to top

3. Be ready to give something up

As you’re writing out a response to the complaint, also think about what you could potentially give up — discounts, free shipping, free products — in order to turn things around with the customer.

Ultimately, placating an unhappy and vocal customer will save your business money.

 

However, it’s important to phrase your offer in a way that comes off as sincere, or it may not end up helping at all and may actually make them angrier.

That’s why it’s important to get a second opinion on your response.

Back to top

4. Loop in a colleague or trusted individual for writing feedback

Two People Having A Discussion At A Picnic Bench

It might seem drastic, but a single social media complaint response can end up causing many issues for your business. After you’ve written what you think is the ideal reply for this particular scenario, get a second opinion.

Having someone else assess the tone of your words — whether it’s a colleague, trusted friend, or even spouse — can help ensure your writing comes off as sincere.

Show them the customer’s complaint as well as your potential response, and see what they think. It’s possible they’ll have suggestions on how to better ameliorate the situation, and they can give you an opinion on whether a discount/refund seems like the next logical step.

Back to top

5. Comment and track the situation

You’ve put together an on-brand, calm-and-collected response and had its tone approved by someone else — you’re now ready to respond to the negative comment.

After you’ve clicked “reply” or “send,” you’ll want to make sure the situation comes to a satisfactory conclusion for both you and the customer/user, so don’t sweep everything under the rug just yet.

Make sure that any promises you make in your comment come to fruition, follow up in a private message if the customer is unresponsive to your reply, and be ready to wrap everything up with a nice bow once the customer reaches out again.

If you’re able to turn these negative social media comments into a positive (or even just mitigate their impact), your business’s online presence will be a stable, healthy one.

Back to top

What NOT to do when responding to negative social media comments

There are several things you shouldn’t do when responding to negative social media comments.

1. Don’t delete comments (usually)

For instance, don’t delete negative comments. There are few situations where deleting a user’s complaint about your product or service is a good idea. If they are slinging profanity or posting off-topic things, it’s fine to hit the delete button, but don’t censor legitimate critiques.

Deleting a negative comment can create bad blood very quickly, particularly because people who take the time to post something on your social media are active users.

They are much more likely to follow up if they feel they have been unfairly silenced, and once other customers hear about it, they’ll all grab pitchforks.

Related: How to flag a Yelp review

Back to top

2. Don’t neglect your social media presence

You should also not leave your social media in the hands of untrained employees.

Consistency is key with any business process, and the same applies for your response to negative social media comments. You don’t want to deal with a rogue employee or intern tweeting rude things on your company profiles.

To avoid such issues, have a clear, written outline of your company strategy for responding to negative comments on social media, and put serious effort into training your staff.

Go over your outline with all existing employees, and make that outline part of the onboarding process.

There is no way to plan for every scenario, so your staff will always be expected to use their own creativity and customer service skills. Each employee should be prepared to do so at any time, with any customer.

Take your social accounts seriously, and you’ll be able to achieve a more consistent brand voice across all social media platforms.

Related: How to grow your business’s social media following

Back to top

3. Don’t argue

While you might not believe in the sentiment “the customer is always right,” you should abide by it when addressing negative social media comments. Even if you’re certain they’re wrong, don’t argue, and don’t pick a fight with them, because it will backfire.

And if you know they made an obvious user error, send them a private message politely explaining the situation rather than publicly torching them. They most likely will appreciate the tact and should move on from their gripe as well.

Back to top

Why responding to all comments is good for your business

Responding to all comments is the best strategy for savvy business owners because getting engagement is a challenge. There are many competing voices out there, and as long as the customer in question is sincere and not a spammer or troll, they are worth your time.

Unhappy customers create a dialogue about the quality of your products and services and may be a little help away from being a long-term customer.

Happy customers boost your reputation, connect your business to their social circles, and end up becoming the ones you rely on to keep your business running. Taking care of both demographics is crucial to your online success.

And with the right management tools and plan in place, negative scenarios don’t have to be detrimental to your business either.

It’s definitely possible to walk away from a negative situation with increased loyalty from a previously upset customer, as well as from the users — new and old — who witnessed the situation play out on your social media profiles.

Back to top

Respond well and enjoy the benefits

Mobile Phone With Social Media Reactions Above

The level of visibility afforded to social media presents business owners with a unique opportunity when they encounter a disgruntled customer. Your response to negative social media comments, if handled with the proper care and technique, can actually leave your business’s reputation stronger than before.

Whether the feedback you’re getting on your social media accounts is good or bad, engage your customers like never before with GoDaddy Social. Elevate your online presence on the platforms that matter most.

This article includes content originally published on the GoDaddy blog by the following authors: Genevieve Tuenge and Simon Slade.

The post How to positively handle negative social media comments appeared first on GoDaddy Blog.

Stop Marketing, Make Your Social Media Work by Engaging *

Stop Marketing, Make Your Social Media Work by Engaging *

Start Engaging Others With Your Social Media

 

Do you use social media marketing to grow your business?  Are you wondering how to get others to engage with your social media?  Would you like to have others say great things about your brand or product on your social media?  

This article will try to help you discover the common mistakes social media marketersmake and how to fix them.  I want to share how you can improve your social media reach by engaging your audience.  

You’ll discover how to use social media marketing effectively.  Learn how you can have your brand talked about in a positive way.

 

Stop Marketing on Social Media 

 

I used to look at business books in bookstores, and they would all have the same information, just a different title.  The problem is that these books reinforced the traditional marketing methods of the past.  In today’s digital age, too many try to use the same old marketing methods to sell their product or servcie.  Rather than clinging to the past, moving into the digital marketing age it’s all about engagement.

Our information is aimed at entrepeneurs.  Business people who are ready and willing to try something different.  When social media exploded, it took everyone by surprise.  No-one saw that coming and many still wonder how they can make social media work for them.

 

You need to determine where your desired audience is and use the social media platforms to get your message out

When social media first began, the term “social media strategy” did not even exist.  You may not understand the term yet, but that is what you need to adopt and develop.  You have to find your own unique social media strategy.  

Find what works for you.  You can’t just jump on social media and expect to have an immediate impact.  Instead you should give to the network, rather than go out there and sell.   I write three blogs about my interests in business marketing, web accessibility, and business sustainability. and sharing my blog posts on social media helps me to engage with a diverse audience.

There are an abundance of social media platforms to choose from.  And each of these platforms is home to a slightly different audience.  You need to determine where your desired audience is and use those platforms to get your message out.

 

What Drives You Mad About Social Media Marketing?

 

Are there things about social media marketing that simply drive you mad?

I observe a lot in the marketing world, paying particular attention to social media marketing.  I think that the biggest problem for many brands is being dis-engaged.  Some brands have a presence on every platforms, but are not actually present.  It’s better to be on just a few platforms and actually be engaged in conversations with others.

If you schedule your social media posts using a social media management tool, you also need to make the effort to do more than just respond to your comments and shares.  Be engaged in conversations with subjects you care about that are active on your chosen social media platforms.

It’s a problem if you’re not there for everybody else’s tweets about other things. You are not unconditionally giving back to the community.  Don’t be someone who only answers when people talk to you.

 

Engagement on the average Twitter account today is much lower than it used to be

The engagement on a new Twitter account today is nowhere near as high as it used to be.  Intoduced in 2006, by 2009 when you tweeted you could expect to get at least 100 replies.  Today you’re lucky if you get 12.  What you need to understand is that few people hear you unless you are @somebody.

Because of this, many marketers spend less time on Twitter than they used to.  Too many marketers look at the phrase social media, and they only think of the media part.

The message for marketers is don’t rush out and do something just because everybody else is doing it. There are too many marketers who focus on broadcasting and don’t understand the engagement side.

 

Dre Headphones Does Social Media Right

 

I bought my grandson some Beats by Dre headphones, which broke.  Apple told him that he would have to contact the company directly.   I dreaded contacting them because I don’t like to deal with customer service people.

 

Dre Headphones website has great contact information for their customers

When I looked at their website on my phone, I saw they had a customer support Twitter handle.  I tweeted them and 4 minutes later I got a response, which included an apology and said they appreciated my purchase and asked me for a DM for his email address.  

So they could set up a return for him.  Within 3 minutes, he received an email providing instructions for the return.

He was then handed over to his own personal agent, who dealt with the problem.  I was amazed that such a smooth process came through customer service on Twitter.

 

I found that Beats by Dre has a customer support Twitter handle.

Beats by Dre Support was 100% on task when I tweeted them.  We all understand that mistakes are made, products break and services let us down.  What matters is how the company resolves them that counts.  As a brand, you need to be accountable.

 

How to do Things Worth Talking About

 

I’ve memorialized the Beats by Dre customer service on Twitter.  However, they have to  remain consistent with their brand message and concern for customers, no matter how many followers they have.  This is a huge key to customer service.

 

Beats by Dre remains consistent with every single customer.  You can’t pick and choose whom you want to treat right.  You need to fulfill everyone’s expectations.  You have to remember with Twitter that content can spread because it’s a publicized customer service. 

How you handle your day-to-day business can be something worth talking about.  Unfortunately, to be considered great, sometimes you only have to be mediocre.

To be worth talking about, you don’t have to create the tweets or the content on a blog.  Instead you have to take the actions that somebody will want to blog about.

The best way to create a story is to hire people who believe that every problem is an opportunity to create a great story.  Sometimes these stories will get shared and other times they won’t.

 

How Should Marketers Start with Social Media?

 

I feel that marketers to select one platform to start.  I’m on Linkedin to connect with other business owners, because when you own a business Linkedin membership helps me to feel less isolated.

When you join a social media platform, start by talking to five people.  Send five messages commenting on other peoples content.  Just begin by talking to people about the things that you are interested in.

There should be no pressure.  Also give yourself permission to not do social.  Once you take the pressure off, then you might want to give social media a try.

 

Accessibility Toolbar