Branding, Internet Culture, Reputation Management, Social Media

The Internet Smells Fear

Is It You?

If your company is going to have an internet presence, you have to make some sort of effort to respond on its behalf like a real person.  It’s part of the Supreme Court’s ruling on Citizens United.

But seriously, it’s what you have to do to not come across as creepy.

Having no internet presence is completely fine.  A little dated, not hip with the kids, but perfectly acceptable.  And trying out social media and making mistakes is totally okay too.  It’s a lighthearted and casual environment where you can talk about what your company is doing, who you are, or respond to complaints and deal with them.

But all too often there’s someone in charge who doesn’t take the time to put together a cohesive message, and tells an unpaid intern that they need to be on “the Twitter.”  So this terrified intern, not wanting to destroy the company, starts posting extremely vague glossed-over posts with zero value, not responding to comments, and never responding to criticism.  This dangerous non-commitment is like going to a middle school dance and standing terrified against the wall, people start thinking you’re weird and you wonder if you should have stayed home.  If you’re trying to be present but refuse to participate, people will think your company is:

  • Phony
  • Disorganized
  • Incapable of putting together a cohesive message
  • Out of touch
  • Uninterested
  • Selling a scam or product that they won’t stand behind
  • Generally creepy

So you’re better off putting in the effort.  Of course if your stomach sank when you read down that list because those descriptions actually do apply to you, you’ll want to fix those root problems first.

Make sure that whoever is representing your business knows your business.  They should know your products, services, upcoming changes, sales, and most importantly: who your customers are.  That person needs to have easy access to the chain of command, so that they can get the information they need to answer questions.  The CEO doesn’t have to be on Twitter, but they should probably make themself available to the representative who is.  With just that basic information a good social media representative can fill in the blanks and come across as human.

If you’re comfortable with that, start pushing the limits but plan ahead.  Your posts tell the world what sort of person your brand is.  Serious or laid back?  Funny?  Snarky and sarcastic or family friendly?  Political?  Patriotic?  Progressive rights and freedoms or “family values”?  Easily offended or aggressively offensive?  Digital shock jock?

Whatever you go with, nail it down in advance and stick with it.  Don’t overthink every post, they’re meant to be transient.  It’s okay to screw up, some horrific posts have turned into huge boosts to the business.  Whatever you wind up with, it’s better than bland.

And of course if it comes down to it

“Sorry about that disaster loyal followers, the person responsible has been fired”

is well under 140 characters

 

 

Analytics, Branding, Keywords, Platforms, Search Engine Optimization, Tools, Web Design, Wordpress

DIY SEO Starter Kit

The First Steps

So you’re ready to start marketing your business online, and don’t want to put in a big investment from the start.  Here are some bare-bones ways to get going.  If hands-on isn’t your style, we’re here to help.

Google Local

If you have a brick and mortar company, the best thing you can do from the start is to create a Google Local entry.  This will allow you to show up when people search for local businesses, even if you don’t have a website.  Create a Google account (they’re free) and create a Google “Places for Business” listing.  You can do both of those here:

Google Places for Business

They’ll need to verify your business address, so hold on to your account information and expect to receive a postcard in about a month with a pin number to activate your listings.

Social Media Accounts

Head to Facebook.com and create a new listing for your business.  Keep it simple for now, there’s no need to go much beyond a basic description and your contact information.  Later on you’ll want to post updates to the page, but for now it will serve as a placeholder when people search for your company.

Get a Domain Name and Website

This one is a little more tricky.  If you’re just starting out you’ll need a domain name and somewhere to host it.  A domain name is the .com/.net./.org that people type into their browser in order to get to your site.  Your host is where your all the files are stored for your website.  It’s possible to buy a domain name from one company and hosting from another, but for the sake of simplicity it’s easier to buy both from one so that you won’t have to deal with a lot of configuration issues.

I recommend Hostgator, who are reliable, secure, and a fraction of the cost of comparable services: Sigh Up For Hostgator

Set up and account there and buy a domain name as well as a ‘baby gator’ hosting package to get started.  Don’t expect the easy or obvious domain names to be available, it can be tricky to find the right one.

Choose a CMS

Once your domain name goes live (it will take a day or two) you’ll have your login info for the CPanel from your host.  From there, you’ll have the option to install different content management systems.  My suggestion is WordPress.  It’s a robust blogging platform that can handle a whole site, and has a great community behind it.

Go to your CPanel, head down to QuickInstall, and follow the wizard to install WordPress.  What you’ll wind up with is a new username and password for your own website, and when you go to your domain you’ll see a mostly blank site with some sample posts in there.  While you still have the CPanel open, you might as well set up an email address for your new domain that forwards to your usual address.

Log in to the new WordPress site administration area, delete the sample posts, and start thinking about what information customers will be looking for from your company.

Design the Site

The best place to start if you’re new is to use a simple template.  Under the “Appearance” menu select “Themes”.  You’ll be able to browse through a lot of free themes that change the look and feel of your site.

Once you find one that works for you, you can put together a draft of your site.  Create “Pages” to be static parts of your site that rarely change, with information like your locations, services, etc.  And create “Posts” as linear updates, with the most recent at the top.  Use these for announcements.

Head to the general settings to set up your site name and headline.  Now visit the site directly and see how it looks.

Google Analytics

Sign up at Google Analytics and put in your new domain name.  Google will give you a piece of code to put on your site in order to track your visitors and where they come from.  Don’t worry about copying that whole chunk of code to your site.

Instead, go back to your WordPress administration page and then the “Plugins” menu.  Search for and install the Google Analytics plugin.  Now activate it, go to the settings, and plug in the code number that Google gave you.

After this Google Analytics should acknowledge that the plugin is installed, and will start showing data on your visitors.

Keyword Selection

Keywords are words and phrases which you want your site to show up for when people search.  For most small businesses, it’s a combination of the nearby cities and the services you offer.  “los angeles plumber,” “santa monica HVAC,” etc.  Make a note of a few of these to keep track of as your site grows.

If you need help, plug your keywords and site into Google’s Keyword Planner.  It gives suggestions for keywords based on how many times they are searched each month.  It’s not completely reliable, but it’s a place to start.  Keyword Planner

Tweak The Site For SEO

Go back to the WordPress administration area, back to the plugins section, and install “Yoast SEO.”  It’s not perfect or an all-encompassing solution, but it’s a decent start without having to dig into the code or a lot of minor settings.

Every time you write a post you’ll get a list of suggestions at the bottom, based on how well written your post is for ranking for your targeted keywords (assuming that’s your goal).  It’s not a guarantee of anything, but it points you in the right direction.

While you’re at it go to the general settings and change the permalinks to /post-name/

Rank Tracking (optional)

If you want to keep track of your keyword ranks but don’t want to spend all day with a spreadsheet, you’ll want a good rank tracker.  Having tried most of the major ones available, I strongly recommend SerpBook.  They update the ranks several times per day for the big search engines and they’re generally very reliable.

Branding, Reputation Management

Save Your Reputation

Don’t Panic

People say mean things on the internet.  It happens.  But what if someone start blasting your company on a complaints site?  Yelp, Ripoff Report, Complaints Board, and similar sites can shoot right to the top of the Google results when people search for your company name.  If you’re not careful, they’ll tear you down.  Face it head on.

Fix Your Company

It’s easy to have a gut reaction to someone provoking you online.  You can call it slander, you can call it fake, you can blame ex-employees or think you can sweep it under the rug.  You’ve worked hard to build your business and now some jerk is trying to ruin it for you.  Who can you sue?  Before you go any further, take a minute and ask yourself:

“Are they right?”

Step away from the anger, fear and insecurity and consider Occam’s razor.  The odds are that you have a legitimately angry customer, rather than an evil conspiracy out to get you.    If there’s something there that you can take to heart, do it.  Whether or not you decide they have a valid point, that insecurity knot in your stomach will start to ease up.  Make some changes, and you might just be better off for it.

Respond To The Issue

If you’ve taken care of whatever problems there are with your business, and feel confident that you’re meeting expectations, then feel free to respond directly on the complaint site.  Issue honest feedback, or an apology if necessary, and see if you can clear the air.  Remember that you’re writing not just to respond to that person, but to everyone else who’s searching for your company and stumbled across this page.  A resolution can go a long way in building trust.

That said, know when to cut your losses.  Be the bigger person, and it will come across.  Don’t let it drag on, the more content you add to the complaint site, the easier time the complaint will have ranking in the search engines.

Push Up The Good, Push Down The Bad

Take an aggressive approach to filling up the first SERP for your company name.  Every social media account, press release, article, or blog post that shows up on the first page for your company name is one less space available for a complaint.  Link those to each other, create a lot of content.  It’s good for your site in general as well as your reputation.

Don’t Let It Slip

Don’t think that because a complaint is gone today that there won’t be 2 tomorrow.  You can’t run from your problems, so make sure that you’re delivering on your promises and keep things running smoothly, or it’s all going to come back to bite you.

Oh, And Forget About Manipulating Yelp

Don’t do it.  Fake accounts for high ratings will never work.  Obvious attempts will get deleted.  You can’t push them off the first page.  Respond to them within the Yelp system honestly and directly, it’s your best bet.