Social media networks are changing the way we do business every day. With the recent launch of Instagram TV, Facebook developing new tools for creators, and Twitter expanding past the 140 character limit, it can be challenging as a social media marketer or business owner to have a post to fit every platform available. Luckily, you may already be sitting on a treasure trove of content when you look at the reviews that have already come in for your business.
Mastering your own online reputation management and incorporating it into your daily routine and business practices set you up directly with your customer base and audience. According to Forbes, when people are researching a business, if there are two negatives in the search results that business risks losing 44% of its customers. You’d be crazy to not take into consideration the impact that our online reviews and feedback have on your bottom line.
Whether your business is large or small, your online reputation can either make or break your next customer.
So now what do we do?
Well, every online review you receive can be leveraged into content for your social media platforms. Regardless if they are negative or positive, the feedback you receive from customers can be repurposed in a myriad of ways. When 88% of people utilize reviews to measure the quality of a business, how you transform those reviews into content will have a multiplying effect.
Let’s get started!
7 Tips to Turn Your Reviews Into Social Media Content
1. Handle Your Online Reputation with Expertise
Managing the online reputation of your business is no easy feat. It’s something that needs to be looked after every day with an ongoing strategy of how to improve your relationship with your customers and bring more business in. The first step in the process is to conduct an online search of your business to gauge the current state of your online reputation. From there you can decide how best to go about using your reviews to develop content or if a little more legwork needs to be done to even get to that point.
If online reputation management seems like a daunting task, have no fear. There are a variety of resources and articles on this topic online to get you up to speed. If you find that you don’t have the time to fully take something like this on, be aware that there are resources and services available to help do the job for you.
2. Monitor Your Reviews in a Timely Manner
In order to keep the content you create relevantly, you have to stay on top of monitoring your reviews. If you haven’t already, be sure to set up email alerts so that you are notified as soon as a review or comment comes in. Don’t forget that there are many sites available that people can use to leave feedback on your business.
Whether it’s an online business listings reviews site or your own website, you want to make sure you’re not missing out on any information that comes in about your customer’s experience. Customers can be pleasantly surprised when their reviews are responded to quickly, and when it comes to a negative review, you’re going to want to make sure you handle those as soon as they occur.
3. Respond to Feedback Your Customers Leave
It’s easy to thank someone for leaving a positive review, but when it comes to negative reviews, the situation can be a lot more delicate and require a bit more work. No one likes a negative review, but sometimes these can be the most important. Try to see every negative review as an opportunity and challenge to improve the experience a customer had after the fact.
Responding to a negative review also offers a human side to your business, especially if your transactions mainly occur online. Customers like to feel as though they are looked after and when a business takes the time to properly respond to a negative review, it may lead to an increase in your rating or at least an understanding of how to improve.
4. Select Reviews to Repurpose into Content
Now comes the fun part.
A great way to start out developing your online reviews into social media posts is by using them as testimonials. As a rule of thumb, make sure your customer or client is aware of you using their quote or likeness in any way. It’s always nice to give them a heads up or seek permission through the use of a release form at an event or online.
Take the best highlights from your reviews that you feel will help make your business stand out.
A few examples of the types of things you should look for are:
“Hands down, one of the best restaurants in the city!”
“I don’t think I’ll go to another hair stylist ever again.”
“Stop what you’re doing and sign up now, you won’t regret it.”
“Book ahead, I promise it’s worth it!”
“They solved my problem quickly and responsibly and I couldn’t recommend them more!”
You want to make sure you’re looking for relatable and genuine quotes that would help draw people in or paint a picture of the type of service or product you provide.
5. Tailor Each Post Specific to Each Network
Now, remember that you shouldn’t get into the habit of using the same post on every social media network. Try to be creative in what you can do that would be the most compelling to the platform you are using.
For example, if you’re seeing a particular trend or concern in your reviews that relate to your industry, consider doing a response video for YouTube to show your expertise and provide a face to your business. Offer helpful tips and visuals that showcase how your services can solve that particular problem. If there are new changes within your industry, be ahead of the game and first to discuss the pros and cons of how a change in a product could impact your customers.
In addition to this video, you could develop a long-form blog to go on your website, design a graphic to post to Instagram, as well as an engaging more concise version for Facebook or Twitter. Remember that all of your posts should have some sort of call to action. This could be in the form of driving traffic to your website or booking an appointment with you for a specific service.
6. Monitor the Response and Traffic Your Posts Receive
Now that you’ve worked your reviews into social media posts, just like what you did with those reviews, you’ll want to monitor how well they did to strategize for the future. Did your Facebook post drive more traffic than your YouTube video? How many comments did you receive? These are the types of questions you want to address as an after action to your efforts.
Some social media platforms do better than others depending on your industry or targeted demographic. Additionally, there are specific times that are actually better than others when you are deciding to publish your post to a specific platform. As you start out, there may be a bit of A/B testing involved as you develop an optimal strategy moving forward.
7. Get More Content by Getting More Reviews
Now here’s where we make a full circle. By utilizing online reviews to develop social media posts, you are making the brand of your business and services all the more visible. By achieving more traffic to your website and increasing your customer base, the opportunities to receive more reviews increases.
Remember that people increasingly look to online reviews to determine whether or not they’re going to engage with a business. By using those reviews in your social media content you’re expanding their reach. This also emphasizes the importance of having a sound strategy of managing your online reputation as part of your daily practice.
In Conclusion
Your online reputation is more important than ever. If you do not have a brick and mortar storefront, then what is said about you online may be the only first impression some potential customers ever get. Simply put, your online reputation indicates how well you engage with your customers and the type of experiences they have when doing business with you.
Sometimes people have the mindset that people only take to the internet to leave an online review when they have a bad experience. While this may be true, don’t let this intimidate you.
For one, it should incentivize you, even more, to manage your online reputation and address those reviews or your business operations internally to see what went wrong. Rather than potentially having a collection of negative reviews just sitting idly on the internet ready to influence anyone who comes across them, you can actually turn the tables around by publicly addressing them and showing viewers that you’re doing what you can to rectify negative situations.
When it comes to content creation for social media, continuing to use the best practices when it comes to online reputation management will result in neverending resources for future posts as well as improved customer service relationships.
See also: How to find different ways to produce quality content?
