It is important that you monitor your Brand keywords on a daily or weekly basis. Lot of times, your competitor might use your brand name in wrong places (spam sites, blog comments) or might create fake reviews in popular sites like Yelp. It is important that you address genuine complaints raised by your customers and inform your prospects about fake reviews and comments. To solve this problem, follow these guidelines
1) Study your Analytics report
Sit with an Internet Marketing expert and list your high value keywords (that are generating revenue for you and crucial for your reputation). Most common brand keywords are <Business Name/Product/Service> review and <Business Name/Product/Service>. Categorize your brand keywords into two sections:
a) High Engagement Keywords: are keywords used by prospects to reach your product/service pages. These keywords will give you visits that might last between 3-8 minutes. These are genuine prospects who want to learn more about your services and products.
b) Low Engagement Keywords: are keywords that are giving your low engaged prospects (visitors who bounce from your product/service pages). Make sure that the high bounce rate is not because of your website (copy, site architecture, navigation or because of visitors coming from non-targeted marketing channels). Once you are sure that your website is not the culprit, categorize the keywords under "Low Engagement Keywords".
Most common "Low Engagement Keyword" is <Business Name/Product/Service> review. Your prospect is not going to visit your website for reviews. They are going to use review sites, blogs, twitter and other communication medium for review. Create a list of websites/blogs/forums (in the first page of the Search Result) that are providing reviews for your products/services. Since the list of sites in the first page of the search results changes frequently, it is important to monitor your brand keywords (especially Low Engagement Keywords) on a weekly basis.
Find out brand keywords that are giving you low traffic. Most likely your prospects will visit other sites for those keywords
2) Monitor your Brand Keywords
It is impossible to monitor 1000s of brand keywords (especially long tail key phrases) but you can monitor your top 10 brand keywords using free web tools.
Action Steps for Brand Monitoring
a. Use Google alerts (http://www.google.com/alerts) with Netvibes Feed Reader.
b. Set up a Gmail account to monitor your brand and register for Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/en)
c. Set up alerts like
<Business Name/Product/Service> review
<Business Name/Product/Service> sucks
<Business Name/Product/Service> bad etc.
d. You can take a step further and monitor mentions only from popular websites
For Example: if you want to monitor mentions only from Yelp then use
<Business Name/Product/Service> review site: yelp.com
e. We would recommend monitoring mentions in at least 10 Forums and 10 popular blogs and websites in your niche
f. You can filter mentions from your target markets or exclude mentions in certain websites by using
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
Remember Google Alerts is a way to get search results over a period of time to your mail box or RSS reader.
g. After you have entered the phrases and conditions in Advanced Search, click the Advanced Search Button.
h. Copy the URL in the browser and add the URL in your Feed Reader (We recommend Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com/en)
3) Set up a Communication Plan
Once you have identified and set up tools to monitor your brand keywords, it is important to address genuine complaints, competitor initiated complaints/reviews and real time time updates about your products and services. Set up a communication plan to address the issues. The communication plan should answer the following questions:
What are your customers saying about your products and services through blogs/forums/comments/twitter/Facebook status updates?
Are they genuine customers?
Can you spot fake reviews and complaints?
Are you able to get the communication handle for the customers (@Twitter Account /Facebook Id/Forum Avatar) and the Webmaster?
Once you are able to answer the four critical questions, categorize the complaints/issues into: Genuine and Fake Complaints.
a) Genuine Complaints/Issues: Set up a plan that will answer the following questions
How can you address genuine complaint in a public forum?
How can you solve your customer's problem if it is genuine?
Take up genuine customer problems on high priority. Once the problems are solved, send an update in public communication channels (forums, comments, twitter replies etc.)
b) Fake Reviews/Complaints/Issues: Set up a plan that will answer the following questions:
Why do you think that it is a fake review/complaint/issue?
Clearly mention that in your public communication. Most likely webmaster will respond to your concern. You can communicate with the webmaster to figure out whether the same person is sending multiple messages in the forum. Another easy way to spot fake reviews is that the reviewer will not engage with the community in any other way other than to post negative reviews. It might also mean that the reviewer is genuinely not happy with your products/services (You are most likely to write a negative review through blogs/forum posts/twitter updates if your expectations about a product or service are not met). Based on the language used in the review, you have to take a call on the authenticity of the review. If on multiple communication if you find out that the review/complaint/issue is genuine, take up the problem on high priority, solve it and post the update in the same communication medium (blogs/comments/twitter)
Want us to create the list of brand keywords, set up brand monitoring web tools and create an effective communication plan? Contact Us
ByteFive is an Internet Media and Marketing company that specializes in marketing Small Businesses. We provide services in Pay per Click Management, Online Reputation Management, Social Media Management and Search Engine Optimization.
ByteFive also provides comprehensive training in Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing (PPC Campaign Creation, Management and Optimization), Social Media Marketing, Developing processes and best practices for managing Web Analytics, Landing page Optimization, E-Mail Newsletter Management, Competitor Research and Content Marketing.