SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING WITH TWEETGRID

Technology has really changed the way people share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences about businesses. Thanks to social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, a company’s positive image can be bolstered or destroyed overnight.

Those who take the power of social media communities seriously allow themselves the ability to steer through the minefield of public opinion and continue with great success. But companies who chose to ignore the new paradigm we have experienced for the past several years are destined to hit mine and fail.

Reputation monitoring is the big new thing in the world of business today. Community relations now takes place online… in real time… and there’s a secret weapon you can use absolutely free of charge called TweetGrid that will allow you to keep track of what people are saying about your brand as it is happening.

According to Twitter.com, there were 140 million Tweets posted just last month. You better believe that a small but significant fraction of those little messages posted on the hottest micro blogging social community board were from people expressing their thoughts, feelings, or experiences about a business product or service.

Now then… considering the massive amount of traffic pulsing through Twitter each and every day, do you think it would be worth monitoring the site for any instances where your brand is being talked about? Would you like to know when someone says something positive? Or perhaps be in-the-know when someone says something negative about their experience with your business so that you could have the opportunity to corral the unhappy customer and show them that you truly care?

I should hope that you do!

That’s where TweetGrid comes into play. All you have to do is launch the website and set up as many grids that you need in order to monitor what is being said about your business. Pick a few keywords that you think people would use for your business, enter each word into a grid, hit the <enter> button, and there you have it. Each and every time someone makes mention of one of your keywords, it will pop into TweetGrid in real time.

The key here would be to test as many keywords as you possibly can. If there are variations of the names of your business, enter them all. You could even enter common misspellings of your business name. The more the better. The bigger the population of people that frequent your business, the more chances there could be for people to talk up your brand.

If you own a restaurant or a service-related business, you might be surprised at how many people are commenting about your establishment on Twitter. People tend to Tweet a lot about the service they receive, and the quality of food at restaurants, for example. Your goal should be to reinforce and reward the positive comments, and transform the negative comments into good customer service buzz.

Throwing a “thank you” out for positive comments is a no-brainer. But what do you do when an individual says something critical or negative about your business or service? Is it possible to transform such an occurrence into something that could end up building up your reputation?

You bet it is!

If a customer tweets something that doesn’t put you in a positive light, your immediate response and offer to remedy the situation could end up transforming that unhappy person into a happy camper. At worst case, even if they are not ultimately satisfied, more people will trust you and take a chance because they will see that you care.

Simply showing that you care enough to respond is one of the best ways that you can bolster your business’s reputation. However, it goes without saying that you would need to have an actual Twitter account in order to post responses to mentions of your brand, so a little bit of research on how to get started using Twitter and knowing the best way to share your online presence would be in order.

As a side note, most businesses actively posting to Twitter have absolutely no clue as to what to post to be most effective in their marketing efforts. A lot of careless business owners “spam” the Twitter timeline with constant ads, and never interact with others in the community. That is a big mistake. Even if your only activity on Twitter was to respond to people posting about your brand, you would be leaps and bounds ahead of the majority of business Twitterers.

Make the decision now to start monitoring your brand on Twitter and take charge of what your customers reactions are. Turn every situation into a reputation-building opportunity, and watch your business grow leaps and bounds!

Do you have ideas on how to use sites like TweetGrid to better your social media monitoring efforts? Do you have a question about the strategies mentioned in this article? Share them in the comments section below!

Carlton Flowers
Marketing Strategist

Tweet This Post

TWITTER DOMINATES THE NEWS AS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING CONTINUES TO RISE

For the past few weeks, it seems that Twitter has been dominating news reports, television & radio discussions, and even household discussions. We have finally arrived at the point that it is a difficult task finding someone who has not at least heard much about Twitter. Television stars, radio show hosts, network news reporters, and even top athletes are being turned on to Twitter at an alarming rate. Chad “Ocho Cinco” has even made plans to post a tweet during an NFL football game as a touchdown celebration!

But what does the future hold for Twitter and social media marketing as it relates to the business world?

I think this marks the beginning of what I predicted last November (2008). The groundswell is about to start, and we will see a tidal wave of change in the business community. We’re on the cusp of that 6 to 18 month “gestation” time that we talked about. This is where it will begin to be an exciting time for everyone.

I’m going to step out on a limb and tell you that social media may be one of the few sectors that has a positive effect on reversing the current economic trend. It has the power of leverage, and is generating the excitement needed to attract investors from all levels. The reason I say this is due to the fact that the valuation of the major players has risen to astronomical levels (Facebook, Twitter, Youtube). Facebook is sitting on a market value of about $15 billion. Twitter could be worth a few billion. Both companies are starting to attract suitors.

We saw Youtube get purchased by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, only 2 years after the site was launched. I believe Twitter is next. And I also believe that Google will be the purchaser, and they will pay a premium. I’m not sure how much it will be, but I look for it to be more than the Youtube purchase price.

This major investment talk is going to trickle down to the business community quickly. When local businesses, both small and large, see the seriousness of the potential buyout, they are going to start paying attention to the power of these social media websites. It’s bound to happen.

Until then, I am going to focus on helping to educate small business owners and professionals on the potential of social media marketing. I have a free audio offer (you just have to pay the cost to have it shipped to you) entitled ”The Seven Secrets of Revolutionizing Your Business Through Social Media Strategy” which is located at http://carltonzone.com/seven-secrets.php. Get a copy of this audio and heed my advice!

To your continued success,

Carlton Flowers

Marketing Strategist

573-893-9498

carlton.flowers@gmail.com

Tweet This Post