How Should You React To Online Reviews?

Hotel and restaurant owners know the damage a bad review can cause. When visiting a new city some people wouldn’t dare book a room without first looking up the property on TripAdvisor. Owners are understandably concerned when a scathing customer review sits atop their profile, as the voice of one individual could drive away countless others. How do they deal with this? I’m sorry to say their solutions are not always honest. Fake reviews abound, with some owners attempting to manipulate ratings and bury negative material. These tactics are not only dishonest, they create an arms race between hoteliers and the web developers who want to maintain the trust of their users. In that battle I would put my money on the developers every time.

By reacting in this way businesses risk having their accounts flagged as suspicious or banned altogether. By overreacting they create the perception that they have something to hide, and that lends credibility to bad reviews. Furthermore people have become astonishingly adept at knowing when they’re reading a fake write-up. Don’t fall into that trap! People want to see a business that is receptive to feedback. It is more important to see a human being humbly listening to their customers than it is to see a flawless record. The readers understand that you can not please everyone every time, and they are fully aware that some people will complain about anything. They just want to see that those comments are not falling on deaf ears. It goes a long way to publicly respond “I’m sorry we didn’t meet your expectations, how can we do better?”

Not in the hotel and restaurant industry? Your turn is coming. The big trend in 2010 will be location-aware real-time social networking. This means that your customers will be able to pull out their smart phone while standing in your storefront to review of your business instantly. The phone will know, via GPS, where they are and they will be able to publish their opinions online when they are still fresh. Furthermore they will be able to review absolutely everything, from their mechanic to their dry cleaner. Businesses that never before considered their online reputation will suddenly be faced with it.

There is no one service that leads this market yet, but everyone is jockeying for position. Twitter just turned on geolocation features. Facebook’s version is just around the corner. Funding is flowing to new startups, with names like FourSquare, Gowalla, SimpleGeo collectively raising over $11 million last year alone. Existing review sites like Yelp and Citysearch are becoming more and more popular via their iPhone apps.

There is a generation of consumers coming that will never open a phone book. They will simply pull their phone out of their pocket and ask “What around me has been recommended by people I trust?” Don’t fight these amateur reviewers, they have the power to make or break brands. You need to show them that you are listening.

…from a series of Social Media articles I’ve been contributing to the Business Link newspaper, with editions in Niagara, Hamilton-Halton and Brantford. This article ran in Volume 7, Issue 12, January 2010.

Adam White (adamwhite.org) is a software developer at JMR SoftwareSystems (jmr.ca) and a news editor at Punknews.org. How can you engage reviewers? Contact him at 905-374-2878 or adam [at] jmr.ca.

Getting Started With Social Media? LISTEN.

If I controlled the Internet there would be a mandatory disclaimer on every social media site. You would be vetted as soon as you clicked that first link and we would know you were joining as a business. We would smell it on you. This disclaimer would be the most obnoxious clash of pink on yellow and it would fill your screen. In blinking letters it would scream “Social media is about listening.”

In business we are faced with a growing chorus of hype about social media. We called this phenomena “Web 2.0” a year ago. These are simply websites where the visitors are participating by contributing much (if not all) of the content.  Just ask the ever increasing legion of self-declared experts and consultants soon to be knocking down your door! They will alarm you with startling statistics that drive home the fact that the Internet has changed the game. You will be implored to get with the times and get your business on to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, Tumblr and any number of others. The enthusiasts, statistics, and headlines are not necessarily wrong —- but they should be telling you to listen before you leap.

Social media networks are named so for a reason. They are populated first and foremost by people and were built for the utility and enjoyment of those people. Any network that gains in popularity does so because it has committed, passionate users who genuinely find it useful or entertaining (often both). While it makes good business sense take your message where the people are, it makes better business sense to walk in the door humbly and understand the locals. While some of these websites may have started with a business plan they have succeeded in spite of it. They’ve succeeded because they were wise enough to nurture a community before exploiting it for profit.

As a business you should approach social networks with the same level of caution. Read what people are saying. Understand the quirks, the in-jokes and the problems that make that community what it is. Get a feel for the rhythm of conversation. Watch others make mistakes. Once you witness them as a member of the community, the last thing you’ll want to do is assault people with your one-way sales pitch. Just because you can, and just because it’s free, doesn’t make it tasteful, tactful or effective. Social networks are about humans engaging one another, and to get a business message out there you need to engage people on that level. You need to learn to care.

Here are a few first steps:

• Ask your kids (you may have to bribe them). This world is becoming their second home and they probably know it better than you.
• Listen for what assumptions they’re making, the short forms and the funny acronyms. These are the rules of the community.
• Watch how quickly they tune out obvious or pushy advertising.

In social media marketing is an ends, not a means. Listening should be your first priority. This series of articles will challenge businesses to get fluent in the growing social media world and learn to build rapport before making your pitch.

…from a series of Social Media articles I’ve been contributing to the Business Link newspaper, with editions in Niagara, Hamilton-Halton and Brantford. This article ran in Volume 7, Issue 11, December 2009.

Adam White (adamwhite.org) is a software developer at JMR SoftwareSystems (jmr.ca) and a news editor at Punknews.org. Where do we take this conversation? Contact him at 905-374-2878 or adam [at] jmr.ca.