With the growing presence of businesses on social media platforms today, creating mistakes has become very common. But the effect a mistake does on the brand’s image is extensive. This makes it important to consider Social Media Reputation important. Here are 10 ways to restore your Social Media Reputation:

1) Use Tools that will help you track your Social Media Reputation:

It has become hard to manage reviews nowadays, as everyone uses Social Media Platforms to review business whether it is a good review or a bad review. It has become easier through some free tools that notify you whenever you get an alert. Many of the free tools include Google Alerts, BuzzSumo, SEMrush, etc. Some tools like Radian6 or Sprinklr, are costly but they tell a consumer’s sentiment towards your brand.

These tools help you keep a check on your Social Media Reputation, and take notice of any mistake before it becomes immense.

2) Have a contingency plan ready!:

The most important step to restore your Social Media Reputation is to have a plan ready. Usually, we think it is right to respond right away. But the correct first step is to have a plan on how to respond to a criticism or a bad review. You should prepare well because responding badly right away, or doing a mistake in responding, can do irreparable damage. It is a given fact that before responding, you should consult your PR and legal team, so that the response that goes out, settles the problem, not start another one.

3) Be upfront about your mistake:

Sometimes, the mistake is not that huge, and only admitting to it, and seeking an apology helps in fixing that mistake. This is valid in all the cases though, be it a big mistake or small, but admitting to it, helps a lot in restoring your Social Media Reputation. Always remember to keep your voice humane, and with authenticity. A formal tone doesn’t work well when you are asking for an apology.

4) Remove the post if it’s offensive:

Sometimes it is important to just remove the post because it is offending your audience. Anything controversial or offensive will anyway cause a lot of damage to your social media reputation. And if it isn’t removed soon or ever, it will cause the same bad impression on your potential and existing followers. But deleting or removing the post doesn’t mean that the problem has eradicated itself. It is just to begin a fresh start and that will begin, the moment you remove the post, and post a new apology. The apology post, should come soon and should sound sincere. It should contain the reason why you posted the post in the first place, and why you have removed it. People should see that you have learned your lesson and that you are deeply regretting your mistake.

5) Be Solution-Oriented:

Sometimes, mistakes made are about statistical claims or figures. While this is something we can control, just an apology won’t work. Instead, helping your audience by providing a solution is a bold but great step to restore your Social Media Reputation. This is a caring move, that your audience will appreciate, and make your brand look accountable and trusting.

6) Develop A CTA for such incidents:

It is a solution that benefits us the most, as instead of bad reaction working its butterfly effect online, we can talk to the audience personally. Providing an email or contact information, for situations like this helps in dealing with issues quickly. This also helps in managing our Social Media Reputation, better than other solutions, as it is fast, effective, and personal.

7) Come up with a new campaign idea!:

Once you have followed the above steps, its important to shed a light on your business’s other benefits. Highlight your brand into a completely new light, so that your audiences can relate your brand to those ideas. The campaign doesn’t have to be elaborate, but effective enough to work as a cooling effect on your previous mistakes.

8) Employee Complaints:

Now I know you might think, how is it going to affect your Social Media Reputation, but hear me out. Sometimes our team can cause our reputation a hit, by either posting something controversial or creating an online scene from fake accounts. To not let this happen, check on your employees, complaints, or queries which doesn’t let them do something irrational.

9) Check yourself!:

What forces someone to give a bad review? A bad experience with the product/service! This is true most of the time that businesses from their end fail to provide a good experience to their consumers thus resulting in a bad review. So try to improve issues at your end so that your social media reputation doesn’t have to bear the brunt of it.

10) Keep an eye on your competition:

Sometimes it’s the competitors who try to tarnish your brand’s image. At a time like this, it is best to avoid the war and ignore the noise. Getting into these online battles can cause your reputation to stoop low. It is best to overcome such situations by following the above-given tips.

So these are some tips we swear by, that will help you manage your Social Media Reputation.