Ruined in a ‘tweet’ – ignore social media at your peril!

At a time when a good name can be destroyed in a ‘tweet’, it’s surprising how few organisations actively monitor what people are saying about them over the Internet. These days, we’re more likely to be influenced by what other customers are saying about a product on the internet than believe its slick advertising and marketing hype.

Every business should be actively engaged in not just protecting but also strengthening its online reputation. Listening to what’s being said about your company on blogs, discussion forums and other social media channels also gives you an opportunity to respond and contribute to these conversations in a positive and personal way. It’s these two-way conversations which can play a vital role in building customer relationships and keeping people on side when things go wrong.

Social media marketing is becoming hugely powerful and monitoring it is vital to keeping your business reputation intact.

If you are not already tuned-in, there are some great free tools you can use to start monitoring what people are saying about you.

Here are three good ones to get you started:

1. Google Alerts
   Google alerts, these are free, all you need is a Google account. Google trawls the Internet for conversations about you and sends the links. Also a great tool for keeping tabs on your competitors!
   
   


2. Tweetdeck
   Tweetdeck organises all of your Twitter communications and tracks what people are saying about your organisation or products.
   
   


3. Social Mention
   Social Mention is like Google Alerts but for social media.