4 Tips For Managing Your Reputation on Social Media Sites

My dinner out at a local sushi bar this week serves as an unlikely inspiration for this post on social media.  I suppose that’s because sushi dinners and social media don’t really have anything to do with each other.  Well, so I thought before my outing.  I was enjoying my spot at the sushi bar conversing with friends and paid a compliment to my chef after tasting one of his unique roll creations.  Rather than thank me for the compliment, he enthusiastically responded, “Go to Yelp and write a review for me!” Being in the search engine marketing industry I obviously took interest in his comment and began to think more about the role social media plays in marketing of a small business.  In the simplest form, social media can best be described as the modern day word of mouth. As my sushi chef understands, being positioned on social media sites can mean the difference in a customer selecting his restaurant over another.  Of course one has the right to post negative feedback should they so desire which is the downside of the social media platform.
Many of the physicians that I speak with about social media networking are concerned with the potential to have harmful results driven by negative comments from users.  Because of this fear, they typically opt to not venture into the social media world. I figured it would be helpful for our readers to provide some valuable tips for managing your reputation on social media sites.

1. Don’t Get Upset and Lose Your Cool. I can’t stress this enough. Lashing back to a negative comment is a natural response in the heat of anger. When rejected, it’s normal to feel hurt, anger, sadness, and even rage. Take the high road, and take a deep breath.   Going tit for tat with a dissatisfied customer can quickly spiral out of control.  Remind yourself that this is part of the “game” and encourage your happy patients to post reviews.
2. Be Preemptive. If you take a good Samaritan role in your social media communities by offering advice while looking for nothing in return, chances are users won’t have anything negative to say at all.  Consider the  Real Self platform.  Physicians respond to questions posed by community members.  The doctors that choose to participate position themselves as the authority on a topic.  This increases the likelihood that users will perceive them as “good” doctors and won’t have anything bad to say.
3. Address Them. Remember that you can’t please everyone all the time, but you can hear them out.  Let them vent; maybe you will identify issues with your business process that can be improved or corrected.  Respond genuinely and your “upset customer” is likely to have respect for you.
4. Monitor. This is another important point.  Don’t forget to monitor your profiles!  What you don’t know can hurt you so make sure that you check up on user reviews on a regular basis.