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How To Respond When People Moan About Your Brand On Social Media

Complaining on Social Media

If you operate a company, it is only a matter of time before somebody says something negative about you. You might offer the best service in the world, but people will always find a way to complain and drag you down. 

 

Fortunately, you have multiple tools at your disposal to fight back, even if you don’t currently have a social media account. The trick here is to respond to issues quickly before they get out of your control. Ideally, you want to address any grievances within a few minutes of them being posted to prevent an unnecessary fallout. 

 

Social media complaints about your brand are inevitable, but, in this post, we teach you how to stop them from doing lasting damage. Check out our advice below. 

 

Respond Quickly

 

Firstly, you’ll need to respond quickly to any negative comments you receive via social media. Doing so will prevent the conversation from getting out of control and affecting more people than necessary. 

 

But given the amount of online chatter, how can you achieve this? Your best option is to use social scanning apps that alert you every time somebody mentions your brand or associated keywords in a comment or post. Reps from your company can then manually scan these in real-time and intervene if necessary. Most mentions will be positive. But some will also show your brand in a negative light. Dealing with these quickly prevents any problems from spreading. 

 

Be Transparent

 

Whenever you deal with people online, try to respond in a helpful and genuine manner. Remaining calm and relaxed shows that you have nothing to hide. And it makes the other person look bad if they are raging or being unreasonable. Regular social media users view the interaction as a helpful company trying to assist a rude or ignorant customer, thus protecting and, possibly, enhancing your brand appeal. 

 

Don’t pretend the problem doesn’t exist. And try to avoid dismissing it out of hand, either. Instead, just focus on addressing the issue and make your attempt to do so public. That way, people can see that you’re on their side. 

 

Know When To Engage

 

Sometimes engaging with customers who complain can help your brand. But other times, you’re just dealing with trolls. Therefore, learning how to delete Instagram comments and Facebook comments is essential. This skill gives you the power to prevent them from damaging your brand. 

 

Remember, you are well within your rights to censor unpleasant comments on your channel – and you should probably do so to ensure that it remains a safe space. However, you cannot delete what customers say on other accounts, so you’ll have to respond to these manually. 

 

Show Your Customers You’re Listening

 

When customers make a complaint about your brand on social media, they are also subtly testing you. They want to see how your company will respond to their comments and what action, if any, it’ll take. 

 

Simply reading through a customer’s concerns and addressing them directly shows that you can listen. Don’t just provide a boilerplate response. That never goes down well. 

 

If an angry customer won’t respond to you, that’s okay. Just use your social listening tools to see what feedback they provide about your brand. Then use that information to create posts and other improvements that help to prevent the problem from occurring in the future. 

 

Don’t Get Negative

 

When a customer is bad-mouthing your company on social media, it can be hard to stay positive. But do so you must, otherwise, you might come across as defensive, rude or unprofessional. 

 

Just do your best to manage the situation. Many times, you’re not trying to reason with the customer themselves, but create a public conversation with them that shows your brand in the best possible light. The best way to do this is to remain professional throughout the entire interaction, never letting personal feelings get in the way of good business practice. 

 

Move To A Private Conversation


Try to get your conversation with the person complaining to move to a private forum as quickly as possible. Invite them to call your customer service team or speak with you via chat privately. This way, you can keep all of the grizzly details out of the public eye and speak more freely. 

 

Moving to a private chat is also necessary if you need to ask them for sensitive information, such as their account number, date of birth, or real name. Chatting one-on-one prevents any breach of privacy and gives both parties more freedom to negotiate. 

How To Curate The Perfect Social Media Presence For Your Brand

Social Media

Love it or loathe it; social media has revolutionized the way in which we spend our time. It is also proving to be incredibly beneficial for businesses looking to expand their platform, grow their customer base, and maximize their earnings.

 

However, if you aren’t particularly tech-savvy and don’t know your Insta posts from your tweets, it can be hard to know where to start. With that in mind, here are some top tips that you can use to create the perfect social media presence for your brand!

 

Use the social media platforms that are right for you. Right now, the most popular social media platforms are: 

 

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest 

 

However, each platform caters to a slightly different demographic. For example, if your brand is catered towards younger audiences or teenagers, TikTok is the way to go. While you should set up accounts across multiple platforms, you must choose the platforms that you know your customers are more likely to use, as this makes it easier for you to connect with them. 

 

Set Up a Business Account

 

Social media can help your business get noticed, but you have to do it right if you’re looking to succeed. Therefore, you should ensure that you select a ‘business account’ instead of a personal account when setting up your social media.

 

Doing so means you will be given access to analytics and data that allow you to measure your success. For example, you will be able to see how many people are engaging with your content (liking, sharing, commenting), as opposed to simply viewing it and scrolling away. 

 

Think Carefully About Your Social Media Handles

 

Each social media handle needs to be completely unique, meaning that you might not be able to get the exact name of your business as it may already be in use by another brand. However, it’s important that you find a close match. For example, you could add a few numbers or your geographical location. This will make it easier for your customers to find (and remember) your brand. 

 

Nevertheless, it’s important to remember that your username is not set in date. In fact, one of the most searched questions regarding social media is ‘can you change your instagram username?’. Thankfully, the answer is yes! So, whether you just aren’t happy with your current social media handles/usernames or are considering a rebrand – you won’t have to start your account from scratch. 

 

Quality Content Is Important

 

With so many brands using social media to grow a following, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. As a result, you need to ensure that you are posting quality content, as opposed to simply posting for the sake of it. While you should ensure that you post consistently, each post needs to serve a unique purpose. This could include: 

 

  • Posts designed to introduce customers to your brand by telling your story. For example, this could include ‘meet the team’ posts.
  • Posts designed to advertise a specific product or launch.
  • Posts designed to entertain your followers.
  • Posts designed to inform your customers.

 

While all posts will be used to market your brand, it is important that they do not appear too pushy or sales-based, as this will turn customers away instead of pulling them in. Instead, think about the kind of content you know your target audience would enjoy, and try to create that for them. For example, if you run a fashion brand, you could also share motivational quotes, lifestyle advice, and styling tips and tricks. 

 

Engage with Your Followers

 

If you want your posts and accounts to gain more traction, it’s important that you also use your social media to engage with customers. For example, you should respond to (or like) comments. Not only will this help you develop a relationship with your customers, but it can also help boost your post to a wider audience – as the more comments a post receives, the more likely it is to appear on someone’s feed. Another great way to boost engagement is to ask questions in your image captions.

 

Capitalize on Current Trends

 

Another way in which you can improve your brand’s online presence is by ensuring that you make the most of current trends.

 

For example, if a certain song is really popular at the moment, you could feature it in the background of one of your videos (ensuring that you don’t infringe on copyright rules). This means that your post could quickly gain more traction, as people will stop to listen.  

Simple Ways To Boost Your Startup’s Profitability

Boost Profitability

It is clearly always important to make sure that you are making your startup as profitable as possible, and this is something that you can always look into in some detail.

 

The more profitable your startup is, the more likely it is that you are going to be able to make it last a long time and that in turn is a sure sign of a good business. Plus, the whole point of most businesses is simply to make more money, so that is something you are going to want to bear in mind too.

 

Let’s take a look at some of the simple things you can do to boost your startup’s profitability easily.

 

Choose A Model With Few Overheads

 

If you are yet to land on a business model, then you are in a good position to choose one that is going to help you to remain as profitable as you like.

 

Some models simply cause you to need to spend more money than other ones, so you are going to make a huge difference here just by playing around with those different models. Something like blogging has very few overheads, for instance, compared to something where you need to hire lots of people.

 

Find Alternatives To Hiring People

 

The moment you have to hire people to look after your organization, you are going to have so many more expenses that you need to be aware of. As well as making the running of your business somewhat more complex, this also means that profitability is going to decrease.

 

There are ways you can achieve a lot in business without hiring anyone, however, such as using MLM methods of marketing or simply keeping your business so small that you and your partner can run it alone.

 

Keep It At Home

 

Again, as soon as you have to move to an office, you are going to be spending so much more money. As far as possible, try to start your business at home, and aim to keep it there as long as you can.

 

As long as you manage the scale of the business, this should be something you can do fairly easily, so you won’t need to worry about that at all. Keeping your business at home – where you are already paying for lighting, internet, and space – could mean that you are running a much more profitable business overall.

 

Time Is Money

 

Remember that time is money – this saying might sound a little cliche now, but it’s absolutely true. The more time you spend on things in your business that are not essential, the less money you can make overall.

 

In general, you are going to want to aim for as much productivity as possible, so you can ensure you are going to make more money in the long run. There are a lot of ways to do that, but the important thing is that you are doing them all as best as you can, and starting them early on in the startup’s life.

Giving Your Startup the Boost It Needs To Get Noticed

Give Your Startup a Boost

Getting noticed as a startup is incredibly difficult these days. Everyone wants to start a business and they’ll do anything they can to make it into the big leagues.

 

Unfortunately, this can often lead to some questionable methods being used. Short-term gain is usually a bad idea for startups because you want to establish yourself as a trustworthy and reliable business as quickly as possible.

 

So how exactly can you do this? How do you gain the public’s trust with such a small voice?

 

Diversify Your Advertising and Try Different Things

 

The business landscape is never static. It’s in a constant state of flux and it’s important to try new things whenever possible. Usually, this means trying out different kinds of advertising so that you’re less likely to become stagnant. This also means you can reach a wider audience if used correctly.

 

For example, you could learn how to advertise on SiriusXM, a popular broadcasting company. Alternatively, you could work on your social media presence. Some companies prefer to strengthen the content on their website. Others might go for the traditional (but fairly expensive) route if advertising on TV and local newspapers. There’s something for every kind of business and it’s important that you don’t overlook the many different choices that you have as a startup.

 

Don’t Be Different for the Sake of It

 

One of the biggest pieces of advice that you can get as a startup is to avoid being different just for the sake of it. There are plenty of companies out there that try extremely hard to differentiate themselves at all costs. This is generally a bad idea because you want to be different for a good reason. For example, you want to offer better support than your competitors, you want to have better customer service, and you want to make higher-quality products at a lower price.

 

Many businesses go out of their way to do things differently just for the sake of it. They might try outrageous marketing strategies to stand out, or they might even release products that are slightly offensive for the shock value and to get coverage by the media. These are short-term gains that you should try to avoid if you’re serious about growing your business.

 

Focus on Engaging with Your Audience Wherever Possible

 

One of the best ways to boost your business is to focus on engaging your audience wherever possible. For most small businesses, this means heading onto social media and establishing a presence. However, the way you approach your audience can actually have a huge impact on how they perceive your brand.

 

With social media, you have an opportunity to make a great first impression. You’ll get plenty of chances to establish yourself as a fantastic business, but you need to start slowly and build your brand persona as you go along. The way you react to engagement on social media can also make a massive difference to the success rate of your company.

Is It Too Late To Get Into the Mobile App Market?

Mobile App Market

Let’s preface this by saying no, it’s never too late to get into the mobile app market! However, if you’re going to invest in this market either as a startup or a small business, then you’ll need to do plenty of research if you want to make it big and not waste your time making something that nobody ends up using.

 

So let’s discuss some of the biggest considerations to keep in mind and also why people have this perception that the mobile app market is too difficult to break into.

 

The Mobile App Market Is Incredibly Saturated, But You Can Stand Out

 

It should come as no surprise that the mobile market has been incredibly saturated for a long time now. There’s literally an app for everything and the video game market is even more saturated than regular app development. There are far too many apps to compete with these days, so what really sets an app apart?

 

First off, it’s extremely important to know your audience. For example, if you want to know how to make a social media app, you need to understand how to use one, what people are looking for, and how it’s used. If you don’t understand your target audience, you’re not going to get far.

 

Next, it’s essential that you do plenty of testing. People aren’t going to use an app if it doesn’t work properly and many small companies skip extensive testing phases because they want to get their app out onto the market as soon as possible. Sadly, a rushed launch like this does nobody any favors and is generally frowned upon.

 

Regardless of what your app does or how it’s used, you also need to market it correctly. A fantastic app can get almost no downloads if it’s not marketed to the right audience or if the company skimps on marketing and promotion.

 

On the other hand, a really basic or poorly-made app can get millions of downloads if the developers are lucky. Relying on consistency makes more sense than luck, so make sure your app is promoted to the right people if you want to see downloads and profit.

 

Good Developers Cost Money and Most Small Teams Can’t Afford Them

 

Developing an app takes time, skill, and a lot of experience. While you can forego experience, it certainly helps when making complicated apps that require a lot of support from the backend. Unfortunately, most small teams can’t afford experienced developers without significant outside investment. They’re expensive and even hiring remote employees can get pricey if you’re not careful.

 

As such, you’ll want to try and rely on outsourcing when possible, but you should also be looking to hire talented graduates that are ready to prove their worth to the industry. Nurturing talent like this can be incredibly beneficial for your long-term growth and it should be a key strategy that you rely on.

 

Ideally, you should be using a mix of experienced and new developers, but it’s not always possible given the budget constraints of a small company.

What Can You Do To Boost Your Business In 2021?

Boost Your Business

If you own a business, then you should constantly be trying to think of ways that you can enhance it. Things might be going fantastic, but that doesn’t mean that your business couldn’t use a boost.

 

Or, things might not be going so great, especially seeing as we are still in a pandemic and things aren’t yet back to normal. But, there are things that you can do to boost your business, and they are important.

 

They could help you see more traffic than ever before, which of course, is going to be the goal. In this article, we’re going to be looking at some of the things that you can do to boost your business in 2021, so keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

 

Identify Your Target Audience

 

The first thing that you are going to do is have another look at your target audience. If your business has been going for some time, then you already have a target audience that you market towards, but you just need to double-check this.

 

Sometimes, marketing trends shift and the people who were more likely to buy your product before, are no longer the people who are more likely to buy your product now. As such, it’s important that you identify your new target audience before you carry on marketing to the wrong demographic. Of course, all types of people can use your product or service, but you need to market towards a target audience to see the best results.

 

In order to identify this new target audience, you are going to need to complete some market research. If you don’t know how to do this, or you simply don’t have time, then you can always hire someone who does. This way, you are getting a professional service and you haven’t had to spend all that time sorting it out yourself.

 

Your Website Is Important

 

Another thing that you need to understand is that in 2021, a website is going to be vital. You don’t want to have a cookie-cutter website that looks like all of the others out there right now. People need to be able to tell your business site from another, which is why you need to invest in web design.

 

The professional that you hire will completely customize your website to ensure that it has the most user-friendly experience possible, looks fantastic, and so on. Keep in mind that for some people, this is the first impression that they are getting from your business, so you need to make it a good one.

 

Ensure that on your website your logo is there, information about the business, the product or service that you sell is easily accessible, and so on. Ideally, users should not need to click more than three times to find what they are looking for.

 

Hire The Right Team

 

If you want to boost your business, then you need to hire the right team. You are only as good as the weakest person on your team, which is why you need a massively strong team. If you don’t have one right now, then you need to start building it. People need to be able to pull their weight, contribute effectively to the business as a whole and work as part of the team dynamic.

 

If someone doesn’t do all of these things, then you need to talk to them about their participation. At the end of the day, you are running a business and need the best, but you are also a person with a heart, understanding that sometimes people just need a little bit of help to achieve the things that you know they can.

 

When it comes to the interview process of hiring new people, check out their body language. Look at the way they sit, the way they conduct themselves, how they speak to you, and so on. If they come across as arrogant and unlikeable, they aren’t going to work well with your team which could harm your business.


Work On Creating More Demand

 

Something else that you should be doing is working on creating more demand for your product or service. Make it something that people need rather than something that people want. This is all about marketing, so you might want to hire a fantastic marketing executive to spearhead this.

 

You want to show potential customers the benefits of choosing you over another company on the market. You want to make your product or service look like something that customers simply cannot go without anymore. You need to be clever in order to create demand, so you’re going to need to use your brain to come up with ideas. 

 

Make Use Of Social Media

 

Finally, we live in the age of social media, so of course, this is going to have to be mentioned. You should be updating your social media on a daily basis, so much so that we recommend hiring someone whose sole focus is sorting and maintaining social media.

 

It’s a tough job to do depending on the size of the business, so make sure whoever it has the right amount of time to dedicate to it. Photos, videos, text posts, polls and so much more can be used to engage customers and potential customers, and your business is going to say a massive thank you to you for this.

 

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you can do to boost your business in 2021. We know that this has been a tough year for everyone, with some businesses not being able to withstand the pressure of the pandemic, but if your business has, then you can continue to.

 

Boost your business further to give you the best results as much as possible. We wish you the very best of luck and hope that you see the results you are looking for sooner rather than later.

How to Delegate Better to Boost Business Efficiency

Boost Business

There are many risks posed by managers that try to do it all, which is why delegation is such an important but often neglected skill among senior members of staff. For every project, you have a vision, and you trust no one but yourself to achieve this vision. But, this could harm your company more than you think it does, so consider ways to delegate better and boost your company’s efficiency. 

 

Trust Your Employees

 

Trusting our employees to take on more important and demanding projects is one of many positive workplace changes that managers must implement if they want to increase efficiency. Your employees want to show they are capable of doing more than merely sitting at a desk.

They want to prove themselves to you, and they will never get that opportunity if you do not allow them to lead projects. Keeping them from reaching their potential can cause severe unhappiness, and it may see your best employees leave for better opportunities at your competitors. 

 

Work With Experts

 

Perhaps neither you nor your team is qualified for specific projects, though. It’s no good trying to complete tasks when you don’t have the skills. Instead, you need to work with experts. These could be content creators for your website’s blog or companies like herdl.com for your digital marketing needs.

These experts have a wealth of knowledge at their disposal, and they are happy to meet your needs, offer advice and provide a clear and actionable framework that helps your business succeed while you focus on other elements. 

 

Take a Different Perspective

 

If you’re struggling to delegate properly and find yourself breathing down your employees’ necks all day long, you need to take on a different perspective. This will enable you to look at any roadblocks uniquely.

You can consider things you’ve not considered before, which will help you loosen the reins and allow others to take charge. This fresh perspective can completely change your approach to delegation, and you will wish you’d done it all along. 

 

Be Clear In Your Instructions

 

One hallmark of a great manager is the ability to communicate well. You should be able to tell your team exactly what you need without needing to go over it several times and getting twisted up in your own confusion. You can learn how to be a better communicator and explain your needs to your team concisely and effectively.

This enables you to take a backseat for any projects, as you have faith in your employees that they know precisely what is required and can achieve this without any problems along the way, which also keeps the project moving at a steady and productive pace.

 

Efficient

 

Every workplace dreams of being more efficient, but this will never happen if those in charge are too stubborn to let go of the bigger tasks and allow others to take control. It is crucial that you open yourself up to alternative options for projects, as this will help your business flourish in ways that wouldn’t be possible if you – and you only – were running the show. 

4 Things to Do When Your Business’s Conversion Rate is Low

Every business goes through seasons when business is low as the number of walk-in customers or traffic to your online pages declines. The reasons can be low demand, decreased buying power, and global economic hardships.

 

As the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, most businesses have been affected as the need to keep physical distance and reduce social activities takes center stage. 

 

However, if you still have a large following or a lot of visitors to your site other than the fact that the buying power has decreased, here are other reasons to look into.

 

Poor First Impressions

 

When your onpage optimization efforts are on point, you’ll drive steady traffic to your site, but people have to be impressed by what they find. Is the style, colors, images appropriate to the intended target group? If targeting a more professional middle age group, bright, flashy colors and laid-back language might put them off.

 

Site design can be a significant issue but more importantly, make sure you meet your visitors’ needs. Understanding the search terms they used to land on your page will help you discover what they are looking for and aim to meet that demand. 

 

Poor Navigation

 

Do the visitors struggle to find or locate what they need on your site? Page visitors don’t want to spend a lot of time searching for information or products but will prefer an easy-to-understand and use navigation system. 

 

Make sure that at a glance, someone can comprehend all your site’s information and locate what they need.  It’s also essential to use a language your target audience quickly understands and make the pages as detailed as possible. 

 

Confusing Page Instructions

 

Have you ever been on a page, and you don’t know what a specific instruction means? You may want to buy a product, but you can’t find a clear call to action button or the customer helpline. Make sure your visitors understand all instructions on a page failure to which they will move on to the next site they find what they need.

 

To make your information clear, minimize distractions. Let the information or products you’ll marketing on the page stand out and don’t clatter. You’d rather have more pages to work on than squeeze everything into one space. It makes your work confusing and unprofessional. 

 

Also, make the checkout easy to navigate. A complicated process makes buyers abandon carts before they clear the process. Ensure buyers find the information they need quickly, such as products on the checklist, shipment options, not forgetting to have easily identifiable trust seals. 

 

Customers Don’t Trust Your Site

 

Site visitors want assurance that the site is genuine and the products offered authentic and safe. Before they trust you with their money, they must be convinced that the systems are secure and you’ve put all the necessary measures in place to protect sensitive data.

 

Can they quickly identify the security measures? Also, make sure the information is correct and verifiable. Don’t over-promise or underprice to attract customers. 

 

As you carefully check your visitors’ behavior, you’ll detect problem areas that, when corrected, will significantly reduce the bounce rate. 

How to Set a Budget for Your Small Business

Set a Budget for Your Small Business

If you’re one of the 600,000 people in America just starting your small business this year, there are a lot of topics to cover to make sure things sail as smoothly as possible. One of the things you need to know to stay out of trouble financially is how to set a budget for your small business.

Failing to plan properly when it comes to finances can be the downfall of your business. Continue reading and I’ll help you steer clear of common challenges by showing you a simple way to set a budget for your small business.

Marketing Tips for Home-Based Entrepreneurs

Marketing Tips for Home Based Business

Once upon a time, home-based entrepreneurs were very few and far between. Most people who started a business would make it their mission, perhaps one of their very first priorities, to move out of the home and into an office environment as soon as possible; it was a sign that they had become successful, whereas working from home meant that they hadn’t yet hit the sales they needed to afford an outside office. 

 

Today this is not the case at all, and many entrepreneurs are actively choosing to work from home not because they have to, but because they want to. Yet when you work from home, marketing can be a little more difficult because you’re not out there in front of as many people as you might be if you had an office, a storefront, or even a sign-written vehicle. This is why it’s important to work out the best route for marketing for your business. Here are some marketing tips for home-based entrepreneurs to help you get started.

 

Website Design 

When you have no other means of being noticed, at least in the traditional sense, your website has to act as your storefront. It has to entice visitors in, convince them to buy, and give them value, just as your storefront would if you ran a business in a city that people could physically visit. 

 

This means that you have to pay a lot of attention to your website design. It needs to be classy, up to date, it needs to be easy to read, and contain enough information to help anyone who visits make their purchasing decisions quickly. 

 

You can no longer get away with a cheaply designed website that has just been quickly thrown together; the competition is too fierce, and your products are too important (and so if your profit) to let that happen. The better your website design, the more people are going to be happy visiting; they’ll return, they’ll spend time there, and ultimately they will buy from you. 

 

SEO

SEO – search engine optimization – isn’t something that you can just ignore any longer. It’s not just “nice to have” on your website; it’s essential. Or rather, it’s essential if you want to be noticed and make sales, and if you run a business, this is precisely what needs to happen. 

 

Since there is so much to learn about SEO, it’s not feasible for a business owner who already has so much to do to take this task on board too, but there are many excellent companies who specialize in SEO, including SunCity Advising, who can take on the work for you and ensure that it is done in the best possible way. 

 

Effective Content 

 

Content is no longer just the words on your website that you might use to describe your products or services. Content is now an effective marketing tool when used in the right way, and it is something that any home-based entrepreneur will definitely be able to include in their marketing ideas. 

 

Content can include text, images, and even video (in fact, video is a particularly good form of content, especially for those who don’t like to write much text or who feel their customers won’t want to read it). 

 

Rather than directly selling to customers, you can use your content to do so in a much less obvious way. This works by showing your prospects that you have all the knowledge they are looking for and by giving them as much information as you can. They will then know that you are the right business to go to when they are ready to buy because you have used your content to prove that you know exactly what you are talking about.