How do you Montor Your Reputation Online?

[Jeff Kershner]

Re: How do you Monitor Your Reputation Online?

Here's a slide I use when I'm presenting on dealer reviews...some compelling numbers. They came from a Polk / Cobalt study awhile back. I thought I numbers were a little high for 2 years ago but either way -- dealer reviews and managing your dealers reputation has and will continue to have a direct impact on your business.

 

[joe.pistell]

No Reviews = Invisible to Local Search.

Google dosent care if the reviews are good or bad, it just wants reviews. It's our job to work the reviews into our marketing.


Work your reviews and it's WIN-WIN

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Joe - you got it! Google wants reviews and is going to reward the dealers/business with more review with better placement. I see social engagement becoming a possible piece of this algorithm in the near future - you smell it too Joe?

I was messing around with this earlier - Samepoint Search | | Social Media Search

 

[joe.pistell]

Joe - you got it! Google wants reviews and is going to reward the dealers/business with more review with better placement. I see social engagement becoming a possible piece of this algorithm in the near future - you smell it too Joe?

I was messing around with this earlier - Samepoint Search | | Social Media Search

wow. Samepoint Search | used car king | Social Media Search I'm impressed!

 

[ed.brooks]

Re: How do you Monitor Your Reputation Online?

No Reviews = Invisible to Local Search.

Google dosent care if the reviews are good or bad, it just wants reviews. It's our job to work the reviews into our marketing.


Work your reviews and it's WIN-WIN

Joe, according to the Google Blog, they now do care about bad reviews: Being bad to your customers is bad for business

This change to the Google algorithm happened back in the beginning of December and to me seems like pretty good news for folks trying to run a reputable business.

It reminded me of this quote, which I thought was really powerful, "SEO technology will remain a valuable business tool—but one that you should keep in perspective. Putting too much stock in what it can do for your organization is the worst SEO mistake a company can make. Contrary to promises, SEO technology will not provide you a sustainable, competitive advantage. For that, you’re going to have to focus on business basics, including your innovation, prices and operational excellence."

I fear the only sustainable business that will ever be built solely on SEO is the SEO business itself - that's the nature of chasing a moving target. But businesses built with a focus on making customers happy and providing a good value will never go out of style.

 

[ed.brooks]

I've been trying out a number of the free services and I'm finding I'm liking one the best, SocialMention.com. They seem to have as much data as MonitorThis but provide a richer RSS feed.

If there is any question of WHY you should be tracking what is said about you, here is a great example. A marketer had a problem with his new Volvo and posted on Facebook about it. The response should be in a textbook. Proper Social CRM Reaffirms One Upset Consumer's Faith in a Brand via AdAge.com

 

[michaelsos]

Re: How do you Monitor Your Reputation Online?

One phrase I really hate is “Online Reputation Managementâ€. I believe you build and manage your reputation in the real world; in your stores and with your customer interactions. Now there are a good number of folks scrambling to come up with ways to charge dealers for “Online Reputation Management†tools. [/B]

I agree with your assessment that one builds their reputation in the real world...but it should not be overlooked that what you see online is not necessarily an accurate depiction of the real world consumer experience. Most dealers have a good idea what their customers think through robust CSI engagement. I am comfortable saying that most dealers are actually very good with customers as we(autobase/autorevenue) have provided feedback survey services to dealers for years and I have seen the reports. The reason for dealerships to engage in "Online Reputation Management" is not to deceive but instead to actively engage in activities that show true transparency.

It is unfortunate, but typically only unhappy customers are motivated to go online and share their opinions. Car dealers need to engage in activities that influence ALL their customers to participate in online reviews and ratings and then they can rely on their offline activities to produce a good reputation. Tracking what people are saying and influencing your customers to PARTICIPATE is the true definition of white hat reputation management.

Now the real question is...how do you get your customers to participate?
You need to engage customers as part of your dealerships retention cycle.
This is not a pure marketing activity, this is a culture change in a dealership that involves everyone and you need to think this way as you choose partners to help you implement.

Great conversation.

If anyone is interested in learning about what we are doing to help dealers with reputation management, drop me a line at [email protected] or reach out to an Autobase, AutoRevenue or AVV rep.

-Michael Sos
Product Manager
Autobase

 

[skeetle]

There area myriad of tools out there which can help you monitor your brand (dealership) on-line. One that I've set up & found useful is the "geo-search" function in HootSuite. Now, the downside is, this is only for twitter. The upside is, it searches all of twitter for your keywords (mine are "honda," "ciocca," and "car" <---yes, that last one is a little broad, I know), within 25 miles of where you set up the geo-search from originally. This searches all public twitter accounts, and not just people you follow.

For example, someone I followed on Twitter put up their CR-V had been towed to the local honda dealership. I missed this tweet from him in my normal feed, but caught it in my geo-search. I asked him which dealership, found out it was mine. I then went back to our service bays, took a picture of my tech working on his vehicle, uploaded it to twitter using my dealership's account & sent it to him. He RT'd (or "Re-Tweeted" for those of you who don't tweet - think e-mail forward) to all of his followers.

I would have completely missed his tweet if I didn't have the geo-search set up.

 

[Jeff Kershner]

Re: How do you Monitor Your Reputation Online?

It's been too long since this thread has been contributed to. The landscape has changed a bit since the we started this thread/conversation over 2 years ago. I was going to start a new thread but I thought I would see if we can't just resurrect this one.

What are you NOW using to monitor and manage your dealers online reputation? Are you using a new set of tools than what you were 3-4 years ago, 2 years ago or just last year? If so - what have you changed?

Still using Google Alerts for tracking the web? (some new around this I'll be posting over on the blog soon)

What about Social - how are you now tracking mentions on Twitter, Facebook & Google+?

What's now working for you and what has not?

There still somewhat seems to be a lack of robust tools and features exclusive to our industry for online reputation management, or as Arnold Tijerina puts it "Reputation Management is Bullsh@t" - meaning that you can't necessarily manage your reputation, you have to "build" one.

We do have a few companies that provide full on services and/or stand alone tracking services. One of my favorite is Dominions Prime Response. I've followed and have used this with several dealers from the beginning. DealerRater also has a reputation monitoring dashboard built within their set of features. Cobalt offers a full on management service as does Digital Air Strike.

*I'm sure I missed a service or two - but we're keeping this thread free of solicitation, so please - if you're a vendor that offers online reputation services, do NOT jump in to merely add your service into the mix. That's not what this thread is for.

What tools (free or paid) that are NOT industry exclusive are you using?

 

[ed.brooks]

It's been too long since this thread has been contributed to. The landscape has changed a bit since the we started this thread/conversation over 2 years ago. I was going to start a new thread but I thought I would see if we can't just resurrect this one.

What are you NOW using to monitor and manage your dealers online reputation? Are you using a new set of tools than what you were 3-4 years ago, 2 years ago or just last year? If so - what have you changed?

Still using Google Alerts for tracking the web? (some new around this I'll be posting over on the blog soon)

What about Social - how are you now tracking mentions on Twitter, Facebook & Google+?

What's now working for you and what has not?

There still somewhat seems to be a lack of robust tools and features exclusive to our industry for online reputation management, or as Arnold Tijerina puts it "Reputation Management is Bullsh@t" - meaning that you can't necessarily manage your reputation, you have to "build" one.

We do have a few companies that provide full on services and/or stand alone tracking services. One of my favorite is Dominions Prime Response. I've followed and have used this with several dealers from the beginning. DealerRater also has a reputation monitoring dashboard built within their set of features. Cobalt offers a full on management service as does Digital Air Strike.

*I'm sure I missed a service or two - but we're keeping this thread free of solicitation, so please - if you're a vendor that offers online reputation services, do NOT jump in to merely add your service into the mix. That's not what this thread is for.

What tools (free or paid) that are NOT industry exclusive are you using?

My current favorite is Mention.net. (But I'm sure I'll have a new fave next month)