Online Reputation Risk Management

The growth of social media has made it increasingly prudent to monitor your online risk reputation management. A damaging news report or detrimental online review can send your business into panic mode in a heartbeat. Read our latest article on online reputation management to prepare yourself for the inevitable.

Today the question on every companies mind is “Is Social Media Worth It?”. Dominos pizza would tell you “Yes” without hesitation.

Last week a video leaked out of two Domino employees doing revolting things to a pizza. Although claiming to be a hoax, the video got millions of views within minutes as it went viral on twitter and other social sites. The video is currently unavailable due to copyright claims done by one employee, but unfortunately for Dominos pizza the damage was already done. CNN has covered the story as well saying the employees have been sentenced to jail time.

Outraged at the video, people on all social media sites (mostly Twitter) were asking Dominos what was going on and how they would counteract this. Once again, unfortunately, Dominos was not on Twitter to discuss what was going on and how they would make things better. Dominos was doing and saying things but just not covering social media sites.

The President of Dominos pizza in the US did make a you tube video to discuss the measures being taken.

However, Dominos biggest failure in this viral disaster was that it was not on Twitter to pick up what was being said about them. So the lesson of the month is that Social Media is not just about viral marketing but for customer relationship as well. Especially relevant when there is an online crisis!

Realizing this, Dominos has reacted positively and set up a twitter account, which has over 1,000 followers already, and they are communicating about the issue openly. If you notice that their twitter name is dpzinfo it’s because they also failed to secure their company’s name on social media sites (highly recommended) and someone else has squatted on their name.

It seems companies would rather learn the hard way. Social media, although time consuming, can save your company at the end of the day. A good start to recovery by Dominos but they are another example for all companies out there to realize how powerful Social Media is.

View what people are saying now on Twitter about Dominos.

Everyday we are asked to take a look at someone’s website, they all have the same problem, their site can be found in the search engines, but only for their website name eg joesplumbing.com, but they want to be found for what their customers are looking for, eg plumber in Toronto. Joe has spend his hard earned money having a website build it looks great, now he is calling us and we don’t have a great answer. Typically we find that 40-60% of the site needs rework!

The html code is way too bloated, the pages haven’t been optimized, the navigation is using very generic terms and we have to undo what their web guys just finished.

How frustrating, time and money wasting is that!

SEO firms also build websites and build great websites, we know what the search engines are looking for, how to make the search engine spider grab the key phrases and ignore the unimportant information. We understand how to bring the search engines spider back to visit your site on a regular basis, and what information the spiders are looking for so they rank your site for the right key phrases. We know page design, what to present on each web page and how to beat out your competition.

The key to reduce rework is to start with the end in mind, the end result being your website attracting new customers and making you money.

Engage a search engine optimization company at the start, they will build an Internet marketing plan that will have your website found, engage your audience, and be able to give you feedback on what your customers are doing every month on your website.
So don’t fall into Joe’s trap, engage the right people from the start of building your new website.