How to handle a negative review

Nearly a quarter of small and mid-size businesses monitor reviews.

Some use Brandify, a free service launched by Microsoft, paid reputation management companies or Google searches to show Yelp, Angie’s List and other major sites.

Because dissatisfied customers tend to tell more people than satisfied ones do, getting a negative review can be hard.

Use complaints for quality control.

If you can access the person, contact them and offer to “make good”.

Then, ask them to write a good review that says what you did to fix the problem and remove the bad one, if possible.

Most people will be impressed that you were willing to go the extra mile for them and will be happy to comply.   

Angie’s List says they will contact the reviewer and investigate if a business complains about an unwarranted review.

Ask all satisfied customers to give reviews to balance—or even bury—the less-than-glowing ones.

Reviews are not as important if businesses have a website, a blog and social media to create ongoing stream of good press.

For more information, contact us at www.dellrichards.com.

Branding continuity creates a powerful tool

          Twitter recently added a large masthead.

          As a result of working with that, we started to play with the images used in our branding.

          We ended up pulling the logo out of the inset and uploaded one of the website photos to our Facebook page. 

          We also uploaded that photo to the profile for LinkedIn and other social media.

          This small change gave the brand a huge lift emotionally.  

          We often tweak our brand to keep up with social media changes and to make it better.

          Because it is so important, every business should have a document that spells out all details of the graphic art used for the brand. 

          That means the PMS color for every part of the logo and masthead, including the background color.

          Lay-out choices, font, font colors and sizes—including print choices such as card stock and color—also need to be part of the guidelines.  

          Branding continuity helps create a recognizable and powerful image that is essential in today's world.   

          For more information, visit our website: www.dellrichards.com.  

How to use body language effectively

Whether you are speaking to a group or networking, body language tells a lot about you.

Standing tall, opening your arms and chest will boost your confidence—and your authority.

People feel connected if you make eye contact. 

A warm and inviting smile also asks people to join you and be part of the event.

Mirroring people and nodding shows you are interested in what they have to say.

If you are excited about a topic, let the passion come through to add emotional interest.

Using and varying gestures—as long as they’re not too large or frantic—adds visual variety to your words.

If you point (to make a point), do so with an open hand.

For more information, call us at Dell Richards Publicity, (916) 455-4790 or visit www.dellrichards.com.

Tell journalists what they want to know

During interviews with reporters, people don’t always want to answer questions about company earnings and sales figures.

We tell clients it’s best to give reporters what they want.

If they don’t, the reporter will figure it out on their own.

If they get it wrong, it’ll look like it’s right and there’s little anyone can do about it.  

I say this because we’ve had reporters guesstimate company earnings by using an industry average that was way too low since they were specialists with a large staff.

To have people think they made so little was even worse than having everyone know how well they were doing.

Another time, we almost lost a feature because the company was still in beta-testing, had run into problems and didn’t want to admit sales weren't as high as they’d projected.   

Which is why we say “Honesty is the best policy”—especially with journalists.  

For information, please call us at (916) 455-4790 or visit our website at www.dellrichards.com.

What do you do when referrals backfire?

I recently offered a referral to a colleague who informed me she wasn’t impressed by “that person”.  

Rather than argue about my experience, I asked why she felt that way.

Was the person incompetent, bad at communication, slow to respond?

Did the person not do what they said they were going to do? Did they do it 

badly?

Did they do something untrustworthy or unethical?

Hearing the answers, I realized there weren’t any tangible problems, just a bad fit.

The person’s style simply didn’t suit my colleague.

While I hadn’t done anything wrong, I still felt I had to redeem myself, to make-good.

I sent the colleague’s name, bio and contact to a couple reporters—and copied her on the emails-- introducing her to people who could do more for her than a single referral ever could. 

For more information, contact us at (916) 455-4790 or www.dellrichards.com.

Good article on handling social media crises

Since we recently wrote about a client who was concerned with Internet users posting information about them, even positively, we found this interesting article from LinkedIn on how to deal with social media issues, especially negative ones that apply to all media, including print and broadcast.

Some of the tips from "How to Deal with a Social Media Crisis and Prevent a Catastrophe," by Juan Sanchez, community manager at Waggener Edstrom, were:

Monitor your brand constantly,
Figure out what's going on before you react, but
React within 24 hours using the same medium, and
Have the CEO or someone responsible do it, and
Get the help of influencers.

Also, use SEO to push the good links in other media and, finally,
Think opportunity to engage with your fans.

For the full article, visit http://tinyurl.com/3zpk8ee.

For more information on our services, visit Dell Richards Publicity at www.dellrichards.com.

Say something relevant when following up

We worked with a business coach who wanted us to call sales leads on the same day every week.

Since 88 percent of leads are never followed up on, getting into a regular habit sounded like a great idea.

But, for us, it didn’t work.

We just weren't comfortable calling unless we had a reason.

We ended up setting a goal of calling weekly, but working diligently to find a reason to do so.

If we couldn’t find something, we decided to use our intuition as a guide of when to make the call.

I recently needed to follow up on an introduction.

I could have called to talk about a common interest of ours, but I wanted to tie it to work.

I looked at the name on the "To Do" list every day, but did not call until there was an article in the news that directly related to business.

As a result, we ended up meeting the next day so we could share ideas for public relations.

Not only did I follow up, but I felt good about the authenticity of the process, one we also use effectively with reporters, editors and producers.

For more information, please call us Dell Richards Publicity, 916- 455-4790, or visit us at www.dellrichards.com.