Marketing Mayhem - Texting Employees & Customers

As a business owner one of my top concerns is how to get as many people as possible to see my marketing message.

What happens when a lot of people see the wrong message, maybe one that is sent by a disgruntled employee or a dissatisfied customer?

Many companies have feared using the Internet to market simply because of that last statement. The funny thing, or maybe not so funny, is those comments are going to happen regardless of the level of participation that a company has. The employee, or the customer, can send out a message to hundreds, if not thousands of people as fast as a text message can be sent.

Now the frightening fact. One text message can be used to update the status of that person on hundreds of web sites.

To fear this is one thing, but even worse is the many companies that simply become paralyzed and do nothing.

Do you tell your employees not to text? Well, what about their time off, their personal time?

Do you encourage your employees to spread good things about your company, even providing sample messages that can be sent out?

In general it is a good idea to have some sort of policy on the usage of social media, but what do you have there? Well, the fact remains that social media is very new on the legal scene and right now there simply is not a lot of precedence set.

This is a frightening place for a company to be, as any business owner understand what they don't control is often the things that keep them up at night.

So, how do you put it more in your control?

It is all in how you respond, and often your first response is not the right one.

Yep, read that again.

As a business owner, the business reputation is very important.

Remember the count to ten trick, and slowly calm down before jumping into the conversation. It is a crucial point for you to show your business savvy, not your emotions.

In order to respond there are only two things you need to decide.

• Is it true? - If it is true, then you know that your tactic must be one of apology and a statement about how the problem has been corrected.
• Is it false? - If it is false, then you know that pointing to a place for more information and being helpful about dispelling the misinformation is your best tactic.

The most important part is to respond from a position of neutral and calm, fanning the flames only works if your business is controversial to begin with, but that is entirely different article on marketing technique.