Facebook: The obsessive, compulsive and socially corrosive.

Take a look at this:

O.O Wow.

 

After going through the statistics, I feel like I should be shocked. But in all honesty, I’m not. Perhaps a little disgusted. Sorry, first thought in the morning, other than wanting to roll over and go back to sleep is about coffee. Facebook is a little bit of an after thought. I cant imagine it being a priority first thing in the morning, never mind being the first thing I do before I even get out of bed.  Hmm.. now we know what the people in their pajama bottoms were doing all morning. Mystery solved!

I wish.

 

In an attempt to bring the world together it’s really just keeping us less connected on a social level. Especially when a little over half speak to people more online than the do outside of the internet.  The sad thing is, we know this, and we let it continue. It’s  one of the underlying themes of the movie “Warm Bodies”. Hmm…is FB the bringer of the Zombie Apocalypse perhaps

It’s not a listed statistic, but think of all the relationship problems there are because of Facebook! A whopping 1/3 of the divorce petitions pointed a finger at FB. Now that’s just the UK, could you imagine how many divorces are caused by FaceBook here in the U.S? If was to shut down tomorrow…I think the world would implode.  It’s an addiction, but I don’t think the world is ready to kick the habit. To be blunt I hope they don’t or I wouldn’t have a job.   And I’m not ready to see the world implode just yet.

Keeping an eye on that online reputation

What I’m about to post is undoubtedly aimed for business, but there is no reason you shouldn’t monitor your own online reputation. But I’m sure I’ll get to that at some point.  But here we go:  (Want the original? find it here)

1. Identify your reputations – monitor names brand names, company names, product names and variations.

2. Quantify your audience – who has a stake in your online reputation?

3. Understand your goals – how are you going to measure the whether your reputation is improving?

4. Specify your needs – what tools do you require and what sources do you need to monitor?

5. How will you monitor? – what processes are in place to be alerted and respond to issues?

6. Who will monitor the conversations? – who are you entrusting with managing and responding to online reputation issues?

Here’s why you want to figure out what kind of reputation you have:

Because nearly half  of social media users like to vent about your company. And nothing flies  faster around the internet than word of a business that’s bad to use. Think about it, we’ve all fumed about how badly things are handled and when people tell…they tell all. Here’s a bit of truth, and we’ve all done this. Before I buy any kind of product I look at reviews! Good ones prod me into buying or using the service bad ones? Oh, I’m heading for the hills. That’s not even an after thought.   If what people have to say about your company isn’t something you want to hear…look at it this way, at least you know what to adjust to make your company even more appealing.

From a customer standpoint… I don’t care how you respond when there is a problem as long as you do respond. (QUICKLY) And I don’t mean one of those automated responses. I read it and feel that my compliant was never really read, and was thrown into a massive pile in the corner.  Nothing pisses me off more than that.  <— Big deal breaker. The customer is frustrated enough, all those copy and paste responses do is irritate people further.

Confession time!  My job (I really love my job) is to manage the online presence of a newspaper. It’s a small college paper, but when it’s  your job, you want to take it seriously.  So before you reach the bottom of the graphic that deals with what kind of individual this goes to… don’t be so quick to cut out the interns. Yes, they do tend to be social media savvy.  And no, they might not know what your goals are. (Hold on! Hold on!) But! This is where it’s important to make sure all employees know what your goals are!  Not to discredit any community managers… but  Interns work for cheap. And they tend to be your best resource when it comes what new social media avenues are out there.  You can do what you want, I just thought I would throw that out there 🙂

If you don’t watch your online reputation… your competitors certainly will. You don’t want to give them an upper hand now do you?  Think about it.