Reputation management in the digital world.

• Author: Hershberger, Tara
• Position: SOCIAL MEDIA

WOULDN'T LIFE BE ROSY IF ALL CUSTOMERS LOVED THEIR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS all the time? Unfortunately, that's not realistic. Despite our best efforts, some people are just going to be unhappy about some situations, which can be a result of circumstances beyond our control (ahem, regulations). Fortunately, these situations don't happen a lot, and those people are not the majority. However, they can throw a wrench into public perception of your brand.

Savvy financial institutions understand that they shine not only when they have passionate advocates saying wonderful things about them but also when they are able to listen to a public criticism and empathetically respond. How a financial institution responds to a negative review speaks volumes about what a prospective customer can expect. Companies that respond to negative reviews are more trusted then companies with all positive reviews.

Tackle negative reviews through a thought out plan

Financial institutions have an obligation to protect their reputation. The approved Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council guidelines dealing with social media set the expectation that monitoring needs to happen and should be scaled based on the level of social media involvement. Here are four things that you can do:

1. Audit: It starts with a plan. Search for your financial institution's name on Google and see which sites show up. Google prominently integrates reviews within the maps area. Results of a recent sampling of 20 clients show that yellowpages.com, yelp.com, superpages.com and whitepages.

   corn show up most often on first page search results, but there are a number of other directories that appear, often based on business location. So, check what is applicable to you and focus on these.

2. Monitor: Develop a plan to monitor these pages since ignoring is not the best option. Google has a new tool ("My Business"--more to come on this next month!) where you can track reviews on Google and across the Web and respond to Google users. Other sites allow you to get notifications once you claim your business listing...