10 Rules of Marketing on User Review Sites

We talk a whole lot about Blogger Relations, and that’s a valuable conversation that will continue to be relevant for a long time to come.

But, blogs are only one part of the Social Media scene. We hardly ever talk about the opportunity for companies to perform well in user forums, e.g., Amazon.com, Angie’s List, TripAdvisor, Epinions and Yelp. (Disclosure: Yelp is a former SHIFT client.)

While it’s true that “only” B2C companies have a play in such forums — well, that’s a whole lotta companies — especially if you think about the deep-dive’s worth of local content on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Angie’s List.

The growing ubiquity (and popularity) of User Review sites will make this an increasingly important issue for B2C marketers at companies of all sizes and types.

Here are 10 rules for participation in Online User Review sites:

#1. Read & understand each site’s Terms Of Use (TOS), especially how they pertain to businesses that might be reviewed (and don’t break those rules).

#2. Track the sites daily, to see what people are saying about your company. Most Social Media Monitoring firms are working on ways to automate this process, if they haven’t figured it out already.

#3. Join the conversation (where TOS allow you to), responding to both good and bad reviews. Remember that your “audience” is not just the commenters, but also the infinitely larger number of “lurkers” who will read these reviews and responses. Remember that Google will likely catalog all of this content, as well.

#4. You should thank people for saying nice things about your company/product.

#5. When someone posts a negative review, don’t get defensive.

#6. When you post responses to negative reviews, make it clear in your response that you are present, you are listening and you are there to help fix any issues. Even if you don’t agree with the issue, remember that perception is reality, and most readers will assume that there is a “nugget of truth” in every rant.

#7. If possible, communicate directly with the person who posted the review, in a transparent and non-defensive way, to see if you can rectify the situation. DON’T pretend to be someone you’re not, i.e., “just another user” with a made-up name.

#8. If someone posts something that is clearly batshitcrazy, reply promptly and courteously but don’t engage in a lot of back-and-forth. Just leave it alone – you can’t fix it. Most readers will see that you are doing your level best to be nice and responsive to everybody, including Mr. Batshitcrazy. They’ll understand if you don’t engage an obvious hater.

#9. You think that that negative and false review is harming your business? Don’t sue the hosting company (Yelp, Angie’s List, etc.) to take it down. This just makes you look guilty to consumers. You must simply do what you can to knock the socks off of future customers, so that they post more positive stuff. While this process takes more time than you’d like, it is the best way to make it obvious to everyone reading the reviews that your brand’s haters are clueless loons. Surround the brand haters with authentic brand evangelists.

#10. Make it obvious and easy for your good customers to post reviews: make sure they know that you appreciate it when they post on these relevant review sites. Add the appropriate links to your business cards and e-mail signatures.

This is a high-level look at the best practices in user review site marketing. It may seem simple but I’ve seen companies of all sizes screw this up pretty regularly.

Do you have more tips or experiences to share?

Continue reading here: Audience Targeting in Social Media

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