Pronet Advertising

Are you tracking your company buzz?

Word spreads like wildfire within the social media scene. In just a matter of minutes your company's reputation can be damaged. If criticism or nasty rumors about your company gets out in the blogosphere and you're not paying attention, forget about it. Your brand will suffer a devastating blow.

Seth Godin asks what happens when he types your company name into You Tube or Technorati. Do you know what he'll see? I sure hope so.

Tracking your company's buzz, good or bad, is as important as creating the buzz itself. You want to be able to promptly respond to criticism or rumors about your company before things get out of hand. When the buzz is good, take a moment of your time to thank those whom are saying the great things about you. The small gesture will go a long way.

It usually doesn't even matter if what's said about your company is bad. Well, it does, but that's another topic for another day. If you're able to quickly respond and address the problems, consumers will notice that you care and you're willing to do what it takes to make them happy. They'll usually forgive you and offer a second chance for their business.

There are a number of tools that you can use to track the buzz for your company. Most even offer RSS feeds so you can automatically track what is being said about you. RSS feeds are the fastest way for you to get this information and it's critical that you respond as quickly as possible, it will keep the flames from getting out of control. Here's a list of some tools you can use to track your companies buzz....

Technorati, Sphere, Google News, Delicious, and You Tube to name a few.

If you care at all about your brand image and company reputation then start taking the necessary steps to track the buzz.