And you don’t know about it.  But you should.

It’s been almost 7 years since my first child was born.  And I remember opening up a brand new package of wipes, and there being black fuzz on the first dozen wipes.  Now, pre baby I would have just taken those dozen wipes, throw them out and used the rest.  But this was my brand new baby – there was no way I was putting those anywhere near her.  So I called customer service.  I got a $5 voucher and an apology.  It appeased me, but it was pretty annoying.  I mentioned it to a friend of mine at dinner that weekend, and we talked about weird product incidents.  That was it.

Now my kids are all potty trained, but I still use night-time pull-ups for my son.  Recently, a friend asked what brand I used (whatever’s cheapest).  She told me to NOT use a particular brand because it was causing sever rashes on a friend of hers’ daughter.  She saw this post on Facebook, to which over 40 of my friend’s friends had commented that they were dealing with the same problem.

Now, if Diaper Company was paying attention, they’d be doing regular searches for their brand’s name, and might have come across this.  Damage is done.  I know of at least 40 people who will not be buying that brand; and I’ve passed it on to several of my friends as well, and those other 40 people probably passed it on to theirs… BIG PROBLEM!

So, as a small business, what can you do?

Well, you’d better be monitoring your name. Set up alerts to notify you anytime your name is mentioned.  Be there to respond quickly.  Have an idea of how you’re going to handle it.  You can’t give away something every time someone complains, can you?  It’s just not good business sense.  But you can offer them that you’ll fix whatever is wrong, and guarantee that it won’t happen again.

Or what if someone is having trouble with one of your competitors?  You’d love to gain their business, right?  Set up a search, and be up on it.

Ok, you’re probably thinking “but that takes time away from what I need to get done”.  Yes, it does.  And there are a few options.

1)  Do nothing.  Continue doing things they way you already are.  If you don’t know about it you’re not missing it.

2)  Do it yourself.  Create time in your daily schedule to devote to social media and brand awareness

3)  Bring in outside help.  That’s what we do best – so you can focus on what you do best.

So, if you’re thinking options 2 or 3, I can help.  If you’d just like a run down of what to do and how to implement it into your daily schedule, I can help.  If you’d like to put it all in my hands, well, I’ll gladly take it off your plate.

Whether you do it yourself, or bring me in to help, use the tools available to you.  They really can help.