Reputation planning for SMEs

Big oaks from little acorns grow. Big corporations started life as an SME at some point. This means that you need to start as you mean to go on; it’s really tough to change the way people do things once they’ve got into a habit.

This means that – even before you start recruiting your first member of staff – you need to have established what you expect from them in relation to the company’s reputation.

In fact, back up a step. When you are recruiting new staff, don’t forget to check out their online activity. It will be a good indicator as to how they manage their personal reputation and ensure you dot the Is and cross the Ts if you have any reservations before they start work for you.

Salutary tale!

A company was recruiting and had interviewed a number of people, finally settling on one young woman, who performed well at interview and had a good supporting CV.  Then someone remembered to check out her social media.

To say it was peppered with expletives is underselling the facts.  After some consideration they decided that this wasn’t the kind of language they wanted in their workplace and offered the job to their second choice.

Interestingly, the original choice candidate never knew why she didn’t get the job.

The minute you start employing people you need to have a simple social media policy in place. The big companies usually have a comprehensive social media policy, but the kind of policy that they have isn’t appropriate for a small organisation.

We all know people who work for bigger organisations and abuse their employer by spending far more than their break time updating their social media for personal reasons. Some bigger organisations ban social media use, but that’s not good business for two reasons:

• If you treat people like children they will respond accordingly and simply use their smartphones to access their social media – and, possibly, brag about putting one over on their employer.
• If you stop people using social media at work, you’re missing an opportunity for them to use it positively to promote your business.

The challenge for all businesses, but particularly smaller ones, is to get it right from day one and then keep the momentum going.

Treat people like adults – lay out the ‘rules’ (your social media policy) and explain how you would like them to use the world of the web and then trust them to stick to that.

That doesn’t mean abdicating any responsibility. It’s part of your job to monitor your reputation so a weekly search of the web for comments about your organisation, you personally and, possibly, individuals on your team is good practice.

If you discover members of staff who don’t comply with the social media policy they’ve agreed to, then you – and they – must know exactly what action you will take if they step over the acceptable line. This may differ depending on the type of transgression. 

And, given that so many small businesses use outsourced services, it’s equally important that all contractors understand your policies about social media and that these extend to them.  In fact, have the social media policy included in the contract.

Hello, I’m an influencer

I admit to rolling my eyes when someone announces they’re an influencer.  There’s an element of disbelief, but I know that influencers can be powerful allies for businesses.

A few years ago, we used the services of a few Mummy-bloggers to promote one of our client’s education products.  Nobody was willing to promote something they didn’t know much about and the product was provided free of charge to the chosen blogger/influencers.  Some of them also wanted a fee, some saw the product as their fee – and we only talked to people who fitted their ideal client profile, so they had something of real value for their family.

Influencers aren’t just bloggers, in fact, most people are more familiar with them on social media.  Their personal style and personality grows their following and they have opinions or a quirky take on various aspects of life.  They’re then approached to talk about people’s products, usually with a contract that has clear guidelines about what they can and can’t say – but generally they’re free to be honest.  Clearly, the product or service has to stand up to scrutiny or the whole exercise would be pointless.

Influencers can be any one with a substantial following.  I’m on at least one email list which is predominantly about business and sales, but occasionally the list owner writes about products she genuinely uses herself – not related to her core subject, but things like skin care items and cosmetics that she’s discovered and loves.  Because her following really rate her advice about business-related subjects, her opinion on other things tends to be trusted too.

Another newsletter I’m subscribed to is all about sewing – and she is up front that many of the products she mentions and promotes are on Amazon and she gets an affiliate fee.  But her advice and ‘how to’ articles are great and, mostly, free, so her readers don’t mind that she earns from her recommendations.

How could you use influencers in your business?

A search for [your target audience] influencers may be a good place to start.  Better still ask Claude or ChatGPT to do some research into influencers who are well-connected to your target audience.

There will almost certainly be fees and you need to find out whether they work on an affiliate commission or an up-front fee. People who describe themselves as influencers mostly want a fee, or free product or both.  That means you need to have a monthly budget to spend.

You’re paying to extend your reach far beyond your current ability – along with a warm recommendation to people eager to get what their favourite influencer is offering.  

There are influencers in many different fields – they’re not all young, attractive women!  There are electrician influencers, building influencers, health influencers and cleaning influencers as well as those who reach parents, therapists, travellers – any industry you can think of.  It’s part of today’s advertising, but you’re not reaching out to a cold audience, your influencer will have already warmed them up!

What’s in your marketing toolkit?

Marketing is not just posting on socials and writing the odd blog.  There’s so much more to it than that!

First you need to know who you’re trying to reach – and that will help you to choose what tools to use and where you need to be visible.

Then there are the tools – and there are a lot of them.

You can’t do everything – even with a full-time marketing person on your team, nor would you want to.  Even ‘social media’ isn’t a tool, it’s a collection and not everyone needs all the platforms.  If your audience isn’t on LinkedIn, investing time on it isn’t useful.  So, it’s worth exploring all the social platforms and the skills you’ll need to stand out on your chosen platforms. 

I don’t really like doing video, so I’m not on TikTok and don’t post many videos on other platforms.  If you’re doing your own social media, choosing to do something you hate, means creating your social content and posting will always be pushed down the to-do list – so your visibility will drop and subsequent engagement be at virtually nil.  Most platforms reward regular posting by showing your posts to more people.

Content generation

Are you writing content – and where are you publishing it?  On your blog, in thought-leader articles, as newsletters, in email campaigns, as a lead magnet with an automated value-led nurturing email campaign to convert ‘interested’ to ‘paying’.

Are you running a podcast that showcases your opinions and expertise?

Do you have a YouTube channel with regular content to influence people?

What do you send to your list to keep them engaged?

Remember, you don’t own your social media contacts – until they give you their email address!

Promotion and Publicising

Also referred to as PR.  A good PR agency will put together a plan to get you in front of your target market positioned as an authority.

If you’re not ready to pay a monthly fee for that, start by looking at what your target reads and see if they might be interested in an article sharing your expertise (typically called ‘thought-leader articles’).  If you deliver a good quality piece you may be asked to write for them regularly or even get a column of your own.

Are your potential clients positively influenced by awards?  If so, entering in relevant awards may be a useful strategy.  There is a cost and you will need to invest time in completing the entry, but even a short-listing can be something to boast about!

Listen to your local radio stations and contact either the presenter or producer to ask if they might be interested in you being a guest interviewee.  Remember that this is NOT free advertising, you’ll be expected to deliver value and will probably be briefed.  If you try to pitch your services live on air, you won’t get asked back.  However, the presenter will usually introduce you with your name and your company and may give you the opportunity to give a short overview of what you do.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, your website, networking activities, presentations, books, lead funnels and more are all part of the mix.  The secret is choosing the right ingredients for you and your business.