Digital marketers 'must establish how to handle social media'

14:30 1st February 2010

Digital marketers must be pro-active when using social media marketing to ensure that their company does not suffer from online complaints.

That is the opinion of Shama Kabani, the author of The Zen of Social Media Marketing, who told the Sydney Morning Herald that by establishing how to handle the conversation with customers, companies could avoid getting bad reviews online.

Any complaints made through social media should be dealt with professionally and swiftly, she advised.

She said: "Act publicly, honestly, asap. Don't create an alias to respond to a negative online posting. You will get caught, causing more damage. Mind your manners. Stay on the high road. Online mudslinging never helps."

Digital marketers could also resolve issues by offering to take the matter away from the social media website into a phone call, where the problem may be explained more clearly.

Ms Kabani added that digital marketers could monitor their companies' reputations by using alerts services from Google or Yahoo! as well as sites like Blogpulse.com.

Social media marketing is becoming a more important strategy for digital marketers.

A survey of more than 1,000 digital marketers by Alterian found two-thirds were planning to invest in social media marketing in 2010.