Online Poll For Your Bsiness Reputation Management

A tracking poll or rolling poll is a poll in which responses are obtained in a number of consecutive periods, for instance daily, and then results are calculated using a moving average of the responses that were gathered over a fixed number of the most recent periods, for example the past five days.

InMillhouse PR Agency can create various online polls to track your reputation fr further management. An online poll is a survey in which participants communicate responses via the Internet, typically by completing a questionnaire in a web page. Online polls may allow anyone to participate, or they may be restricted to a sample drawn from a larger panel.

Benefits of online polling

Less expensive than phone surveys if you poll five or six times a year
Representative: you can reliably compare the views of groups by age, gender, seniority, job class, region and other characteristics
Fast: can see opinions every day, as respondents complete their surveys, and have your complete poll results in just 7 to 10 working days
More interactive: With online surveys you can show pictures or videos. Or members can listen to audio clips and view role plays and different settings.
Private and secure polling: The polling website is secure. Email addresses can’t be used for any other purpose; the participant's privacy is protected
Some believe online respondents give more truthful responses to questions where respondents may be uncomfortable or embarrassed giving an honest answer to a live interviewer on the phone

How does online polling work?

InMillhouse compiles a representative panel of employees, target voters, customers or members who agree to participate in your surveys
To have reliable results, the online panel is a miniature replica of the population, market or membership in terms of occupation, age, gender, seniority, occupation, and, for example, the region where they live
No one can complete the online survey more than once
With each poll you will receive a report and the computer analysis for each question
Whether online or using mail surveys or the phone, InMillhouse Research ensures the quality of the poll, from pre-testing questions to the final poll analysis.

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMENT HANDLING

Social media gives companies direct, unmediated access to prospects and customers. It encourages dialogue and allows businesses to demonstrate how responsive they can be. But it’s not perfect. Things go wrong – a substandard product, a service disruption, a mishandled customer. Then social media can open up businesses to a world of criticism. And sometimes, the criticism isn’t even based on facts – just a consumer with a grudge (and, now, a voice). So what do you do about negative comments in social forums?

Of course, every case is different, but here are eight principles to guide the way you deal with negative social feedback:

1. You can’t react if you don’t know

While it’s altogether possible that you’ll get negative comments on your own site or one that you manage (e.g. your Facebook page), this is not always the case. People can blast you on Twitter, a third party forum, their own blogs or a hundred other places online.

To do something about it, you have to be vigilant for all mentions of your company, people, products and brands. You can begin to do this with a service such as Google Alerts. However, to get more serious, you will need something like Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s Social Studio which can monitor conversations that mention your brand in real-time and even give you a heads-up on the sentiment behind the words.

2. Be quick to acknowledge

The reason many people post negative comments online is because they don’t think they’re being listened to (in store, on the phone or by email). So they lash out. Some do this just to warn their friends off using what they believe to be a bad product. Others – the more social media savvy ones – will do it to hurt you and force you to pay attention.

Speed is of the essence. Acknowledge the customer’s issue as quickly as possible before it snowballs and picks up other customers and prospects on the way. You do not necessarily need to have an immediate solution – an open, non-judgemental enquiry about exactly what happened will be enough to start the process of constructive engagement and open up an opportunity to turn a negative experience into a positive one.

Of course, you’ll also need to follow this up with concrete actions— more on this later.

3. See it from their point of view

For the most part, customers don’t know or care about the issues that have caused them problems. It’s irrelevant to them that your supplier let you down or a delivery was sent to the wrong office. All they know is the inconvenience it’s caused them and, potentially, their customers.

Too many companies begin the process of engaging with an irate customer by listing all the excuses for why it happened. These may be entirely true and legitimate. But the customer won’t care. All it looks like to them is that the company is trying to shift the blame away from itself. In social media, this can be a red rag to a bull.

It is far better to begin every interaction from the viewpoint of the customer – what happened to them, what it meant and, ultimately, what can be done to make it right.

4. Take it out of the spotlight

Social forums may not be the best place to actually resolve complex issues. And being in a public forum may make it hard for an angry customer to soften their stance. Offer to continue the conversation in an appropriate forum – whether that’s phone, email or an existing support forum online. This shouldn’t be an attempt to silence the critic, simply to help them where it makes sense (so you’re not trying to give complex tech support in a tweet).

Also, “take it out of the spotlight” doesn’t mean “delete”. Better for people to see your constructive response to the negative comment than get buried in messages accusing you of curating out all the negative social media comments.

5. Say sorry when it’s your fault

For some companies on social media, “sorry” is indeed the hardest word. Often it’s because they don’t want to take the blame. Or they don’t agree with the customer’s point of view. But, if we look at it from the customer’s viewpoint (see above) then it is hard to argue with their experience.

Of course, if it is clear that your product failed, then a sincere apology followed by a quick replacement (or refund) should nip the issue in the bud. If it was a service failure, then an apology to the effect of “We’re sorry that you did not get the service you expect from us on this occasion” is a good start. Following this up with something tangible (eg a money-off voucher for their next purchase) will also help.

It’s important to not sound like a robot when you do this. If this is a universal issue many people are experiencing at the same time, it’s easy to copy and paste responses. At least they’ll know you’ve seen it, right? Not quite. If you can, make the effort to personalize your response so they know they’re not talking to a customer service bot.

6. Keep track

The issue might have been resolved, but that doesn’t mean the commenter has gone away. Whether they leave you with a good or bad taste in their mouth, it’s likely that they’ll interact with your brand in some capacity again.

A Social Customer Service tool can help you keep track of past touch-points with customers so that if they do interact with your brand again, you know and understand their history. Customers who have a negative experience who lash out on social media can also become just as outspoken advocates on social if you treat them well.

7. Don’t feed the social media trolls

Sadly, of course, some people just want to cause trouble. They troll across social media and enjoy the notoriety this brings. And any interaction only encourages them to carry on their behaviour. So what do you do?

If you’re sure that their claims are entirely without merit, the best long-term strategy may be to ignore them. However, as social media is a highly visible, public forum, commenting once to the effect that what they are saying is inaccurate and unfair (and providing the facts to support this) will at least give other viewers the true picture.

8. Talk the talk and walk the walk

It’s all well and good to acknowledge a problem, but if you don’t follow up with concrete actions you’re going to end up back where you started and potentially upset your customer even more. Once you’ve got a conversation going with the customer out of the spotlight, make sure you understand the problem and outline what the next steps will be to fix it. If necessary, pass this information on to the customer service representative.

For most companies, most of the time, social media offers a way to engage positively with customers and prospects. But, as in the offline world, you should be prepared to deal with unhappy customers on a regular basis. The good news is that by treating them right and following through on your promises, it is entirely possible to convert them into good, long-term advocates for your brand - so their amplified social voice will work in your favour again.

Do you have response plan?

Ensure Your Company’s Public Relations Response Plan Follows These Key Employment Law Principles! When a public relations issue strikes, it can be difficult to find time to implement new procedures or educate employees on new legal concepts. This is particularly true where social media can trigger a public relations crisis almost instantaneously. Accordingly, an organization should develop a public relations response plan before it needs one.

An effective response plan can help your organization protect its reputation, remedy any improper behavior, and prevent a small distraction from snowballing into a public relations disaster.

To be effective, however, a response plan must comply with the law. Because labor and employment law affects employee communications in a variety of ways, companies should remember the following concepts when they are creating their response plans.

PR CAMPAIGN MEASUREMENT

Does PR work? That’s a common question for companies faced with the prospect of investing thousands of dollars in public relations.

Although decision-makers need assurances that their brands’ PR investments will generate a good ROI, measuring PR results can be challenging. To quantify PR impact, Walker Sands PR team has devised several ways to measure the effectiveness and impact of PR campaigns:

Press Clippings. One way to gauge your success is to track the amount of press clippings that mention your company or products and services. The caveat is that articles and mentions should appear in publications viewed by your prospects. When you receive a large number of mentions in target media outlets, your PR program is successfully raising awareness for your business.

Media Impressions. Another method of assessing your PR efforts is to calculate the number of media impressions for a given period. Multiply the number of press clippings by the total circulation of the publication in which it appeared. For example, if The Wall Street Journal mentioned your company and it has a total circulation of two million, you achieved two million media impressions.

Content Analysis. In addition to the quantity of articles and impressions, companies evaluating the impact of their PR programs should monitor the content of the articles that are published. Quality matters – did the reporter mention your brand’s key messages? Is your company being portrayed in a positive light? To answer the question “does PR work?” you have to assess whether your press coverage is resulting in valuable content.

Website Traffic. Another way to determine the effectiveness of your PR investments is to measure the amount of traffic your website receives before and after launching your campaign. Sales leads often come from calls-to-actions listed on your website, so analyzing spikes in site traffic can help answer whether your PR efforts are working.

Lead Sourcing. A well-executed PR campaign directly contributes to sales leads, but it’s difficult to determine when press coverage triggers sales. To learn if your PR efforts influence your clients’ decision-making, simply ask new customers how they heard about your company and its offerings.

Market Surveys. Research is paramount to tracking a PR campaign’s success. Before starting your PR campaign, survey your markets to see if they’ve heard of your brand and offerings. After launching your PR strategy, survey your markets again to check whether awareness statistics are trending up.

Social Media Mentions. Yet another metric for measuring the impact of a PR campaign is social media mentions. Social media measurements should also focus on conversations about your brand, as well as social communities in your industry. If social media mentions of your brand increase after launching your PR program, you can stop wondering “does PR work?”

Our Digital Ecosystem approach delivers added value and is an important driver of business growth for many of our clients.

It’s true that the benefits of PR can be more difficult to track than the benefits of other marketing tactics like advertising. But that doesn’t mean businesses should skip PR in favor of more traditional advertising strategies. Contact Inmillhouse and get your company engaged on the right track of PR!

MEDIA MONITORING

Media monitoring is the activity of monitoring the output of the print, online and broadcast media. It can be conducted for a variety of reasons, including political, commercial, scientific, and so on.

Alternatively for these monitoring services we as well provide following services:

Press clipping service or agency
Media cutting service or agency
Information logistics service
Media intelligence
Media information services

A media monitoring service, a press clipping service or a clipping service as known in earlier times, provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include documentation, content, analysis, or editorial opinion, specifically or widely. We provide these services to specialize your coverage by subject, industry, size, geography, publication, journalist, or editor. Though media monitoring is generally used for capturing content or editorial opinion, it also may be used to capture advertising content.

Media monitoring services have been variously termed over time, as new players entered the market, new forms of media were created, and as new uses from available content developed. An existing group may provide such a monitoring service, as it relates to their main purpose, while a monitoring agency generally provides such as their main business.

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TOP 25 PR GURU SUGGESTIONS

Public relations has evolved from being just a sales strategy to an art form. Most small businesses may not have the means to hire a PR firm or PR specialist, but that doesn’t mean their public engagement should be lackluster.

Here are the top 25 public relations tips from the pros:

1. Solidify Your Key Messages

Leigh Barer, Owner, Barer Communications

The foundation of any PR program is that you should clearly communicate your key messages. Your PR program’s key messages are the most important things you want your target audience to know about your product or service. You know you have solid key messages when:

Your key messages emphasize your company’s core strengths and uniqueness, and are backed by substantial supporting information.
They are woven throughout ALL of your content and communication with employees, reporters, investors, board members, industry analysts, etc.
Your key messages remain consistent when telling your brand story.

Remember that in a PR program, what you say is more important than the tools you put to work to say it.

2. Identify What Makes News (Newsworthy)

David E. Rudolph, Senior Managing Partner, D. Ericson & Associates Public Relations

All news is not newsworthy. Small businesses need to understand that the newsroom and news cycle is a competitive arena where publicists and corporate communicators are fighting to position stories that could become news. To win the battle to get your story in print, radio, television or in social media is to understand how to vet internal stories and pick the right one to pitch to the media. Story curating, and vetting is step one!

3. Know Your Journalists

Annie Scranton, President, Pace Public Relations

Become familiar with the work of the journalist you are trying to make a connection with. Read their stories, and check out their LinkedIn and Twitter pages. By familiarizing yourself with the types of stories they write, you’ll be able to better position yourself and your company in a way to catch their attention.

4. Create the Right News Release

Rafe Gomez, Co-Owner, VC Inc. Marketing

The first step in generating press coverage for your business is creating a news release to send to media outlets. Unfortunately, most business owners forget the “news” part of the news release, and they look at the media outreach effort as an opportunity to sell, rather than inform. They also don’t infuse a reliable and professional voice into their release, and they fail to share information that’s unique, exclusive, or interesting.

Bottom line: When crafting a news release in an effort to get press coverage, be more like CNN, and not like QVC. Focus on sharing noteworthy information that’s useful to the marketplace, and avoid the breathless hype that will prevent you from getting attention from a credible media outlet.

5. Know How to Give the Right Pitch to a Publication

Melanie Downey, Chief Brand PR Strategist, The Publicity Workshop

Looking for ideas to pitch to a magazine? Read the Letter from the Editor, usually found in the front of the magazine. In it, you can learn what’s on their mind, both personally and professionally, and you can use that information in your pitch. For example, if the editor talks about her love of travel, you can use that to pitch your travel guide, or your clothes or products that are perfect for travelers, or even a story of how your travels inspired you to start your business.

6. Stay Organized & Reliable

Cara Zizzo, Publicist, DineAmic Group

One of the public relations tips I always catch myself providing inspirational PR professionals, is to always answer your emails and as quickly as possible. Whether the email is from a client, your boss, or media, respond immediately. I tell them to do it even if they don’t have an answer. Still respond, letting them know you are on it and will get what they need by either their deadline or provide them a feasible deadline.

7. Work with Local PR Firms

Cristy Brusoe, Owne, Brusoe Communications

With a smaller budget, avoid retainer budgets that larger, corporate PR firms charge. Look for a local freelancer or a startup PR firm, who is working just as hard to “make it” in business as you are. You can identify these folks via LinkedIn or on freelancing sites such as Upwork.

8. Avoid Tunnel Vision

Doreen Clark, Director of Public Relations, SmartBug Media

Everyone wants to send their information to the outlets that have a large circulation. However, don’t forget who your target market is. Just because it is large, it doesn’t mean that the audience is necessarily the buyer of your product or service. Don’t become so focused on the editors and traditional reporters that you forget to build relationships with bloggers and freelancers.

9. Always Personalize Your Pitch

Kristin Marquet, Founder & Creative Director, CreativeDevelopmentAgency.com

Always make an effort to customize any pitch you email out to the media, and make sure you spell the media pro’s name correctly. In other words, don’t send one blanket pitch to 1,000 different outlets (unless you want your pitch to end up in the trash).

10. Consider a Reactive Approach to Your PR Strategy

Linda Pophal, Consultant & Owner, Strategic Communications, LLC

My top PR tip is to subscribe to tools like ProfNet or HARO to receive notifications from writers, editors, journalists, bloggers and others working on stories. This reactive approach is far more likely to see success than blind pitching ideas to editors and others, hoping to connect with them with the right topic at the right time.

When responding to a ProfNet or HARO query, include the title of the query in your email subject line and be *thorough* and on topic in your response. Focus on providing information of value to the audience, not on blatantly promoting yourself or your products or services. It can also help to offer to provide any additional follow up information or resources, as appropriate. Finally, avoid “pestering” the reporter to ask if they received your response or are planning to use it.

11. Responsiveness Wins the Day

Sarah Johnson, PR Specialist Fit Small Business

A good PR person always, always makes the media her highest priority. Media always comes before your client. If you somehow antagonize a member of the press, then you have lost that crucial connection forever.

Responsiveness goes hand in hand with relationship-building. Do not view journalists as a means to end. View them instead, as human beings — those with whom you can and should cultivate deeper relationships. Once the journalists see that they can rely on you time after time for story ideas, and expert comments, then you, the publicist, become a valuable commodity in their eyes.

12. Write Byline Articles that Show Your Expertise

Sandra Poirier Smith, President, SmithPublicity, Inc.

Byline articles are articles written by a business owner, expert, etc. that are “how to” in style or reveal inside secrets. It is NOT a direct self promotion piece, but leads with content and actionable information for target readers. Media outlets—print and online—pick these articles up (sometimes, but not often, even offer the writer a small a fee) and give full credit to the article’s author. A short bio is often included along with the company name, social media handles, website, books written, upcoming event, etc.

Once an article placement occurs, the business owners can then use this valuable coverage to rebroadcast links to the article on their website/blog and social media platforms, and update marketing collateral and their bio (“as featured in ABC magazine”), all of which builds their personal brand and credibility while increasing visibility for their business.

13. Create An Annual PR & Marketing Calendar

Larry H. Oskin, President, Marketing Solutions

As far as public relations tips go, one of the best advise is to plan ahead. Since most daily, weekly, and monthly media work 1 to 3 months in advance, create a PR plan with press announcements that are well-timed before each season, holiday, or business calendar announcement.

14. Find Ways to Make Yourself Relevant Even If You Don’t Have Any “News” to Share

Eleana Collins, Director, Warschawski

You don’t have to wait until you release a new product, launch a new service, grow, or expand. You can tie yourself to timely and relevant opportunities in the news by tying your business into what’s already happening. For example, National Entrepreneurship Month is in November. Can you use that as an opportunity to share your entrepreneurial story?

If you have the resources and time, you can even take it one step further and create the news yourself. Using the National Entrepreneurship Month example, think about your brand values and what types of campaigns you can create that have a news angle and also reflect your values. If you value education or caring for your community, you could create a contest for high school kids who are aspiring entrepreneurs and want to get into your industry and launch a seminar series on what they need to know to be successful.

15. Make Use of Twitter

Aly Jamison APR, Owner, Jamison PR

My biggest PR tip is to leverage Twitter. I follow various reporters/editors on that social platform, and it has been beneficial in a few ways. First, it allows me to get to know those individuals and stay updated on the stories they’re writing. In addition, it’s not uncommon for them to post requests for sources. Finally, it’s helpful to create Twitter lists and group your contacts together. For instance, if you’re working with clients in the education, restaurant, and construction space, create separate lists for each one and scroll through those when you have time.

16. Partner with a Charity

Jon Sloane, VP & PR Client Success Manager, PowerPost Digital

An effective PR strategy for a small business is to partner with a charity on an unusual event. The event should involve your product or service and a charity organization considered as a “media darling,” which typically means worthy charities that benefit women, children, or animals. Those tend to draw media attention and make for great pictures, which means TV. coverage. Make the event one that shows off your business, the charity partners, and raises money with an outreach to the general public. The resulting coverage in mainstream and social media will enhance your brand awareness and communicate your messages in the best possible light with your audience.

17. Synergize Your PR & Social Media Initiatives

Hilary Reiter, PR professional & Owner, Redhead Marketing & PR

Many businesses mistakenly have fragmented PR and social media initiatives. They are truly most effective when they complement each other. News stories about your business should be posted to your social platforms with the names of the media outlet and reporter tagged. Editors and writers like to see that you are sharing their content, and this may compel them to cover you again in the future. Social media is also a fantastic tool to research reporters and news outlets that cover your industry. I have often discovered reporters on Twitter and have connected with them that way to pitch story ideas and inform them about my clients. When your PR and social media is managed by the same individual or entity, it is more likely that your business can stay in front of your target media outlets and editors by following them and engaging with them.

18. Squeeze As Much Mileage As Possible From a PR Placement

Caroline Callaway, President & Founder, Bolt PR

PR is not a one-and-done placement. To be competitive and maximize your investment, PR needs to be part of an integrated communications effort. Once you secure that press placement, you want to leverage it across every digital channel. This includes posting about it on social media, adding it to your online newsroom, writing a blog about the news and sharing it with your email database. You should also leverage it for additional opportunities such as speaking engagements and contributed articles about the news topic.

19. Great Businesses Know How to Tell Their Story

Jennifer Fortney, Founder, CascadeComms

Not sell their story, but tell it. They know how to make the story of their company compelling – define the whys and hows that brought them to start the business, create and launch the product or service. Moreover, in today’s new media world, journalists do not often have time to see the story among the company/product facts. You have to give them the story, and then they can decide where they might want to go with it. Lots of companies put out press releases that read like fact sheets highlighting benefits, and, while benefits are important, they don’t show a journalist, whose readers are consumers, what your company, product, or service means to customers. Or answer questions like how and why will it change their world? Or what personal connection do you have that lends even more credibility and human interest to your story?

20. Know the Best Practices on Press Release Distribution

Jillian Ilao, Staff Writer at Fit Small Business

Having a great story that promotes your business is one thing, getting your article noticed by your chosen journalists is another. Imagine how many hundreds of emails a journalist gets everyday all requesting to be featured – what will it take to make your story stand out?

It all starts with choosing the right journalists, followed by knowing the best way to contact them and then making sure you have prepared the most interesting pitch that would make them want to hear more from you. Once you’ve got their attention, show them that you are a very competent and resource person that they can rely on. Finally, make sure to nurture your relationships with journalists even long after they have published your press release.

21. Put Up a “Media” or “Press” Page on Your Website

Lisa O’Neill, Principal, Newton O’Neill Communications

One of the best public relations tips out there is to put up a media or press page on your website. Ensure that your website is well-designed, well-written, clean, clear and has contact information – email & preferably phone as well. Create a section to house your “media relations” materials of company bios, press releases, relevant company facts and history, blog posts, and to share media/influencer hits as they occur. This shows you’re on top of your image.

22. Be a Guest Speaker on Podcasts

Anna Bolender, Head of PR, Badger Maps

Small companies, or rather their founders or CEO’s, should become guests on relevant podcasts in their industry to gain exposure to a bigger audience. Podcasts are widely popular and some have millions of listeners. As a small company, you probably don’t have the resources to host your own but you can definitely try to become a guest speaker!

Research the podcasts that your target audience might be listening to and that are relevant to your industry and expertise. For example, your founder can talk on podcasts about topics like entrepreneurship, startups, and topics related to your product. With such a variety of podcasts out there, you’ll definitely find some where the hosts would love to have your founder or CEO on as an expert.

23. Understand How to Work With Influencers

Tori Ross, Director of Account Services, Reed Public Relations

When it comes to working with influencers such as bloggers, celebrities and other social media personalities to promote your small business, sometimes less is more in terms of followers. You can easily spend hundreds or thousands of dollars for a single sponsored post from big-name influencers. However, studies show that as an influencer’s number of followers increases, their audience engagement decreases.

Individuals with between 1,000 to 10,000 followers – known as micro-influencers – actually hold more power in today’s digital world. These micro-influencers tend to have a more engaged, loyal following. They are more likely to be seen as a trustworthy source of information and recommendations than influencers with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers. They are also usually more open to sharing posts in exchange for goods and services rather than monetary exchanges so they can be a cost-effective in that way as well.

24. Use Holidays to Promote Your Brand

Jerry Buchs, Principal & PR Consultant, Sandstone Communications

Connect your PR idea to a holiday or a newsworthy time of the year, but be contrarian about it. There are many PR opportunities available to entrepreneurs and small businesses during certain seasons or times of the year. Again, depending on the business, the potential story ideas can be plentiful for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the end of the year or start of the new year, Valentine’s Day, Spring Break, income tax season, June weddings, summer vacations, and on and on.

But last January, I heard a reporter say, “If I get one more typical PR pitch related to the Super Bowl, I think I’m going to go crazy.” Uh oh. So the lesson here is to develop story ideas that connect with a holiday or time of the year but that go against the grain and get the media’s attention. How can your story be different – or even contrarian -without being crazy?

25. Try a Press Release Service to Expand Your Reach

Maggie Aland, Marketing Editor, Fit Small Business

Press release services provide that crucial link between your company and the public with their vast network of contacts in all media platforms. They are also competitively priced, so before deciding on the amount you’re willing to spend for public relations, it is a good idea to know all your options. Make sure you have a solid vision of your PR so you can match it with the services they offer.