The reputation of a company, and in this case of a hotel, on the Internet can lead to success or failure. You have to be constant and careful to enjoy a well-valued image on the network.
by María Cecilia Hernández Ocampo
If you are one of those who believe that by having a website, having created a fan page on Facebook, having a Twitter account and writing a blog, your maca has already fulfilled the task of making a presence on the Internet, you are wrong.
To be active, each action must be framed within a studied strategy that leads the company to achieve its objectives and maintain a positive online reputation.
This concept was born in 2008 as a separate discipline from reputation in traditional media (which many have called "offline reputation"), capable of measuring and managing the conception that Internet users have about a brand, a company, a service or a person.
"I explain it with an analogy: online and offline reputation are like mental health and physical health, although the two are very different, for everything to be well the two must go great. There are very successful brands in the offline world but very punished, by users, on the network, "explains the Spanish Oscar del Santo, recognized and influential specialist in Internet 2.0 and social networks, author of the books "Online reputation for tod@s" and "Attraction marketing 2.0".
Offline reputation is taken care of by public relations agencies or advertisers through their influence in traditional media (press, radio, television), there the company has total control over what it wants to transmit and, in general, there is no interaction with users.
On the other hand, the reputation of a brand on the Internet has acquired its own rules of the game. "In the network that reputation is built little by little from the interaction with consumers or with potential customers. It is shaped through opinions, recommendations or sharing information," says Jaime Alonso Vallejo, IT Director of Cubica Lab, a Colombian provider of infrastructure and hosting for the Internet.
According to del Santo, online reputation has two territories to play its cards: search engines, where what counts is that users find the company in the top positions of results when performing searches on engines such as Google related to the work of the company. And a second area of competence is social networks, where the most important thing is the quantity and quality of the interaction that the organization has with users.
In both cases, reputation is formed from the responses generated by Internet users to the actions that the company implements in one or another area: in the first one, positioning, recognition, attracting new followers, customers, fans or friends, reaching more people is expected. In social networks, on the other hand, consolidation, loyalty, enthusiasm and passion for the brand are expected.
"A bad job in one territory or another could generate the exact opposite of what was expected. That is why it is so important and strategic to do a good job with online reputation management," Vallejo emphasizes.
Don't leave your reputation in the wrong hands
The image on the Internet is a delicate matter, especially because of the speed with which messages are distributed around the world, because in the network there are no geographical borders, there is no bureaucracy that stops a comment, a protest or a massive request.
"Both bad steps and good deeds go viral in a matter of minutes and the influence that this message exerts on the people who receive it is incalculable, for better or for worse," says Oscar del Santo.
At this point you might think that being on the Internet is a double-edged sword, and yes, but at the same time many companies have shown that it is possible to do a good image job through social networks.
Therefore, to design and implement an Internet reputation strategy you need much more than being a passionate geek. The two guests agree that this is a task that must be carried out by true professionals in the field.
"He must be a person with training, capable of solving crisis situations wisely. Most interactions occur through writing, so this position should be occupied by a person who writes well, with skills for public relations and marketing, with a deep knowledge about the operation of the Internet and social networks, who is permanently updated and who has a sixth sense to identify the spontaneous interactions of malicious ones. " details Spanish.
Finally it will always be a person who faces crisis situations, and if this person does not have enough capacity he will have to ask for help from the management, it will take much longer to give an answer and the problem can acquire higher dimensions.
Keep influencers happy
Del Santo also comments that a role has been imposed in this virtual context that has been called "the influencer", which is that person who has a certain degree of recognition and credibility, followed massively by other users on social networks and capable of generating reactions, sensations and decisions with the comments he makes on the Internet.
But how to control the perception that Netizens have about the company? There are free or paid tools that allow you to monitor and classify the movement that a certain brand has on the web: what was said, when it was said, where it was said and if it is positive or negative.
"But it is a mistake to feel that these types of tools serve to control or protect in cases of image crisis. We must be clear that we can control the message we give, but we cannot control the reaction that is generated with this action. What it does allow us to do is act quickly to stop or diminish the 'snowball' effect that is generated in social networks," explains the representative of Cubica Lab.
According to the portal specialized in web positioning seocolombia.com, the most advisable thing when facing a crisis on the internet is to review the context in which a negative comment occurs, because many times it is due to misunderstandings or a particular case that does not represent the generality of the service.
It is advisable, say the experts of Seo Colombia, that the company offers its point of view on the negative comment and, if possible, clarify the situation. When the reaction occurs in a place that does not belong to the company, such as in virtual communities such as TripAdvisor, Hotels.com, among others, many sites offer the possibility for the affected brand to express its point of view.
"You do not always have to apologize for negative situations, you have to study the case and delimit the guilt, offer speed in the response and define a tone for that response. For example, if a person books a hotel in a room where it is not clear whether it has a sea view or not, and when arriving at the establishment demands an ocean view but they can not give it to them, they will most likely make some negative comment on the Internet. In that case, the hotel can explain the situation to safeguard its image," says Oscar.
Education, respect, manners, defending the position and not giving your arm to twist are recommended actions when the company is right. When not, it is best to offer an apology, undertake an internal investigation and implement some action to clean up the image: deliver a gift, a bonus, a discount, etc.
Be good in real and virtual life
Unquestionably, the reputation on the Internet is formed through the experiences, positive or negative, of users in offline life, of their relationship (virtual and real) with their guests. Therefore, although customers have the ability to exalt or spoil their image, it is you who have the power to make every interaction with them become an opportunity to benefit their reputation.
Finally, del Santo recommends that in the case of hotel companies there are resources that significantly help improve the reputation on the Internet, but not everyone can direct the entire orchestra online.
Geolocators are tools that give visibility to hotels, create communities of all types: on Pinterest with photographs of the hotel, own and users; on Twitter to streamline communication with guests and notify news; On YouTube, with videos that invite you to visit the establishment. Everything counts: text, image, sound, etc.
"On the internet, what matters is getting excited. My recommendation will always be 'don't disappoint your customers', concludes Oscar del Santo.
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