The Vanity Advantage

by smallbizbee · 12 comments

Just admit it – we’ve all done it – a time or two, when you didn’t think anyone was looking, you typed your own name into Google just to see what would come up.

I’ve done it, more out of curiosity than a feeling that something may be lurking out there, but I’ve always felt a bit vain searching for myself. And as we all know, vanity is so unbecoming.

However, while vanity may be frowned upon at a personal level, I would encourage you to embrace your vainity when it comes to your business.

The Vanity Advantage

In business, vain is an advantage. Being aware of what is being said about you, what image your business portrays, and how you are perceived by your customer are critical to your success.

Embrace the vanity. Take an active and on going interest in knowing what is being said about you, and preen for your customer. Not only is it okay from a business perspective, I would encourage it!

Get Your Vanity Check On

Doing a routine vanity check on your business will help keep your finger on the pulse of your customer, fill holes in your service model, and more readily meet your customers needs. So where do you start?

Just like you Googled your name…Google your business. See what comes up, where are you listed, how do you rank online.

Look at review services like Yelp, or if you sell a product take a look at Epinions.

Start listening to the conversations being had about you online. Search Twitter conversations for your business, your product, or for comments about your service.

Use a service like Trackur to monitor blog postings, comments, news stories or video content published on the web about you, your product or service.

Set up Google Alerts to email you whenever your name pops up on a website, newsgroup or blog post.

Check out boardtracker.com to see if your products or services are being discussed on any number of message boards.

There is even desktop software available to help with your vanity advantage. Copernic for example monitors websites for your search terms and lets you know when they change.

The point is there are a host of services, many of which are free, to monitor the conversations being had about you and your business online. A simple Google search for “Online Reputation Management” should get you moving in the right direction.

Don’t Forget the Offline World

Your vanity advantage transfers to the offline world as well. Know how you are perceived by your customers, and listen to what they are saying about you.

Ask your customers directly how you are doing. Get their feedback, and take it to heart without getting defensive.

Want a more anonymous way to get feedback?

Use online survey tools such as Survey Monkey, or Zoomerang to quickly poll your customers.

Start giving out feedback forms to your customers as part of your product or service offering, and give incentives for them to turn them in (it’s amazing what a $25 Starbucks card will get people to do).

The Tip of the Iceberg

This is just a small sampling of the ways you can embrace your vanity and turn it into an advantage. There are literally hundreds of ways to listen to your consumers, hopefully the above gets you started down that path. The key is to search out ways in which to search for yourself. Remember we’re embracing our vanity here – so the more ways to look for yourself the better!

The Last Step is the Hardest

Your customers are talking. They are talking about you and your business right now, and it’s up to you if you want to use their conversations, feedback, and criticisms to move your business ahead.

The hardest part of this exercise doesn’t come with the listening, it comes with the responding. Only listening is of no real help, and if you choose to ignore what is being said you will loose the majority of the vanity advantage.

Hopefully much of what you hear will be positive, but there are bound to be some negatives too. Hit them head on – make any wrongs right – that’s the point.

Look for areas of opportunity in the conversations, and work to fix them. See what your customers love about you and keep doing it. Identify areas of improvement in your business model, or areas where marketing messages need to be refined, or customer education is necessary. Remember that responding can be done with actions as well as words.

The key is to listen, and then respond. Embrace your vanity, and use it as your advantage.

Photo Credit: nathalielaure

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