Ways To Build Your Brand On Social Media Without Risking Your Reputation

‘A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is’ Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit

Internet technologies have made it possible for ordinary people to post content online without the help of web designers skilled in HTML.

Social media has caught on far more rapidly than the time it took for radio, television or even the Internet itself to achieve such widespread use. This has resulted in phenomenal changes in the way we all communicate with one another. It has also radically transformed the way brands engage with customers.

Although it is relatively easy to gain social media presence, it is decidedly more difficult to develop a cohesive strategy for using social media to promote your business.

How to engage online

Social media throws up many new questions for business and business owners about how to engage online and protect their brand.

Pre-social media, it was easier for marketing and advertising agencies to influence and shape consumers’ impressions of the brand they were helping to promote, but social media has altered the way in which businesses promote themselves. As consumers discuss products and services they’ve experienced online, they become an important new dimension for business to address. Delivering excellent customer service is key to success in the new online environment.

Monitoring

So many people are engaging in discussions on the web and commenting on blogs, forums, social media sites, sometimes anonymously, and this is one reason why companies are finding it necessary to keep up with these trends and monitor the digital space.

Whether a company is web based business or a bricks and mortar one, conversations about it will take place online. So it makes sense to listen to, and even to take part in, these conversations because management of business reputation is a key component of successful brand building.

Keep tabs on your online reputation

A happy customer may pass on their feelings to a few of their friends, but a disgruntled customer will pass on their concerns even more widely. Social networking means the ‘disgruntled customer’ effect quickly accelerates and an unfavourable write-up of your company or product can be quickly exposed to a potential audience of thousands, if not millions of Internet users.

While Google is undoubtedly the quickest way to gauge your online reputation, it’s hardly the entire picture. Finding out what’s being said about yourself or your company online needs to take account of all blogs, microblogs (such as Twitter), social networking, video sharing websites, news feeds, forums, message boards and whatever other new buzz tool Web 2.0 throws up this week.

There are a variety of free tools online, such as Google Alerts that will allow you to search through sites to monitor them in real time, but keeping tabs on everything can be complicated, confusing and time consuming. As a result, an increasing number of companies and individuals are using external reputation monitoring services to keep track of their online reputation. These services will monitor keywords, such as names of key staff, or topics that the business is interested in. It’s also relevant to monitor competitors too.

The best defence is good offence, and if you’re already out there on the Internet engaging with your customers via blogs and social networking, you’re in a good position to promote your reputation by being honest, transparent, and positive.