Defending Your Brand Online

Dec 09, 2009•Blog Posts• General Marketing• Online & Digital Media• Social Media• by author

Tom S.

With the swarms of consumers blogging about everything under the sun, opinions spread like wildfire. It is imperative that companies respond promptly and adequately to negative conversations online.

Defending your brand has become more important then ever, so why are so many companies still not regulating these outlets? In a recent conference in New York, Ad Age columnist Pete Blackshaw, discussed how businesses can defend against negative press on the internet. Below are a few of his tips to remember when you begin to monitor your brand online.

1. “Empower the influencer.” Blackshaw emphasized the need to make information available to those who may be looking for it, like bloggers and social media users. Companies need to utilize search engines on their home websites and keep information up to date and positive. The likelihood of a negative blog decreases if there is an ample amount of information refuting the writer’s opinion.
2. Use tools to monitor what is being written about your brand on the internet. Free applications such as Google Alerts and Summarize make it easier for companies to keep an eye out. Check every so often to see who is talking about your company online and determine if a response is necessary. Keep in mind that with today’s social media landscape, replication is everywhere. It is no longer just a few hundred people reading a blog from the net, but rather, (possibly) thousands of people tweeting and re-tweeting harmful press about the brand.
3. Timeliness is everything. Making amends with a dissatisfied customer before damage is done is the key. Any number of people could have been influenced by the bad press before the company came in for damage control. The value of a customer (even just one) is great. Customers allow businesses to keep their doors open, after all.
4. Watch what the competition is doing. Learn from their mistakes instead of your own. If they are getting it right, take the opportunity to make sure your business is on par with offers.
5. No Customers? Just because a business may not have “traditional” customers doesn’t mean it should let the World Wide Web determine the integrity of the brand. Just like above, address the problem and take a stance.