With all the competition out there in the online digital world, brands are always looking to not only protect their brand, but to strengthen and maximize it's online impact via the use of Social Media.
A brand's reputation is a major factor on the purchasing decisions of consumers, and can make its mark on an increase or decrease in business. By initiating a strong and active presence on Social Media, brands can not only use it as a conduit for communication with current customers, but new customers can also be attracted.
Let's take a look at some of the ways a brand's reputation can be established, maintained as well as managed via Social Media:
Brands should establish a presence that is ongoing and consistent. The three social media platforms that would establish a reputation for a brand are LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Establish your messaging and target market and start with those.
When a brand shares curated content as well content that is unique and original, a brand will be in the driver's seat and will be in control of it's own conversation. With a bit of direct engagement of fans with messages that are relevant to them, you will be able to build an army of brand ambassadors who would be more than willing to share your messages with their followers and connections.
In the world of Social Media branding, this is imperative to success. The tools are out there. By using such free tools as Google alerts, you can keep a close eye on what is happening on your social pages and will be able to respond quickly if need be, no matter whether that feedback is positive or negative.
As I mentioned there are lots of free tools, but if you have a budget you might want to check out this great list of reputation tracking tools that are worth paying for.
It is highly unfortunate that many brands are oblivious to the advantages that Social Media has for a business, because they either do not understand it or minimize it's importance, saying it's mostly a tool for teens to communicate. I'm telling you now that Social Media is something that brands need to embrace. They are just as important as traditional advertising media such as print ads and billboards. The ultimate part about Social Media that goes beyond traditional is the ability as needed, to adjust to the size of user screens, displaying the ads at the right time.
It's about getting personalized. When a brand impresses you with a personalized ad that offers you products based on past purchases, content about the area you just visited, and the fact that your birthday is coming up, that not only wins oohs and ahhs, but builds reputation. When the ad has a button to share your personalized experience, then that just leads to the virality and pretty soon, a brand will enjoy phenomenal growth. But, it is a road that brands need to stay on and not let up.
Create a blog and publish often. Publish news on the company, it's customers, write about topics tied to your brand that will have you perceived as a subject matter expert, further building trust with your audience.
Review sites such as yelp or even encouraging reviews on Google + is one of the most impressionable social media assets to have. You would buy the same bike as a friend did or even a stranger that wrote about it, eh? Because they share your passion. They speak YOUR language.
The Brooklyn bridge was not built in one day and the same goes for your reputation. Reputation is something you need to work on, like the rungs of a ladder, working on it till you reach the top. You'll need to be actively engaged with your followers, via content and timely communication. Those in the Social Media know, estimate it usually takes 3 months to a year to getting a buzz on Social Media, so what I ask are you waiting for?:)