How to Protect Your Brand's Social Reputation?

Every second across the globe, people are logging on to a social media networks like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. They are staying connected to each other 24x7x365 days, sharing incidents, anecdotes, personal experiences, music, movies, information and much more. With the social media network assuming such expansive proportions, few business owners can afford to ignore their social reputation management strategy.

Whether you own a full-time business or a fledgling enterprise, you just cannot ignore the tremendous reach of the online market. More and more buyers are shopping online rather than personally jostling at the neighborhood market. To tap this huge market successfully, you need the right online marketing strategy, and social media should be an integral part of that strategy.

Why should you take the social media seriously?
A brand is not built-in a single day but it takes just a few disgruntled customers to spoil all that hard work. This is all the more true for the volatile online market where customers have million choices at their fingertips and brand loyalty can be very fickle. Aggressive competition and unethical promotional practices from rivals will force you to take your social media reputation management seriously and be alert about any efforts to besmirch your reputation.

Any news on the social media goes viral instantly. This means, all the latest happenings, including the latest offerings from business houses are relayed to thousands of social media members through an endless network of mutual friends. The relevance of social network in today's world also means that any bad word about your company will take just seconds to circulate among millions of members, thereby causing irreparable damage to your brand.

In today's world of online connectivity, customers are really the king. They have endless opportunities of analyzing and evaluating a company's reputation through logical and critical comments on various parameters. They make optimum use of review websites, self-blogs and social media platforms to reach out to each other and exchange information and advice. Most importantly, customers take each other seriously and respect each other's opinion about a particular company or brand.

How to maintain your brands positive image?
It is vitally important for you to be serious about your brand presence on the social media and make sure that your reputation does not suffer. You must be genuinely interested in having a positive presence on these platforms and reach out to customers in a proactive manner. Make your presence interesting by offering innovative services and useful information. Interact with customers meaningfully and respect their views. Think of ways of making customers review your brand in an affirmative way rather than self-promoting your company. Never re-direct customers to other links for any customer service or for lodging complaints. Offering help shows that you take your customers seriously and are willing to discuss their grievances even after the transaction is over.

Do not leave a standard reply for all customers but personalize your response as each of them will have specific complaints. Customers will consider your company as a genuine brand with great after-sales service and circulate the good review among their friends on the social networks. As part of your social media reputation management strategy, be prompt in your response to complaints. The world is moving at breakneck speed and customers will float away from a company which takes weeks to respond. On the other hand, most dissatisfied customers will have a good word for you if your response is prompt followed by quick action.

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