Brand-Building & Reputation Management
If reputation management is a headache you’re already encountered, or if you’re one of the many businesses where your reputation could be attacked through no fault of your own, then you should prepare yourself to get busy on social media. The many social media channels are a proactive reputation management gift to anyone who would like to fend off a possible reputation attack, or fix a disaster that’s already happened.
Social media is the cost-conscious way of tweaking your brand in any direction you like: compare a cost of zero with the hefty price tag that comes with traditional media. And if you’re the type who doesn’t like to try anything until the big boys have tried it first, bear in mind that brand-giant Pepsi has decided to forgo its traditional superbowl ads on TV in favor of social network promotion online. The saving? Word is they’ve put aside $20 million to use as prizes for social media campaign, which involves competitions. Could that have been their previous budget for the superbowl ads?
Of course you can launch a paid social media campaign, which can set you back up to $10,000.00 per tweet. But I wouldn’t recommend it. This is missing the whole point of social media in my opinion, and if you do it right you could get exactly the same result without the disapproving looks (yes this kind of advertising can actually get you unfollowed on Twitter) or the hefty price tag.
Let’s have a brief look at how you might create a social media campaign
All social media campaigns begin with opening an account and following best practices to make sure you don’t alienate your new network.I haven’t found a better or more comprehensive guide to using Facebook than Mashable’s. Highly recommended whether you’re new to Facebook or a seasoned user.
Create a Facebook Group and Fan Page for your product or service. Don’t beat people over the head about it, but share useful content and build friendly networks and your reputation will take care of itself. If you do a good enough job of this you could even find that a few of your friends are prepared to put themselves on the line to defend your reputation.
Personally I consider Twitter the best reputation management tool of all. You can monitor what people are saying about you through the many Twitter search tools and address the comment if they’re bad. You can build fantastic friend networks, and like Facebook, if you’re a good Twitter friend, your contacts will likely do a great job of defending your honor online. Twitter conversations are often indexed, so can be searched through the engines, and not just through 3rd party Twitter tools.
Digg
If you can come up with a story or event that is so newsworthy that it hits the first page of Digg, you’re basically made. Online this is like making the front page of the NYTimes. Digg is not as much fun as it used to be though, and getting a story to hit the front page can be stressful. Personally I prefer to use Facebook and Twitter for fun and effectiveness.
What Else
There are many other social media channels that you might like to explore. Used together they can help you build a truly amazing social media campaign for brand building or reputation management.
Search Engine Journal
SOSG
building your online reputation is important as some people check things about your business before buying products or getting your services.
Social media is must in this current time for the reputation of your brand or for yourself.
Sometimes the best answers to spending conundrums are the most obvious. This is one of those times. You can easily gain market share by not pulling out money of your campaigns because other companies are reacting to the cold water and pulling out their money. It’s a simple case of reduction of noise in the space.
Sadly, most companies don’t have the foresight or resources to make this happen.
You can bet on that. Most people will “Google” your brand or company, if not a known quantity.
Thank you! Very helpful!
Social media accounts is additional assets for your website though you need to manage this well as a lot of people can comment through it and you might receive negative comment from it.
Social media is definitely a good place to start when creating a good online brand.
SEOP.com
Using high profile sites to gain reputation is a good way to increase your branding.
Just like these social media outlets can build your reputation, they can just as easily also tarnish it as well. That’s why one shouldn’t be surprised if remarks about a company or even a person can quickly pop up on the search engines. Google just announced their Google Hotpot feature which will enable searchers to quickly jump on good or bad reviews about any business they are looking for. That’s why now a days many companies who have had a hard time regaining their reputation are outsoucring this task to companies that focus purely on reputation management. A few SEO Services and Website Design companies are providing these and many other similar services. Just be sure to research each one of them thoroughly before opting for them.