4 key points to consider when managing a brand reputation online

lunes, 27 de junio de 2011 - Publicado por Manuel en 1:36
Nowadays, everything that matters seems to come with an online tag attached. Online banking, online threats, online gaming, online videos, and so on. Also in marketing of course. As a take out of the Digital Business Master I´m enrolled right now,  Engaged by my Social Web professor Enrique Dans, I would like to say a few words about how to manage your brand reputation, with a model that I will call, PLEW for example.

Just don´t panic, ok?

Prepare. This is the crucial step, and an step that many companies forget about. Many companies, especially those whose business are not linked at all with the Internet, consider the Internet as a place where they have to be. But before hiring Community managers or paying IT consulting firms millions to promote your brand reputation online, it would be wise to consider if it makes sense for your brand. Are you a small law firm based in a small town? Probably online brand reputation is not the first of your concerns. If you are selling clothes for 15 years old kids in Spain, probably it would be wiser to use Tuenti rather than Facebook as a main Social network channel.

Listen. Imagine a party at your company. You are the boss, so you are known by your employees. Recently, you took some decisions that some of them would like, and some of them don´t. You arrive to the place a few hours after the party started, so everyone there is talking, probably about you. You could arrive and prentend nothing is happening, and say Hi! with a big smile, and how much you love them all. The reaction of course, would be mixed, with both real smiles and fake ones. That is what happens with brands in the online world, with the difference that people don´t need to show fake smiles. A wise advice for both offline and online world. Listen  before talking.

Engage. Once you start to manage your brand online, comes the hardest part. I wont talk too much about how to make online users like your brand, there is plenty of information on the cloud. But a key point is this one. Online PR is similar to offline PR. You contact a few media agencies, newspapers and TV networks, and you let them to spread the news you want to spread, normally with an economic amount involved. Substitute those agents with bloggers and online influencers and you got it. With the difference that most of them wont be interested in "selling their soul" for a few bucks. Better be nice then. You can read a really interesting article here.

Wait. And finally, don´t expect online reputation to yield benefits in a matter of days. It takes time to build a community of engaged users, and it takes time for search engines to organize the information. And you need to take care of both every single day. Do it, and your brand will see its benefits.