There are several instances of well-known brands encountering reputation problems on its social media pages. At times, the damage happens as a result of an inadvertent tweet by a member of the company’s staff or an adverse comment by an unethical competitor or a disgruntled customer.
The biggest risk to the company’s brand invariably comes from external, consumer-generated posts that range from menacing threats to extreme profanity. As brands grow their social media followings, the challenge of maintaining their reputation within social communities also grows.
Evolve and put n place a sound reputation management policy to remove or suppress damaging content fast – within less tan 24 hours.
Please know that the longer adverse or inappropriate content remains in your social channels, the greater the chances it will be shared and amplified to the detriment of the brand. Decide how quickly you can eradicate it and contain the damage.
Put a crisis management processes in place to respond quickly. Brand attacks and threats can be contained if you make an appropriate and timely response. Prepare in advance and be in a state of readiness where you can and post your responses fast.
Please know that brand threats can come in multiple languages and different formats. Begin your social moderation process in the primary language of your customers, but ultimately you should try to provide content in all languages that your customers may use. Do not forget that much offensive content nowadays comes in the form of images, video or links. Continuously monitor them all.
Companies often wake up after an unforeseen crisis hits and then they do not have the capacity to protect their brand with all the noise on social media. Backlogs can mount up quickly so having a fool-proof system in place to deal with increased volumes becomes crucial.
It is important that you keep tabs on all your channels. Don’t just check your website and social media channels. Consider Google+, Pinterest, Instagram and any other channels you use – apart from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Be clear in your mind what is damaging content for your brand. Different companies have different brand sensitivities. Have an action plan for different types of content that interferes with the brand image you want to project.
You can focus your employees’ efforts on doing what they do best – engaging with customers – and name a few select senior employees for handling the offensive content.