In the online era of  Twitter, Facebook and social media in general – you can effectively say anything almost anywhere. The shift reminds me of the way the camera phone combined with 24 hour news has changed much of the landscape of news reporting today. Computers and smart phones have become the tools of getting personal feelings and stories out there instantly.

This is when things can get tricky for brands. Take this example…

Just imagine, you are waiting in a queue at a high street retail store and it’s too long and slow. People are barging into you and the air con is not working. Take out your phone and tweet: “Waiting forever at Store X. Service is poor”. The moment you hit send, that message is transferred to all your followers, who in turn tweet back with yet worse experiences at Store X. Apart from the obvious embarrassment, Store X could see this as an opportunity to learn from its mistakes rather than try to bury the bad news. However, the first reaction will probably be blind panic.

Here’s when online reputation management (ORM) comes in. It’s a service which helps manage the perception of a brand online. ORM is not about harassment or controlling the message. It’s not even about resorting to dubious off hand tactics to rid a website of a negative article or comment. What ORM puts in place are some legitimate strategies to present the view of a company or client that will blunt any negative messages and advise on how a client can speak to customers directly (mainly social media channels). A much publicised case in point would be the Marks and Spencer’s ‘Bra War’ campaign launched by Beckie Williams who started the ‘Bust 4 Justice’ campaign. It generated so much negativity for M&Ss’ policy of additional charging for larger sized underwear that the company had to resort to a public apology and price cuts. The author of the group went on to make news appearances  and attracted a lot of press coverage in the meantime. When times are a little lean, the perception was that M&S weren’t exactly value for money. Overall, this is a perfect example which demonstrates the influence of social media today but also the need to be vigilant and ready to defend your brand. M&S emerged relatively unscathed from this but had they been slower they would be looking at lost sales and lost customers.

The flip side is to find positive comments and be able to track how successful offline promotions can be by measuring the ‘buzz’ online. Personally I would say, if you don’t generate any buzz in the online community, be it positive or even negative publicity, you really haven’t got much of a brand.

How does one find comments? Essentially, find where your audience is! Look out for blogs, comments, message boards etc. Tracking online conversations and mentions can be tricky but some free tools are available already online namely Google itself, Technorati, Blogpulse, Twitter search and something like YackTrack . More professional programs are available such as Brandwatch. Next up is getting a full strategy together. This could involve getting press releases out counteracting negative statements. It may also mean getting a blog setup, throwing in SEO/PPC tactics or getting stuck in to a little tweeting yourself. Every strategy is tailored differently to the severity of the problem. It may even mean joining forces with your PR agency for a combined online/offline approach! If all is handled in the right way, your brand will come out smelling of roses for sure.

Picture: J Cole on Flickr

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