As the one responsible for my organization’s
online presence and brand, I must employ tactics and measures to ensure that
our brand, our message and our reputation is protected. Recently, I found a sponsored link on Google
that mentioned my organization’ name (American Health Underwriters). After clicking on the link, I found that I
was directed to a landing page that contained some of our content but the page
belonged to competitor. Essentially, one
of our competitors was using our brand and web content to market their
products. Needless to say, I was taken
by surprise. Fortunately, I contacted
the organization and they promptly moved toward clearing up the problem before
I escalated it to our legal team. Had I
not been monitoring our brand, they would have continued to use our
brand to advertise their products.
Ferris Bueller’s famous quote:
“Life moves
pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss
it” should be modified to “Information about your brand moves pretty fast…..”
This brings me to an important and
informative article by Michael Hyatt from September 4th entitled
“Defending Your Brand Online”. I think
you’ll find it useful in understanding how to monitor the online conversation
about your brand, products, etc and what steps to take if the conversation turns
against you. After reading the examples
Michael uses… you’ll begin to understand “why” defending your brand is
essential. I have shared this article
with leadership within my organization. I suggest you do the same. Thanks to Michael for allowing me to share some excerpts from his site. I recommend you visit.
Below is an excerpt from the original
article.
“It
takes years to build a brand. Unfortunately, there aren’t many shortcuts. You
build a brand—like a reputation—one impression at a time. Every encounter with
a customer results in either a “deposit” or a “withdrawal” in your “brand
account.”
Twenty
years ago, if a customer had a bad experience with your company, it didn’t
matter quite as much. Sure they could tell their friends, and if enough people
had bad experiences, they could tell their friends. Eventually, it would catch
up with you. But it didn’t happen overnight.
But today, things are different. Digital communication has changed everything. If a customer has a bad experience, he can email his friends, Twitter his followers, or blog about his experience. In the blink of an eye, one bad experience can cascade into thousands—and even millions—of impressions. Brands can be damaged in a few days.” (Michael Hyatt)
© 2010, Michael S. Hyatt. All rights reserved. Originally published at
www.michaelhyatt.com
Michael
Suggests 7 steps to defending your brand (Click on link to Michael’s blog entry
is provided below for more information.)
1. Build an online presence
2. Monitor the conversation
3. Respond quickly to criticism
4. Admit your mistakes
5. Understand the lifetime value of the
customer
6. Empower your employees to solve
problems
7. Exceed your customers’ expectations.
Link to this article: http://michaelhyatt.com/2008/09/defending-your-brand-online.html
There it is. Simple and effective.
Lance Cashion