Social media exposure and protecting corporate reputation

Many organizations – some of which were founded in pre-social media years may probably have spent all of their existence building and sustaining a strong corporate reputation.

For almost all of them it comes at a huge price – sourcing and recruiting the best talents, outsmarting competitions to take the top spots in the market. It is a good feeling to be the reference point for the lads behind. Everyone loves it.

A corporate image governs the way the rest of the industry and society thinks about you.

A good reputation when developed will curry trust from the marketplace and enable a company achieve its goals while boosting revenue.

The advent of social media and with the attendant trend to drive visibility using its platforms has seen companies continuously having to look over their shoulders for social media trolls.

Trolls could be everything from illegitimate pages, obnoxious messages, vicious criticisms or brand attacks of a political nature.

In most cases, a decision to respond quickly or not to respond at all can be lead to damaging consequences. One thing to bear in mind, if a company does not create the image it wants; the marketplace will create it for it.

Exposure on social media is a double-edged sword. While it can bolster a desirable corporate image it can also generate and escalate corporate crisis. In some cases, they may serve as the best strategy to mitigate the effects of corporate image crisis.

According to the Financial Times Lexicon Social media refers to the internet and mobile technology based channels of communication in which people share content with each other. It is also the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. The different types of social media are websites and applications focused on forums, micro blogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation and wikis. Examples are Twitter, Face book, Google, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Reddit, Instagram and so on.

The latest stats on internet users in the world released in November 2015 put the figure at over 3 billion – specifically 3,366,261,156. That is a goldmine for any company that can harness it.

Generally, social media offers important business benefits to companies and organizations. Organisations that fail to adopt it lose out on the significant advantage and may even give the edge to competitors. Organisations leverage on it to reach out to mass audiences efficiently and at low cost. When used properly, it is a huge image booster capable of promoting brand awareness in different markets. It helps brands build trust in existing and potential customers.

However the risk, social media poses to companies is real and should not be neglected. In the case of a negative comment for instance, how does a social media manager manage it?

There could be reasons not to respond immediately. First it is important to be careful and design a response strategy. The best response should be able to douse the tension or bring it to manageable levels. Protecting your image should always be the goal of any strategy. Remember it will determine the ease of which your constituents do business with you without thinking about it. Thinking about the decision to buy may cost them time, energy and eventually money. Consumers will always prefer brands that saves them time, energy and money.

In view of strategy, Walmart is a case in point. Prior to October 2014, the Walmart adopted a strategy of soaking up criticism on social media believing that no response was the best response, “It will go away.” The strategy was hurting their image until they decided to do it different and introduced a new policy in October called “No Free Shots,” every comment was going to get a response henceforth. They engaged directly with some of its critics. As they did they won many more over because clients felt better having their complaints addressed promptly.

The fact is people are not looking for perfection when they are online. What many are looking for – even though they do not acknowledge, is humanity and a genuine response. In that case, a negative comment could open an opportunity to reach out in a positive and transparent manner. Your image may take a hit from one bad comment but many will not write you off because of it. If anything they will be gauging your come back. Hence, take some time to formulate a polite reply. Responding to bad comments is a way to frame your story while still making the person feel heard and acknowledge.

A decision not to respond to negative comments may come across to your audience as having something to hide. Conversation between an audience and an organization is the epitome of transparency. Responding also show you care about your customers and respect their opinions.

An active social media community may be an advantage. They can quickly respond to the bad comment with some positives of their own.

Organisations need to have a clear social media policy as they may spend enormous resources to build their brand online just for staff to – often without meaning, damage it very quickly.

FRANK ELEANYA