Introduction to Brand Management
Online Brand Management is the practice of growing and protecting your brand online. Growing and protecting your brand online entails many different tasks including developing a unique, easy to find, easy to use website, participation in social networks and review sites, developing a business blog, and monitoring and defending your brand’s reputation across the internet.
Website
A great way to grow your brand and business online is by having a first rate website. Your company’s website shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should have a unique, memorable layout, be easy to find, be very easy to use and navigate, have compelling, informative, and regularly updated content, and offer an easy way for visitors and customers to contact you. Having a professional and easy to use website also goes a long way to generate trust with prospective leads and customers.
Business Blogging
A business blog is a great way to grow your brand and company online. Blogs are very search engine friendly and, if they are updated regularly, are indexed by search engines and blog search sites with great frequency. A business blog can be used as a PR platform to communicate with Internet users, loyal customers, industry insiders, and the media. The blog can be used to announce new product launches, service offerings, upgrades, new locations, etc. It can also be used to address any bad publicity for your company or industry. In this manner, it serves as an excellent tool to publish your company’s view of the issue at hand. Google, for example, has numerous official company blogs. For the most part, these blogs cover news and updates for Google’s many different products and services, such as Google analytics, Google maps, and Google news.
Brand Reputation Management
Brand reputation management is the practice of monitoring the web for any negative or fraudulent content relating to your brand and reacting to it. A great brand takes years, substantial amounts of money, and careful planning to create. It can also be destroyed in a matter of days or weeks by a blogger or webmaster with a bone to pick. By establishing a monitoring system for your brand, you can quickly locate online news and content relating to your brand, and act on it. A simple and effective way to monitor the web is to set up alerts for your company and brand names at the major search engines. When the search engines index new content containing your company or brand name you will be notified immediately.
A quick response can save you time and money down the road, since you can perform damage control before the problem spreads. For example, if you find content that makes fraudulent statements about your company or brand, you should contact the website or blog and ask to have it removed. It is also a good idea to speak to your legal counsel in these instances. On the other hand, if the content is factually true but reflects negatively on your company or brand, then it is a good idea to contact the owner of the website or blog to see how you can remedy the situation. Once the situation has been addressed and the person is now satisfied, ask if they would make a short comment on the site where the negative content was originally posted, stating that your company remedied the situation.