How To Use Social Media Marketing For Online Reputation Management

One of the biggest draws of social media i.e. the ability to have a direct interface with the target audience and millions of people in general is also one of the biggest drawbacks. While you can develop strategies using the opportunity of proximity to boost your company in multiple ways, this proximity also means your company becomes an easy target.

Countering Bad News

Again, just as your campaign can go viral, the opposite i.e. negative campaign can also go viral. Indeed bad news travels fast and no faster than in the internet. This close proximity creates a delicate balance between your business and its audience. You may not have a say or be able to help it if the pendulum swings on the side of the negative but you can do something to mitigate it with an online reputation management strategy.

The same platform that can cause so much damage so quickly can also have the opposite effect of correcting that damage even quicker. Welcome to the world of social media and online reputation management.

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Starting With A Plan: Strategy

When you start something on social media on an official capacity you have to start with a plan, a strategy. This strategy must not stop at how you are going to use social media marketing to shoot your company to the top of Fortune 500 companies; it must as a matter of necessity, also include a plan of action, readymade against when things go bad.

When things go bad on the internet and in social media platforms, they tend to do so at lightning speed. You may be so caught unawares that you will not know the first step to take. The first step and that early response may the make or mar moment for your business. This is why having a plan of action is critical.

In fact, it is not about having a plan of action and filing it until the storm hits, it is about looking at possible areas where such a storm would hit and start putting out online reputation management measures at this very moment to stifle and possibly prevent such a blow out if or when it does happen.

You can use social media marketing for online reputation management. Bad news is just waiting to happen. The trick is to know the possible bad news that can happen, develop and start executing a plan of action to manage it now i.e. before it happens.

Car Company Example

Big Example: The Car Manufacturing Company That Saw Tomorrow

This is a work of fiction

You run a car manufacturing company. What are the possible things that can go wrong and explode on social media?

1. Accident due to faulty manufacturing of vehicles


2. A recall

There are others that can happen but we will stop at this too. How do you start dealing with the issue of faulty manufacturing now and using social media?

Possible Strategy

Create a section within your Facebook account dealing with Reports of Fault in Brand Cars. Create a forum for engagement.

• Give them clues on how to spot a fault


• Give them a hot line


• Talk about cars and faults using a historical perspective like a “Do You Know” format


• Create content,


• Create engagement


• Announce recalls on this page first

This is a simple online reputation management plan. It will not stop the bad press or vibe when it happens but it will slow down its momentum because you have been building yours a while back. Remember that you started this page from the moment you listed the possible things that can go wrong. You can add a twitter handle for good measure.

The concept of using social platforms and social media marketing as an effective online reputation tool is very simple to implement. It is something that you can run side by side with other social marketing objectives. Anticipating possible problems should not be that difficult although there might still be issues that you will never see coming. However, if your business has developed a culture of online reputation management, they would be on their toe to stem it. Besides, you have sensitized your audience well enough to give you the benefit of the doubt or allow you to say something.

Social media marketing is not just about boosting your brand, it is also about protecting that brand. Online reputation management is a strategic tool that can be adopted to handle situations that might possibly go wrong at any given moment. Getting professionals involved at the early stage of drawing up your social media marketing strategy should be in order. They will integrate a reputation management plan into the strategy and your company will be grateful for it.

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