A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

So you’ve heard the pros and cons of social media but you’re still not sure how to make social media and the online world work for you instead of against you. Here are a few tips to get started.

Start by using a variety of Web 2.0 tools and practice defensive branding techniques to help control the message your brand sends to the consumer. The top 3 tools today are: 1. Facebook pages 2. Wikipedia 3. Corporate Twitter. These tools will become the face of your brand online. And, like you feared, negative content and brand bashing is bound to happen but you can control it, or better yet prevent it, with defensive branding techniques. Marketing Sherpa has recently published six tips to help you control your brand in an online world.

1. Trust
2. Authenticity
3. Transparency – don’t hide anything (control the message or the critics will)
4. Listening – make is easy to contact the company so consumers complain to you instead of YouTube
5. Responsiveness – speed, truthful, customer service, listen and be prepared for those high-volume times
6. Affirmation – make sure Google/Wikipedia searches are aligned with your values and goals.