Social media has empowered common people in a never before way. People are now using this platform as a media to vent their anger, frustration and sometimes to voice their opinion. Now, this may sound all good but it has made the lives of big and small brand a bit complicated. A single customer now has the power to malign your brand online and that means, you need to understand how to harness the power of social media to your advantages. The following tips will help you keep your reputation safe online –
Dominate Your Profiles
Every single social media platform allows users to own their profiles and claim their business pages. However, don’t let others represent you or claim your name first. Depending on which social media sites are most relevant, you’ll want to own all available profiles that are connected to your name and brand. It’s vital that you do this as soon as possible, as it will provide a credible platform for your business.
Clean Them Up
If you already possess social media profiles to your name, then the next step is to make sure they accurately represent you and your business. Your profiles serve as the digital representations of you, your business and your brand; therefore, you’ll want to make sure that they’re as positive and clean as possible. Try to delete any photos and status updates that reflect poorly on you, and schedule content that bring value to your brand. In addition, if others have posted embarrassing or negative images and posts attributed with your name, then you’ll want to take the steps to remove the content.
Build Your Community
If you’re in need of online image reputation help, then don’t try to take it all on your own. Your audience and devoted followers can be the greatest proponents in boosting your reputation. But in order to achieve this, you’ll need to build and nurture your community, giving them a reason to patronize your brand. Make sure that you are consistently using social media, engaging with readers and followers. Social media is a two-way channel: when others reach out to you, make sure that you respond in kind. So, you need to plan in advance. For example, if you are creating a WordPress blog, you need to enable comment and social sharing functions so that people can be a part of your blogging effort and this will go a long way to build a thriving community.
Stay Aware
News on the Internet spreads like lightning; it’s possible to wake up one morning and find social media channels burning up with news about your site. Therefore, it’s important that you stay aware of the continuing dialogue as much as possible. Doing so will allow you to keep track of what others are saying, and how to counter with your own content and viewpoint. There are a variety of tools that can help you track the social media activity around your name, such as Google Alerts, Social Mention and Twitter’s search function. Don’t be embarrassed to Google yourself; in order to protect your reputation through social media, you’ll need to stay vigilant and alert.