Strenghten your brand instead of killing it

A lot of companies and organizations have a real hard time understanding, why they should be paying any attention to social media. After all, social media is a fad reserved for tech savvy people with nothing better to spend their time on, right?

Wrong. And this is not about being cool with the cool kids. This is about preventing other people from taking virtual ownership of your brand, tampering with it and potentially destroy it in the proces. Now, is that something you would want to prevent from happening?

I think so. So what better reason do you need to getting engaged in social media? Look at it this way: Your brand value and bottom line are in jeopardy, if you let other people determine how you look online.

So what should you do? Start by at least listening in on the conversation. Have a person in your organization take the responsibility of at all times knowing, what the people using social media say about you or your product. No, people may not be talking about your product per se, but they may be talking about a lot of things related to your product, niche or market - stuff it could be vital for you to know about.

Second, make sure that you use social media to your advantage. Reach out, participate in the discussions. Distribute whatever you can to the places, where your customers are, and where it could be relevant for your product to have a presence. Remember, relevance is the key here. If being in a forum or on a service doesn’t make sense in regards to your product - if it doesn’t add real value to the people and to the conversation - just listen instead. Don’t force feed anyone. Why? Because it’s going to haunt you on the longer term. You earn no credit for that.

Finally, sit back and treat it as if you were at a cocktail party. Develop relations, stay casual and build genuine trust. If your product or service really is any good, I bet you can do it in a way that’s honest and decent. You’ll rob others the opportunity of pulling you down and destroying your business. And you’ll be building a platform and a following that stand out in a space that’s getting more crowded by the day.

That, ultimately, is money on the bottom line.

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.