by Moe Zilla

Created on: July 27, 2010

There's some very simple steps that can stop social media from destroying your brand's reputation online. If you're not careful, bad news can spread almost instantaneously. Rumors - even false rumors - are very hard to debunk once they've found their way into the world of social media. And it's especially difficult to counter negative information if it has the unfortunate trait of also being true.

One problem with the social web is that it's nearly invisible. For example, StumbleUpon may send thousands and thousands of users to your web page, but you'll learn very little about who these people are - or why it is that they're voting "I Don't Like It" when confronted with your web page. Fortunately, there's an easy way to confront this problem. StumbleUpon will let you purchase "targeted" traffic for a small fee, ensuring that it's showing your web site to people from a specific region, for example, or who indicated that they had a particular interest in your area.

Your brand could also be challenged if there's a wave of negative sentiment sweeping through Facebook. There's hundreds of millions of users, representing a vast and unmanageable frontier where people share their raw opinions with their closest of friends. If there's a wave of negative sentiment, it could attract lots of followers, and maybe even new Facebook groups attacking your product! The best way to approach this challenge is to regularly search Facebook for new pages and groups that are mentioning your brand.

The same thing applies to Twitter, which can also be a handle tool for monitor popular sentiment towards your brand, and watching for changes that happen almost in real time. Unfortunately, these are very personal conversations, and users get very attached to the casual tone of their communities. While it's sometimes appropriate to venture in and share an official response to a question about your brand, there's a right and a wrong way to do it. Always be aware that there may be an anti-commercial bias in a social network. If you're going to offer the official position of your brand, make sure that you're doing it appropriately in the designated channels.

Remember that most internet users have been confronting unwelcome spam for years in their inboxes. And that's ultimately the biggest challenge for managing your brand on the web: you want to proactively promote it, but too much promotion gets you lumped in with the spam-sending scum who are universally loathed by all. The social web presents may be difficult territory for brand management - but it becomes much easier once you understand the specific challenges that you're facing!

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