Social Media

Monitor your brand, protect your reputation

By Sara Belkowitz and Cameron Nichols

Modern media continue to advance: from the way information is received, to the available sources of information, to how each person customizes their morning news. If mainstream media is the only area you monitor for coverage, you may be unaware of your brand's reputation among the millions of social media users that exist today.

In the social media space, news spreads at lightning speed. It is essential that companies understand the viral power of social media so that they are able to react quickly and appropriately, as even the strongest of brands can easily be damaged online.

Recently, Domino's Pizza was forced to deal with a rapidly-evolving PR crisis, due to an unpleasant YouTube video created by two employees while on the job. Rather than proactively addressing the video, Domino's initially hoped the controversy would quietly blow over. After all, it was just one YouTube video. However, within 48 hours, viewership of the video quickly grew to nearly one million, and Twitter posts of the topic populated the network. It was then that Domino's reacted with its own YouTube video and opened a Twitter account to enter the conversation. Unfortunately, the company's reputation already had taken a serious hit (see comments in the linked video above), as even loyal customers were now questioning their relationship with the pizza chain.

This is a situation in which Domino's should have been actively monitoring social media networks for mentions of its brand. The company would have immediately known that there was a tremendous spike in brand mentions and that this deviation was not related to any internal campaign. Domino's could have then quickly jumped into the conversation, talking openly and honestly about the company's concern and planned its next steps. This rebuttal could have gone viral, providing concerned Domino's patrons with reassurance. Instead, Domino's now has to rebuild its longstanding brand due to a single viral video.

On the other end of the social media monitoring spectrum, Ford Motor Company also faced a potential social media disaster when a Ford fan Web site was threatened with a forced shut down by Ford's legal team. Loyal fans of the site barraged Twitter with posts attacking Ford as a bully who was unappreciative of its loyal brand ambassadors. Within two hours of the first negative post, Ford representatives had joined the dialogue on Twitter. Amazingly, in less than 24 hours, Ford worked to inform the Ford fans on Twitter that the Web site was being litigated for very valid reasons. Once this news was disclosed to the public, the attack on Ford subsided, saving the company from a potentially huge PR headache. In fact, the original naysayers on Twitter ended up helping to spread Ford's messages to the online community. By actively monitoring social media, Ford was immediately alerted to the potential crisis and was able to swiftly get to the bottom of the issue.

Ford's story is the lesser known social media challenge, as it never became a headline in social or mainstream media arenas. The Domino's Pizza incident, on the other hand, reached millions in a matter of hours. This further shows the action taken by Ford's PR team as a good example of actively monitoring social media conversations and reacting quickly to limit avoidable controversy.

Reputation management is essential for companies and millions of conversations are happening online right now. Do you know what people are saying about your brand? Contact Nereus to learn more about brand monitoring tools and how to join the conversation.

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