Two Ways to Lose Brand Credibility
Writing by Brick Marketing in Social Media
It takes a long time to build a brand and build a positive brand reputation online. This is especially true if your business is in a competitive market. There is so much noise that it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. That’s why it’s crucial to maintain the brand that you’ve established. Just a few wrong steps and you can very quickly lose years and years of hard work. There are two main ways that brands lose their credibility:
Way#1 to Lose Brand Credibility – They Get Greedy
Many companies have been struggling during the recent recession. It’s been challenging to get business and some companies have started to look outside of the box for additional income opportunities. However, even if these opportunities provide some much needed cash in the short term, it’s important to really think about what they will do to your brand in the long term. What do you want people to think about your company? What if you had a nice website that was clean and user friendly and started putting ads all over it? Sure, it might generate some additional income but it looks tacky and might turn some prospects off. Another way to lose credibility is to form partnerships with people that you might not have previously. Forming a partnership with a company that isn’t in line with your brand is never a good idea. For example, we’d never partner with a black hat company or start engaging in black hat tactics no matter what because that’s not who we are.
Way#2 to Lose Brand Credibility – Get Sloppy
Social media is known for being a more casual marketing medium, which can be great. However, social media communication can’t be too casual if it’s being done for business. In the past few months there have been numerous inappropriate tweets from top brands like The Red Cross and Chrysler. Obviously, they were sent by mistake. In both cases the person responsible for the tweet confused the company Twitter account with their own. Really, this is just a case of being careless and sloppy. Even if these tweets were obvious mistakes, it still reflects poorly on the brand. Word travels fast in social media, and on the web in general. In any form of business communication it’s important to always think twice before submitting it, and at the very least make sure that it is being sent from the correct account!
Brands take a long time to build, and a very short time to ruin. Always have your loyal followers, fans, and advocates in mind when launching any new activity. After all, they are what fuels your success.
