Davinci Virtual

Brand monitoring has become an essential task for any individual or corporation. Marketers must understand that conversations are being held on the web with or without our consent, and when conversations start on the web, like a forest fire, they travel very fast and wreak havoc along the way; what might start out as a mere tweet, may turn into a blog post and potentially national news. Yesterday I told you about how to effectively listen to your audience.  Read on to learn how to properly respond.

Talking Back
Once you have set up an effective monitoring plan, and you have listened to what the community is saying, it is time to talk back.  Here are some guidelines for communicating with online users about your brand.

• Respond quickly to criticism.  If you don’t respond quickly to criticism, you can lose control of the conversation.
• Admit your mistakes. Why is this so difficult for brands? When you mess up, the only—and I mean ONLY—acceptable response is to take full ownership, explain what went wrong, and share your action plan for fixing the mistake.
• Empower your employees to become problem solvers. As a customer, there is nothing worse than having a full-on collision with bureaucracy. We’ve all been there. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’ll have to check with my supervisor.” Or worse, “I’d like to help, but we have a policy against that.” Tim Ferriss, author of the bestseller, “The 4-Hour Workweek”, tells his employees and contractors, “Keep the customers happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 to fix, use your judgment and fix the problem yourself. This is official written permission and a request to fix all problems that cost under $100 without contacting me (p. 105).”
• Exceed your customers’ expectations. Every customer problem is an opportunity to create a new amazing experience. But it’s not enough to meet their expectations, you have to exceed them. Anything less is merely restitution.

Conclusions
Understanding brand monitoring and its impact on your business is critical. Static websites are no longer the pinnacle of communication, as today’s consumer seeks engagement and two-way conversations.  As consumers are increasingly empowered to take control of brands online through user generated content, blogs, forums etc, marketers must adopt new ways of approaching brand management and marketing their products/services.

Type your name into Google and see what happens.  If you have multiple forms of informative content about you appearing in the top ten, congratulations, you are pretty well branded.  If your results are slim, however, you have some work to do to increase the power of your name.  Large corporations understand the power of a name, but now, we are in an “Age of the Individual,” where your name is your brand, and the power of your brand determines your success.

There are many great ways to increase your individual brand power, and here are a few tips to get you started.

• Start a blog.  Become a thought leader in your industry, by starting a blog and writing about relevant new technologies, or business techniques.  The key to this method, is understanding what your audience (or potential audience) wants to read and learn about.  Tip: Don’t be afraid to get a little controversial.
• Join a Social Networking website, and use your name as your login.  My LinkedIn profile is www.linkedin.com/in/laurencandito, and as a result, when I google my name, my LinkedIn profile is the first result on the page.  What is better that having your personal resume networking page at the top of the search results, pushing people to your expertise?
• Get your name out there.  Post to forums, comment on other people’s blogs, spark conversations with colleagues across the Internet.  Keep your commentary intelligent and meaningful, and push users back to your personal websites (i.e. blog, social networking sites, etc).  Always remember, communication is critical.  The key to developing a personal brand is engagement.  You must spark conversations with other people to be successful.

By following these tips, you can successfully develop your own personal brand and differentiate yourself from your competitors.  In today’s global society, your name is everything, manage it well and you will find success.  Get lost in the shuffle, and you may end up struggling to keep your head above water.