Social Media: Strategy and Protecting Brand Identity

As business owners, many of us are testing the waters with social media with a goal of increasing brand awareness and, ultimately, sales.  We’ve jumped head first into LinkedIn and Biznik and maybe dipped our toes into the mires of Facebook and Twitter.  In some cases, the return on this investment is readily apparent while in other cases, the time spent seems wasted.  As a relatively new space for business marketing, social media presents many opportunities for businesses to grow but does require a strategy that includes a commitment of time and careful monitoring of your online brand.  Social Media Strategy.  A key expectation of business owners in using social media is to enhance the visibility of their brand.  Networks such as LinkedIn, Biznik, Twitter and Facebook enable a business’ message to reach hundreds, and sometimes thousands, more people than the business would by networking face-to-face.  The crucial piece, though, relates to building relationships, just as one would in face-to-face networking scenarios.  When talking with a new contact at a networking event, we seek to learn about their needs and about how we can help them fill those needs.   The same advice resonates in online relationships.  A brand becomes memorable with followers online where something of true value is offered to them.  In most cases, value comes in the form of relevant content – sharing information timely and relevant to the user’s life.  In sharing this content, trusting relationships can be created, and nurtured, ultimately enhance the brand in the marketplace. When a business ventures into social media activity, it gains credibility and value by participating.  Lack of participation not only limits the upside of the involvement in the group but has a significant downside. Simply being present but not engaged will result in missed opportunities to respond to queries, compliments or complaints posted.  Social media sites offer the opportunity to interact with users, promote the positive, and quell situations as they arise.  If a business fails to respond, the brand may be irreparably damaged among that audience.  An example comes from a recent Twitter comment about the inactivity of a certain business’ Twitter account.  For this user, the business’ inactivity suggested that the business wasn’t engaged enough to be worth the user’s time. Another critical component to enhancing brand identity in social media is to ensure your social media activities are consistent with all other components of your brand.  If a business has a policy as to how phone or email complaints are handled, the response to online complaints must be consistent so that there is no disruption in the customer’s expectations.  Consistent communication across all touch points of a business and clear demonstration of valuing customers and other stakeholders will, over time, result in a return on time spent on social media investment.  Protecting Intellectual Property.  Business users of social media sites must stay abreast of ways to protect the business name and trademark.  The most important action is to monitor the use of the business name or trademark on a regular basis.  First and foremost, use an alert system such as Google Alerts to send notifications each time the business name is found.  In addition, monitor the user names on the various social media sites to protect against infringement.  Next, be proactive in opportunities to use and protect the name or trademark.  A great example of this is Facebook’s recent allowance of user names on business “Fan Pages.”  At the specified time, businesses all over sought to increase their Fan base to 100 so they could grab their name.  Recognizing the risk of trademark infringement in the land grab for names (i.e. if I registered “Nike” as my username), Facebook sought to protect registered trademarks from infringement in advance.  Business owners that weren’t proactive about participating in this process may have lost out on an opportunity to enhance their business’ presence on Facebook.    Another place where intellectual property rights arise with users of social media is in copyright ownership.  The “Terms of Use” for most social networking sites incorporate certain rights they have in republishing posts by users.  As a business user, read the terms and conditions of use and be aware of any rights relinquished in content posted on the site.    Finally, business websites are becoming social networks in themselves through interactive blogs, forums, bulletin boards, or user accounts.  Businesses using these tools must protect their own proprietary information and the business itself from potential infringement claims against for posts by your users.  Make sure the website’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use agreements address the key protections needed to protect the business’ social networking activities.   Conclusion.  Although the return on investment in social media activities with respect to sales and revenue may not be clear at this time, we know that participation in these networks can add value to a company’s brand and image in the marketplace.  In order to capture this value, though, businesses must participate with valuable content, accept the transparency created by the network, and rigorously monitor intellectual property rights online. 2009-08-05T01:55:04Z

2009-08-05T08:19:59Z

-4.5108

321 5787

true

3064

social-media-strategy-and-protecting-brand-identity

2009-08-05T07:00:17Z

2009-08-05T08:19:59Z

As a business owner, the value gained by your commitment to social networking is not always clear. A strategy helps you maximize your effectiveness, enhance your brand, and protect your trademark and copyright rights on social media sites.

Social Media: Strategy and Protecting Brand Identity

2009-08-05T08:19:59Z