knobee

So, when I read and commented on the post Diving Safely in Social Media on the Social Media Explorer blog, I mentioned:

“The truth is, your brand is quite possibly “involved” in social media already.”

This statement is very very important and worth repeating. It’s why brands should be involved in social media even if they don’t initially see the intrinsic value. With any brand, the last thing you want to do is play “catch up” or caught needing to put out fires in a medium you’re unfamiliar.

Thinking about this more, the whole thing goes beyond brand management as a company - it goes much deeper. Social Media sites not only give a place to interact with people about the good and sharing what you like, but also talking about the bad, and possibly “venting” about your job. It may not even be you doing the venting, but it could affect your personal brand in the end.

Let’s go through a scenario. You work for a company that some employees have had reason (legitimately or not) to put some complaints online about said company. It may or may not be anonymous, but it relays various scathing statements about your company and several “managers.” (Typically the more anonymous, the more scathing to be sure.) You happen work for this company as a manager. Are you the one being discussed? Could the perception be that you’re one being discussed?

So now there’s a brand management issue for both the company and you. Can this commentary be easily pulled up in a Google search for the company’s name? What if a search for your company brings up the complaints before your company’s official website? (Yes, I’ve seen it happen.) Good luck on your next job hunt, because you’re now tied to the negative comments about the company whether you like it or not.

In all honesty, there’s not much a company can do about such comments, whether they’re on sites designed for venting about jobs, or platforms like MySpace and Facebook. They’re simply going to happen. People leave jobs and they take bad memories with them, but what do companies do to react? Or is that the problem in the first - reacting? This goes back to my original comments. Your brand is out there and you can either react or get in the thick of things and ensuring that your “positive” branding is coming out on top.  You’re not only doing this for your own brand as a company, but protecting your employees as well.

Recommendation: As a tie into this, I highly recommend that you set up a myriad of Google Alerts - but as part of your personal brand management.  You should know what’s being said about your company, so beyond setting up what should be your obligatory alert for your name, you should also set up one with your company’s name - maybe linked to your title with the company.  I personally have around 30 alerts set up with the above in mind and the results have been eye-opening.