Today let’s look at your brand and what you are doing to protect it. First though, let’s cover what your brand actually is.

Sometimes a brand is simply a company name, or product names sold by a company. Also included in a brand might be the owner or the founder name, and sometimes you need to even include your CEO and other board members. These are all known names, and they do fall in under your overall brand. Because these names are what people do business with. I know, there’s the old saying that people do business with people, but I’m here to tell you that saying is wrong.

People do business with brands.

They do business with brands and names they trust. They might like a certain person in your company, but that person is also a part of your overall image, and thus a part of your brand. It’s why you print up stationary and business cards with your company mark and their name. Because you are in effect branding them. You do it with your products, your services, your people and your company name.

You can literally spend millions building a solid brand. Honing it just so. Investing not only money, but time into this business masterpiece.

Only to find out that a really angry client or ticked off blogger can nearly destroy it in minutes.

It’s a fact. Negative content about a particular product or brand can spread across the blogosphere like wildfire. An out of control virus spreading faster than ebola. Blowing up your brand like a neutron bomb. I know this sounds dramatic, but it’s real and it happens. It happens often.

You need to understand that your brand is not as solid as you think it is. You may have spent millions building it, but what have you done to protect it? There are companies that have done nothing, only to have a major negative content campaign come at them and nearly destroy their company.

Think of BP and the disaster their brand is going through at the moment. They just announced that they are going to spend something like 50 million dollars on a reputation management and repair plan. But is this too little, too late? Maybe, maybe not. But if they had put that plan into action prior to their incident they would have had a little more power to work with. Not to say that a disaster of this magnitude can be forgone with a proactive plan, but it could have been somewhat minimized with some forward thinking in regard to their overall reputation.

And BP is the fourth largest company in the world.

Now, let’s stop and talk about your business and your brand. What are you doing to protect it? What are you doing in regard to it’s reputation online and off? Have you even considered it at all?

If not, maybe you should. Because it’s true. One really motivated, unhappy client can ruin your business. They can write nasty reviews on RipoffReport.com, Yelp, ComplaintsBoard.com , and a million other customer satisfaction forums in a matter of only a few minutes. But their impact will last for years and hit you where it hurts. In the pocket. In your bottom line.

Don’t wait for it to happen, protect your brand with a proactive reputation management plan. Call our office at 800.818.6286 for a free consultation. We look forward to speaking with you soon.