Be Careful You Don't Hand Your Brand Reputation Over to Youth

The youth today is normally seen as the more tech-savvy ones because they have grown up with the type of technology that is available to us today. It is this same technology that people have been using to improve the way they do business. We have computers and mobile phones and the vast number of applications we utilize in order to make business transactions easier and cheaper. We also have the internet where we can find millions of people to market to. Technology continues to improve in order to make our lives easier and because of this, businesses have become dependent on it.

Even though a lot of people have already become dependent on technology, there are still a lot of people who are having a hard time adjusting to computers and the internet. This is why many businesses have become interested in young professionals because the youth is expected to know more about technology. Businesses believe that younger people know how to effectively use computers and access the internet. Yet, just knowing how a tool functions doesn’t constitute expertise in marketing or at the very least communication.

There are those who know what Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites are but they may not fully understand how to effectively catalyze conversations on these sites for marketing purposes. They may know how to post photos and share content but is there a true strategy and expected outcome from doing so?  Could something they do hurt your brand reputation? And, are you willing to let just anyone be responsible for your online identity?   While it may be true that younger employees or interns may be more knowledgeable in using social media, it is still important to follow tight measures to ensure that your employee is mirroring your brand online and utilizing their personal brand to express your brand in its best form.

Here are some tips on how you can protect your brand when you decide on hiring someone young to manage your social media sites:

Verify their computer skills – This is important since it involves handling your online reputation. You want to make sure that the person you are hiring for the post knows how to use the computer well and navigate the internet properly. This might seem absurd but again, you can never be too sure. Computers are made to speed up business transactions. If you hire someone who doesn’t really know what they are doing, you’re just decreasing office productivity. If the position is urgent, you want to make sure that you get someone who really knows how to handle computers and the tools that you are using.

Someone who understands your brand – It is important that the person you place in the position to handle your online presence understands who you are as a brand. If that person also has the same values as your brand does, you will have an easier time managing your employee. Make your employee understand who you are as a brand and how you want your brand to be portrayed online.

Keep constant communication – To ensure that you don’t risk your brand’s reputation you have to make sure you work closely with your employee. Establish constant communication between the two of you to ensure that your employee is doing everything right. It is going to take a while before they can adjust to the workflow which is why it is important that someone monitors your employee’s work. Keep in mind that this is your brand. Set rules for your employee to keep them from accessing their personal accounts while working. You don’t want your employee to accidentally post something on your brand profile and inadvertently cause a social meltdown.

Don’t turn all the responsibility over, yet – Don’t immediately pass all responsibility to your employee. It takes a while to get used to managing different social media at one time. You don’t want to overwhelm your employee with too many tasks because this will lead to mistakes. As you work closely with your employee, you will know when it is right to hand him or her more responsibility. Make sure to always check with your employee first though to see whether they understand precisely what they need to do and how to do it.

While I use the term “employee” here, the term freelancer, outsourced marketing department or advertising agency rep can be used, too.

Businesses have been taking their brands online and if you are thinking of hiring a young employee to manage your social media accounts on the premise that they are more knowledgeable about technology than older professionals, make sure to follow necessary measurements and provide readily accessible support, guidance and training. Marketing your brand using social media sites is not easy and if you need dependable help with your online marketing strategy, you can try Buzz to Bucks, which is a word of mouth marketing firm for small business and personal brands!

Stop Emotions from Eroding Your Professionalism

At work, we encounter many instances where our professionalism gets challenged. There is always that person whom we are not enthused to work with for reasons such as mutual dislike, jealousy, or simply getting on each other’s nerves for reasons we can’t explain. Putting all these emotions behind you is not easy, but it’s necessary that we always display professionalism.

There will be times when work gets too stressful. With deadlines that we have to meet and meetings that we have to attend to, we can just feel our patience slowly thinning out. When this happens, we are prone to become more emotional towards dealing with those we work with. As a personal brand or business, we can never let emotions that will rouse trouble to get in our way. Everything that we do and say reflects on our brand and business. If we maintain a professional attitude when necessary, we avoid bad brand reputation.

Letting our emotions loose at work can also decrease productivity and create an unpleasant work environment. It’s not just the two of you who gets affected, but even those who are working around you. Others might get involved even when they don’t want to.

How then do we prevent our emotions from getting in the way of work and maintaining professionalism?

Here are some things that you can do:

Get the right mindset – when you know that you are going to talk or need something from that person you don’t get along with, prepare your mind for it. Imagine the worst scenarios over and over, and that whatever happens, you will not let your emotions get in the way. Instead, focus on the things that will be best for the job. If the other person lets an unprofessional comment slip, be the bigger man and disregard it. Expecting the worst thing that the other person can do to you at work will make it easier for you to handle your emotions.

Instead of thinking - the customer is always right; ask yourself – am I attracting and selecting the right customers– you can choose who your customers are. Here’s where planning is key.  Is your messaging and marketing speaking to that ideal target customer?  If you’re getting many customers who are driving you crazy, then look at your messaging and marketing. What are you doing or saying that’s attracting them?

Settle misunderstandings amongst yourselves – when you feel that things are about to get out of hand, try to calm down and find a way to settle your misunderstanding. This is going to be for the good of your work environment. Talk in private. If there’s no chance for the two of you to become friends, at least maintain a good working relationship. If the two of you want to keep working together, you both have to be professional about it. It’s not easy, but someone has to show that they are willing to maintain a professional working relationship with the other.

Find ways to release some of that bottled up emotion – if you want to maintain calmness and professionalism, you have to find a way to let your emotions out the right way. We are only human and the emotions that we keep to ourselves always find a way out. We don’t want it to come out when we are stressed or tired, because this may cause a situation that can quickly spiral out of our control.

Right now – stop and think of five things that you enjoy doing and know will help you “blow off steam” so that you are in the right frame of mind to get centered again.

It’s always important to maintain professionalism although it can be tough.  There are emotions and then emotionally charged words that can fuel the fire.  Words like “manipulate” or phrases like “insult to my intelligence” are like pouring pure gasoline onto any situation.  Unless you’re ready to just “burn that bridge” with someone – then carefully consider and refrain using emotionally charged words and phrases.

Latest Updates on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great place to meet professionals in any industry. It allows us to connect and interact with people who share our interests. We can also connect with people who can be potential business partners. Like any other website or business, there is that constant need to add features and make changes to ensure that we always give what our customers want and need.

Last February, LinkedIn announced a new feature that will help any business or professional gain a wider network. They added the “Follow Company” button. All you have to do is embed the button on your website, blog, or social media site. People who choose to follow your brand will receive your updates in their LinkedIn feeds. With this feature, you can also follow companies or personal brands whom you are interested in. You’ll be able to read the latest updates from them and get insightful ideas that can help your brand or small business.

This latest feature is somewhat similar to what other social media sites have come up with. How then can you use this to promote your brand and small business when you are already doing the same with your other social media sites?

Here are some advantages of using the “Follow Company” button on your personal brand or small business site:

Connect with more experts – LinkedIn reports they have 135 million registered users from different parts of the world. With this number, you can connect and gain insights from experts on your industry or even other industries. Reach out to those who inspire your brand and connect with them. Reach out to those who your brand inspires and take inspiration from them as well.  This will help your business grow and spread the word about your personal brand.

Reach out to more customers – When you embed the “Follow Company” button on your social media sites and blogs, it will help you widen your audience reach. It’s a way of connecting with customers who are more comfortable using LinkedIn compared to any other social media platform. You can then ensure that all your followers from your different social networking sites are given the same updates about your personal brand or business. It also guarantees that no one gets left out.

This new LinkedIn feature can really work to your advantage in terms of promoting your brand. However, before you add it to your other sites, you should make sure that your LinkedIn profile is good to go. You have to make sure that you are ready to gain more followers and be prepared to connect with them once your list starts to grow. Here are some preparation tips:

1. Update your profile

If you haven’t done this in a long time, do it. Make your profile look presentable and professional. Write the things that best describe your personal brand or your small business. Talk about your brand culture and tell your story. A good place to focus is your brand values and goals. This will give your audience an idea of who you are and how you can help them.

2. Don’t rush

Sure, this is a new feature and you can benefit from it, but take your time in preparing your profile. Just like your other sites, you have to have a strategy in order to gain the benefits of increasing your audience and connecting with people. Once you have it down, you can add the button to your site. Sooner or later people will start connecting with you on LinkedIn.

3. LinkedIn app on your Smartphone

If you are using an iPhone or Android, you can download the app on your phone. This way you can connect with your audience even when you are on the move. It’s handy because when you’re stuck somewhere, instead of playing games on your phone, you can update your status or answer to followers who are connecting with you. It’s a great way to make your online presence felt.

LinkedIn is one of the most underutilized platforms of the social networks.  Yet, it’s strength and viability are not to be underestimated.  Share your linked In link or company page on our Facebook page – http://facebook.com/mariaelenaduron We would really like to see how you are using the oldest social network!

Can We Really Trust another Brand’s Reputation?

Brand reputation builds trust and trust builds brand reputation. Brands create a buzz if customers can trust our products and services. If we want our customers to refer our products, we have to make an impression and live by that. That’s the challenge for all business owners. That we have to constantly gain customer’s trust and maintain that so they continue to buy our products and services.

The efforts of a business to spread brand awareness and reputation depend on how the business reaches out to their customers. It depends on how honest their products and services are, the quality, and the level of customer service that employee’s give to their customers. Some brands can sponsor personalities to help with their marketing campaign. From top companies like Nike, who sponsor top athletes for each of their product lines, to those who sponsor different events to spread brand awareness.

Getting famous people to endorse a brand is a marketing move. When you get the right person for your brand and you know who your target market is, your campaign can succeed. But this doesn’t always work out. Even if a company pays an endorser for a high price, there’s the risk of it not paying out because your endorser suddenly gets a bad reputation. So how can we trust another brand to market our own brand?

Here are some tips on how to choose someone to represent your brand:

Choose an appropriate partner – it is best to choose someone who can represent your brand because their reputation speaks truly as your company’s vision. Paris Hilton used to get paid to be seen at different clubs, and that’s because she had the reputation of someone who goes to top clubs. If she’s seen at a club, other club goers may prefer that one over others in town. Nike gets top athletes like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant because they are considered the best in the NBA. Nike sells Kobe and LeBron shoes and apparel, and sport fans buy them.

Do your research –getting someone to represent your brand poses some risk that can be lessened if we do our research. Whether it’s a person or an event, make sure that you steer your brand in the right direction. You want to sponsor events for a good cause, something that will add value to your company. Same with a person - there are ways you can find information about them if you want to do a little background check. You can go to their social media profiles, especially when they're public.

This is also a way to find out more about your employees. Your employees represent your brand, therefore you must choose people who will fit in your company to represent, not risk, the brand’s reputation.

Strive for decency – scandals are inevitable. There is that possibility that people will do something “out of character.” Nike let go of Tiger Woods because of indiscretion that tainted his reputation. Nike doesn’t want to get the wrong message sent out by continuing sponsorship. But people are found to be understanding when it comes to mistakes. What consumers are looking for is decency. If your company was tainted because of an endorser, your consumers will still trust your brand if you are a company known for its decency.

Online brand reputation –people can easily talk about your brand online. The web is the fastest way to get news around these days. If you establish a good online reputation and engage interaction with your followers, you build trust and you get feedback from them. In case you suffer a meltdown due to bad publicity, you can use your website to explain and get back to your customers. Make sure to create content that translates to what your brand is really about.

A brand’s reputation depends on how well they establish their credibility with their products, services, and how they value their customers and employees. Choosing the right person to represent a brand goes one of two ways - either they add more credibility or not. It’s a risk to get an ambassador to promote a brand but through proper research and alignment of marketing goals, you can choose a person that will pose a lesser risk in tainting your brand reputation. Establish a good online reputation as well. Engage with your customers and make them feel important. Build relationships and loyalty, because when things don’t go the way you expect them to, you will have a place to rebuild.