Now that Facebook has officially taken over the world, it has become increasingly important to monitor your account closely as possible. A company’s social media presence, better yet reputation, can be affected drastically if proper preparations are not intact.
Many companies, Fortune 500 and small businesses alike, know they HAVE to have a Facebook, but I would venture to say very few of them know how to use it beyond logging in and maybe uploading some pictures. I realize it can be costly and time consuming to hire someone to solely monitor social media efforts, but Facebook has actually made this process relatively easy with their constant notifications and account settings.
Because Facebook is such a personal place, it’s important to make sure the things being said about you are good things. Below I’ve listed some of the most common social media reputation missteps, the culprits, and what they can do to prevent it from happening in the future.
Culprit: KFC
Issue: Comment Slander (From a fan photo of the Double Down sandwich)
Solution: Untag yourself from the picture and possibly block that user from further commenting. Often times in the string of comments, the next commentator might reference it as well, giving the original one-liner some ‘credibility’.
Culprit: Wendy’s
Issue: Derogatory Picture Tagging
Solution: Wait for it. . . . . untag yourself from it. If I happened to go to the Wendy’s Facebook page for coupons (like I normally do) and saw this beautiful photos, well chances are I might be going somewhere else for lunch. (I neglected to mention the 15 or so comments that followed, bashing them for this excuse of a burger)
Culprit: In & out Burger
Issue: Brand Latching
Solution: This picture is from the self proclaimed fast food geniuses at flip-n-burgers.com. They have tagged every large fast food operation on in their picture, so overtime a ‘fan’ is looking at their fan photos this will show. I wonder how many fast food executives are aware of this? I assume not many.
I’m not saying these are end of the world public relations nightmares, but I am saying there is nothing preventing one if you use these practices in social media. Some companies of note that had their Facebook acts together were McDonalds, Walmart, and Long John Silvers. Hiring the right person to monitor and stay engage with your customers on Facebook is not as easy as looking to the twenty-something in the side office. Facebook provides one of the most targeted and effective platforms to reach out, you need not screw it up with one fail swoop.
