It is Just too Easy to Share...

It can make us all squirm – thinking about the threat of a colleague or employee crossing the line with your corporate brand via social media. Social media is difficult to ignore for its power to communicate. But what if it’s not always positive? An American Red Cross employee accidentally tweeted a beer-related post to the charity's Twitter account, rather than to her personal account. Not long after that came the Chrysler Corporation that tweeted about the bad driving habits of people in Detroit.


Freedom of expression and ease of use makes everyone a ‘publisher’ nowadays. Companies have been afraid to open the floodgates on social media in case people say bad things about them because online opinions can spread far and wide – and quickly. But ‘word of mouth’ has always been around – these technologies are just new ways of spreading it. These conversations would be going on anyway, so businesses might as well figure out a way to join in and effectively manage their message.

Whether it’s a disgruntled employee or an unhappy customer, negative posts can be damaging to a brand and business. Here are some tips to prevent an errant ‘post’ and manage your online reputation:

1. Develop an internal social media policy including who posts for company. It should include guidelines for response comments and privacy rules.
2. Carry your brand voice and common sense to social media. It’s public!
3. Know the legal issues around identity disclosure on comments. No ‘fake’ reviews!
4. Review posts frequently and quickly remove any out of bounds posts. Use online tools to monitor your brand and all activity.
5. Take a deep breath before responding to comments. If you’re unsure, have someone review your post for tone.

But mistakes happen, even on large companies’ sites, but monitoring often lets you catch mistakes faster and minimize the damage. There are all sorts of new social media tools out there that can automate this process and allow you to respond quickly to negative discussions.

If there is unfavorable chatter, here are some ways to put out the flames. Always own up and admit the mistake. Make sure to apologize publicly and personally to any one harmed by the mistake. The Red Cross has been praised for using humor in response to their employee’s beer-talking tweet and turned it into a way to gather donations.

Then make sure to pull any damaging content offline– but don’t pretend ‘this never happened’. Use the mistake as a teachable moment and don’t stop the conversation or social media initiatives all together. Not everyone is going to love you, your business or your product so pessimism is inevitable. Hopefully any negativity can be easily downplayed and turned into a positive.

Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Blogger, BlogSpot, Yelp…

Everyone’s into social media now and as designers, we’ve held back a bit. Not that we don’t use social media to connect with friends, but as a business tool there’s something a bit limiting about a square picture in a strictly designed templated page layout that puts us off.  But it’s changing daily and becoming so popular that some companies are even using Facebook over their main web site to connect with their customers.

Do our social media choices define our style? A friend of mine does financial communications and is all about LinkedIn – it’s more formal, less chatty and all about business connections. A produce market client swears by their Facebook page where they put up daily deals and what’s fresh. Another is a ‘Yelper’; she loves the short reviews. Twitter of course sings for brevity, not much for looks. Everyone should now get on board and learn how to embrace these mediums because it’s become the way of the world.

If properly planned out, it is possible to use social media and have a defined brand and style. Most company logos need to be adjusted to fit the pre-determined pixel sizes instead of just slapping it up there and getting partly cut-off. The tone and voice of the posts or tweets need to be defined and consistent. The best way to do this is to set up a style guide or make sure one person is responsible for postings. The communications need to be regular and frequent. Nothing looks worse than seeing that the latest post is from 3 months ago. The photos need to reflect the company’s brand and always stay professional (no happy hour photos!)

With so much communication happening through these new online channels, is there a place for print? Print has just become the vehicle to drive customers online. Something printed still stands out more amongst the clutter and glut of email and social media posts. A nicely designed printed invitation in a sparkly envelope is still the best medium for parties or weddings. But now the RSVP can now be an online reply instead of mail-back card.

A magazine ad can promote a company’s social media sites for special insider offers.  Direct mail campaigns can use variable data to personalize customer’s names and drive them to unique landing pages. And who doesn’t like to get something personally addressed to them in the mail? Imagine if holiday cards become links to Facebook family photos or family blogs sites instead of the yearly letters? It’s starting to happen but something just gets a bit lost in translation, it’s less personal and more public.

Doesn’t there still needs to be a balance? It can’t go all online, can it? As designers and marketers, we can embrace what should go online – timely communications and customer engagement campaigns. Let’s create digital brands that best fit these mediums but still produce some lovely printed pieces that drive social media traffic for our customers.