9 How To Tips for Real-Time Brand Management

Brand management is not easy and real-time brand management is even more difficult. It is very important that you have systems, tools and people in place to help you.

Before I get into the systems and tools, let’s talk about why this is important to your business success.

Real-Time Brand Management

• All it takes is one unhappy customer that has minimal influence to create a viral social media crisis because you fail to respond to them.
• You cannot ignore social media and review sites just because you don’t want to put effort into them. The truth is that the sites are there whether you want them or not, so it’s best to be on top of them.
• Abandoned or minimally monitored social media profiles and review sites make for small problems that turn into big issues.

I could go on and on with this list of reasons why brand management is important. You can comment below and add to the list.

The Social Process

Brands make the mistake of hopping online without doing any research or planning. It is important to have the critical questions answered, so you don’t have to keep your customers waiting for a response.

• Research the brand online and document all the accounts that mention it. Work to gain access/claim these accounts/remove the duplicates.
• Create a schedule for monitoring/responding to brand accounts. i.e. site name and link, login and password, who is responsible for monitoring, and how often.
• Have a response strategy for positive responses and negative ones. Failing to respond to positive feedback can turn into bad feedback quickly.

Remember, if you want to have a real-time brand then you need a real-time response.

Reputation Monitoring & Response Tools

Don’t leave your reputation at the mercy of others. Have specific tools in place and setup, so you can quickly and easily manage your brand.

• Notifications via RSS & email alerts (i.e. Social Mention, Google Alerts)
• Social media management and scheduling tools (Hootsuite, SproutSocial, Buffer)
• Content websites (Alltop.com, Huffington Post, Mashable)

Social media can be a time suck, so set a specific schedule for identifying content to schedule for posting on your social channels. This frees up your schedule to create quality blogging content for your website and have real-time conversations with those mentioning your brand online. 

How are you doing real-time with your brand? Comment below and share some of your secrets for identifying, monitoring and responding real-time.