Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room

At home, in a restaurant, at work, at the theatre, even at the dentist, people will have conversations about various brands, products or people. In these instances, something said that is interesting, appealing, controversial or particularly lucid will travel from group to group, making its way through the populace. This spread of fact, fiction and sentiment is something that historically took time, but with the Internet this is now rapid and has permanence in a way that voice alone does not.

A faulty product, a controversial policy, a rude response from a member of staff - all these can be discussed, documented, circulated, disseminated and archived online. Your brand is open to the elements, be it via Twitter, blogs, hate groups, Facebook, or through search engine results pages (SERPs). This is also true of good things too – competitions, promotions, positive financial results, and more. Social media amplifies all these conversations - positive and negative - giving them visibility and allowing people to contribute to them. These conversations become forces for change in their own right. These conversations take place in millions of rooms. They might be about you, they might not be. They might be positive or negative, serious or jocular, defensible or catastrophic. Social media management and optimisation allows you to be present in each relevant room, contributing where necessary, being generous where required, and being apologetic if it’s the right thing to do.