Webjam Blog » 3 September - Social Media Experience no. 4

Over the last few weeks I worked with the Webjam team on re-defining our mission, vision and values. With the basic question in mind: What benefits do companies get when implementing a social media strategy? Obviously, there are many indirect benefits like improved communications, better understanding of clients needs, increased level of engagement with clients, get the message out faster and improve your overall reputation. Some companies are also able to use social media as a new channel to market, thereby increasing revenues. Fact is, that many companies see the immediate benefits in the marketing department. Other companies see the benefits internally by using social media as a way to enhance interaction between employees. This can also be a "controlled" test environment before taking your social media initiatives externally.

One of the key benefits that comes up in many articles on the benefits of social media is Reputation. Social Media done right will help companies enhance their reputation and therefor will enhance how people relate to your brand. What exactly does this mean? To answer this question lets first look at the definitions of reputation and brand. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airways, said: Build brands not around products but around reputation (http://theengagingbrand.typepad.com/the_engaging_brand_/2006/08/reputation_vs_b.html). Brand and reputation are two sides of the same coin and closely related. But they are different concepts. A brand conveys expectations of what the company will deliver in terms of their product or service. A brand is what the company tells the market about itself and what it wants to be. Reputation is the other side of the coin. It is what people feel about the company. It is the opinion of the public toward a person or an organisation. 

So the two terms go hand in hand. If we are talking about using social media to enhance your reputation it has to be put in the context of your brand. Social media can be a useful tool for enhancing both awareness and image. Blogging can help “spread the word” about a company, its products, and its services to more people, increasing brand recognition and awareness. Additionally, social media can enable companies to gather input and feedback directly from their target audience, and use that intelligence for more effective reputation management. Insight into how people feel about the brand is needed to help change and control audience perceptions and preferences.

We can now be more precise in defining this benefit of social media: Managing your reputation through using social media is a tool to help you build your brand. Because remember, people buy your product because they see the value in your brand. The emergence of social media has put your customers in the driving seat in influencing this value of your brand. You can't ignore this. So you have to engage with them on their "turf", on their social media platforms be it Webjam, Facebook or Twitter. Managing your (online) reputation successfully can only happen if you open up your brand and expose yourself. But don't be afraid. Be honest, be yourself.    

Written by Marc Campman, Webjam Marketing Director