In today’s digital world, whether it is a small business or a multi-national company – none of them can afford to be outside of social media? And, achieving a brand image takes a lot of work: creating a logo, choosing the key colors, designing the bags, setting up a suitable website. But the effort is worth it when customers come to identify and position the brand concerning the competition.
Therefore, it is essential to incorporate a form of brand protection in the context of a global digital marketing strategy, not only to take advantage of social networks but also to avoid the loss of customers and or the trust of citizens.
To help you protect your brand on the internet, we have compiled some tips that will help you to protect your brand on social networks.
What can you do to avoid being victims of social media?
Choosing the right social media
A common mistake made by managers and marketers is to believe that their business must have a profile in all the most popular social media channels. Ideally, the company should be present and active only in networks that make sense for their business area.
For example, imagine a company that sells corporate services to another company, like an accounting firm. And, the company starts promoting on Instagram, there it would only waste time on Instagram, which is a much more visual and great social network to impact the end consumer, but not other companies. Thus, efforts would be better used if the company had only one profile on LinkedIn and another on Facebook.
Similarly, a beauty store has no reason to spend effort on LinkedIn. Ideally, it should invest their time and work on Instagram to produce visual and relevant content for their clients.
Develop a social media policy
Most companies have a team responsible for managing their pages on social networks, but it is convenient to be aware of what other employees publish and share. Having a document that describes the social media policy, somewhat similar to an Editorial Statute, will help them understand what aligns with the strategy and position of the brand and what could put their safety and reputation at risk.
The Social Network Policy document should include information on the rights to use images and other content, sharing procedures on the various social networks. It should also contain the functions of each member of the team, a statement of the brand vision, and the information on confidential data that never should be posted on social media.
Be careful with open WIFI network
By connecting to a WIFI network without security, you run the risk that other people who are in that same network access your data or send you some sort of virus. Try to avoid connecting to networks that are open or that are from public places, since you do not know who may be connected or what their intentions are, but there are times when you need a connection, and an open network comes in handy.
In those cases, there are several applications, both for your mobile and for Windows 10, that create a VPN or virtual private network, without the need for computer knowledge, so that you can easily navigate these public networks.
Choose your domain
Ideally, your domain name should match that of your brand. However, it can sometimes be difficult, as many domains are already in use. To solve this issue there are several methods, if you need to recover a domain name that “belongs to you”, you can resort to the purchase, the administrative route or, ultimately, bring the matter to court.
As an additional security measure, whenever possible, you should acquire all the main extensions (.com, .es, .eu, .info, etc.) to prevent cybersquatting, that is, when a third party appropriates a domain that includes our brand and uses it for your benefit or malicious purposes. In this sense, as a registered trademark, you can reserve any new domain before it goes on sale to the general public.
Protect your brand by using Google Adwords
Start running a Google Adwords (SEM) campaign, exclusively to protect your brand, and to ensure that no one grab the first place by your name or use it to benefit from your brand. They are not usually high-cost campaigns, but they allow you to stay in the first position in the search engine if someone searches for you by the name of your brand, then, you can get alert about your competition can appear in the ads.
When someone searches for the name of your brand, but at least they do not appear in the first position. So your potential customers will not accidentally go into the hands of the competition.
Conclusion
Lastly, for a brand to reap the benefits of using social media and to keep customers safe from copycats, incorporating social media into a protection strategy from branding is crucial. If ignored, this can negatively affect brand credibility and customer confidence, the effects of which will be felt on business revenue.
