We’re now in the social media age, where most of human interactions are started on Facebook and consummated on Snapchat. To put this in perspective, Facebook currently has nearly 2 billion monthly users or at least 25% of the world’s population, while Snapchat has 158 million active daily users. In this golden age of social media, brands cannot afford be left out. It’s been established that consumers would rather believe what peers, close relatives and even strangers on social media recommend over what an advertisement says.

In the race to become the industry’s social media darling, brands across all sectors must keep their reputation on social media as intact as possible. This is where online reputation management becomes a subject for serious discussion.

While a brand can spend huge figures on social media ads in order to stay fresh in their customers’ minds; ultimately, the consumers’ perception of the brand will prevail. A negative impression of your brand can dampen the sway your brand has in the marketing and causatively strangle sales.

The following are golden rules to strengthen your brand reputation on social media.

Golden Rule 1: Respond to Inquiries on Social Media Promptly

Leaving your users hanging on social media is a no-no in today’s marketing landscape. Between the time spent waiting for your response and when you actually reply, an agitated customer could have escalated the complaints. This time, things might no longer be within your control, turning the entire situation into a reputation crisis on whatever social media network is concerned.

A case in study is one between British Airways and an irate customer who used a promoted tweet (spending as much as $1000 on the ad) to call out the airline. BA had lost Syed’s father’s luggage for two days in the weekend, leaving the man stranded. After several calls to the company’s customer complaints department went unfulfilled, Syed’s father asked him to take it online.

BA later responded on Twitter, much after the damage had been done, telling the man they found the luggage, and further said on BBC that “we would like to apologize to the customer for the inconvenience caused.”

Much of this public embarrassment of a national airline would not have been warranted had the company taken the matter seriously and responded earlier.

Replying to customers on social media quickly will Improve your brand’s chances of being recommended. According to reports, 71% of consumers who receive a quick response from a brand on social media are likely to recommend that brand to others.

Golden Rule 2: Secure All Channels in Your Brand Name

Leaving your brand name to roam free on any social network could be a death sentence to your brand’s reputation. Securing your company’s name on all popular and emerging social media channel will help you secure your brand image online.

The first step would be to secure a trademark for your brand name and logo through the legal procedure. Once that is done, it’s very important that you take control of social media handles on all important networks before others do.

Trademarks may protect your brand from being used by others without authorization. However, in an age where a lot of things will be beyond your own control, having an account in your brand name on all social platforms — whether they’re being run or not will turn out a safer and cheaper move.

If you’re overwhelmed by the volume of the social networks you’ll have to operate, you should at least secure your brand name in the following:

• Your companyname.com (website URL). With a trademark, you can pressure anyone using your domain name to release it.
• Facebook: Secure your company’s Facebook.com/companyname vanity URL and your own Facebookcom/FirstLast name.
• Twitter: Make sure your handle is close to your brand name as possible if not exactly.
• Instagram: Secure your Instagram.com/company and Instagram.com/FirstLast.
• Pinterest: Grab your Pinterest.com/company and Pinsterest.com/FirstLast.
• Snapchat: You should have a profile on Snapchat that your representative can run for you.
• YouTube: Secure your YouTube channel and a channel in your name if possible.
• LinkedIn: Make sure you have your LinkedIn.com/in/company.
• Medium: Also, secure your medium.com handle in your brand and personal name.

Golden Rule 3: Invest in Social Media Brand Monitoring

Discussions about your brand could be going on in different corners of the web.

According to research by RadiumOne, 67% of global sharing and mentions of your brand occurs on what is termed “dark social”, such as forums, emails and in apps. This makes it that your traditional analytics tools will miss these mentions of your brand and keep your reporting strategy in the dark on such conversations.

If negative discussions about your brand are being portrayed within these interactions, it leaves you helpless and unable to defend the reputation of your brand. This is where a powerful social media brand monitoring can be effective.

Employing strategic social brand reputation monitoring hand can help you keep up to mentions of your brand in places beyond the reach of analytics programs. This will give you the opportunity to take needed steps and act to quiet any controversies that could hurt your brand image before it goes mainstream.