One basic move in eCommerce is having an account for your business on various social networking channels. A survey reports that 71% of small to mid-sized businesses maximize social media for marketing the brand, and 52% of this population posts daily.
Though social media is a great asset, being at the forefront of digital marketing makes your brand vulnerable to social media threats from the sites themselves and the other active users who come across your account.
These threats include malicious comments, unwanted restriction and the extra verification it brings, and even audience misuse of your brand name or product.
To safeguard your brand against these threats, here are some of our suggestions:
TRAIN YOUR EMPLOYEES
Employees with access to your accounts for hands-on monitoring and active engagement should be well-aware of cyberethics. This includes the basics of communicating online and filtering information to be publicized and kept classified.
As they are the ones who will accept inquiries, post content, and represent your brand online, it is crucial that they follow the guidelines you set for social media use.
CAREFULLY RESPOND TO COMMENTS
Even though your staff would be polite online, you can’t expect other people to be the same towards you. Sometimes you receive negative feedback or unnecessary hate trains about your brand because of how they interpreted your content.
Because your account is public, that means your response can be seen by the complainant or spectators. While it may be difficult to ignore them, acting upon them by replying or deleting them can also send a wrong message to the audience. Make sure to keep your cool, respond professionally, and settle in private.
ADHERE TO THE SITE’S TERMS OF USE
It’s crucial that you also review a certain channel’s privacy policy and other guidelines while on the platform. This will ensure that your content ideation and creation will not be filtered out or blocked by their rules.
For example, Facebook does not allow promotions or competitions on the page unless they are approved. Creating multiple accounts on Twitter to win any competition is also prohibited.
BE AWARE OF HOW YOUR BRAND IS USED
Some users help report pages and accounts pretending to be you. But most often, you have to monitor who misuses your brand and product across different platforms.
It’s important to take action as early as you can before they can make use of your business to exploit others or infringe on your intellectual property rights, eventually harming your credibility and clients’ trust.
Most social media sites take actions against malicious content and unruly actions on their platform, but you can always add a layer of protection by screening things before they get published, being proactive in using your account, and keeping an eye on possible replicas.
