In today’s technological society, many businesses are finding themselves engaging more and more in social media. The main reason behind the use of social media is because of the numbers of people that are flinging to social media. Although social media can be very lucrative for any brand, there are some challenges and risk that every business owner should know before taking their brand social.
It is widely known that social media makes it possible for open communication and enhancing business branding, discovery and delivery. This can be very challenging to businesses because of the openness of communication on social media, branding can go several ways. Therefore, those in charge of making sure the brand goes social has to make sure that all communication regarding that brand is positive. When promoting campaigns and ideas, it allows people from the different geographical location to express and share their views and meet in a single point as well as promoting global products.
Since social media provides such an opportunity to widen business by allowing businesses to brand themselves quicker than before, that could become a challenge. See, social media can be a fun and creative method for businesses to get involved in. It allows all employees to discuss and share ideas, ask questions, post news and share links which helps minimize the use of advertising dollars and helps improve the brands reputation. The challenge comes when one disgruntle employee places negativity on the brand itself. Once the groundswell is stirred up, it can move so quickly through the internet that it can become quite impossible for the company to recover the brand that easily. This is simply due to the fact that social media is known for attracting attention to any site, product or service.
So if social media is great for businesses, what could possibly be the risks of taking your brand social? Well, since social media can take one message and make it viral in a matter of minutes, this is probably the most important risk of them all to remember. The wrong online brand strategy by the company or a negative brand comment by a disgruntled employee or customer can damage the business reputation as well as the brand.
Basically, social media today has become a great marketing field for any business big or small. Depending on how much marketing a business wants to do can really depend on how big they really need their budget to be. Bottom line is that as long as the challenges are understood and the risks are avoided, social media can make or break any brand.
Complete Awareness 
Thank you for sharing about social media and branding. I think it is great that organizations can use social media and that they can get word out quickly while also including their employees and making it a fun situation. Like you said, it can turn bad with one negative comment from someone who is in the moment and upset. This could ruin an organization if not handled correctly and quickly. Everything goes out quickly through social media so it would be important to monitor this and make sure that questions are answered immediately and if something comes up that is incorrect or a complaint that it is handled correctly to hopefully keep the image positive. Thanks for sharing and I will keep this in mind in the future.
I enjoyed your post. I also like how you discuss the risks to an organization for taking a message viral. I think with many companies, they have to be wary to ensure they are not ‘stepping on toes.’ The wrong catch phrase or image could unexpectedly cause a controversy that could easily stir up in seconds. Once a company encounters negative publicity, it usually just starts to go downward from there. Take for example the Amy’s Baking Company on the Gordon Ramsey’s show. The lesson of the story was what can happen when a story goes viral, and how people at the center of the issue can choose to handle things. Amy & Samy was too over beyond their head to acknowledge the things they said and done was uncalled. Rather than apologizing, they continue ranting as if they were better than everyone else…pretty crazy…I say.
http://tourismcontentmarketing.com/gordon-ramsay-amys-baking-company-how-to-exploit-bad-publicity/
Yes, one bad comment can go viral and cause an unnecessary corporate massacre. Take in point Abercrombie & Fitch. The CEO made the comment that his clothing was not for fat people and once the world got wind of it, their unhappy response went viral. The days of being able to push an unpleasant occurrence under the rug is over. Companies now have to deal with the fact that everything good or bad can go viral in an instant and to deal with this they have to be social media savvy to respond appropriately.
I remember when that CEO did that. I think I was part of that viral outbreak.