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Building a business is like raising a baby, you’re invested in it both mentally and financially and you want to see it grow into a well-respected entity, but sadly, growing a business has its own unique set of challenges and one of them is protecting your brand and identity, so here are 5 simple ways to protect your business brand.
- Set up Google Alerts
If someone is saying something about your business online, be it good or bad, you need to know about it. Google Alerts is a simple way to be notified whenever your business name is mentioned so that you can check the context and assess whether to respond or publicize what you find. To set up Google Alerts simply click here and follow the instructions. - Respond to reviews
Reviews have the power to make or break a brand and so to protect your brand online it’s vital that you monitoring the reviews about your business and respond to them where applicable. Sadly most review sites do very little to safeguard businesses against fake reviews which can be used maliciously to hurt a brand’s reputation and so your only line of defense is to respond to any negative reviews and to give your own side of the story. Remember to always act professionally when responding to reviews as your responses will also be read by prospective visitors or users of your service. - Trademark it
Sometimes protecting your brand is less about protecting it from malicious reviews and more about protecting it from being stolen. To stop a competitor or other company fro stealing your brand identity the best thing to do is to trademark it which will provide you with substantial benefits and savings should you ever have to go to court to stop infringement. - Have a two-step authentication process on social media
Social media can be brilliant for businesses, enabling them to speak directly to their customers and develop their own voice, but the same benefits of social media that can be great for businesses can also be their downfall and one wrong move when the world is watching can lead to a disgraced brand name. One way to ensure that everything you put out on social media is calculated is to introduce a two-step authentication process whereby the social media posts drafted by one person in the company must be signed off by at least one other who has read them and deemed them to be suitable for publication. - Work on your internal image first
Many companies, especially start-ups, focus heavily on how their brand comes across to their prospective customers but fail to consider how it comes across to their own employees. If you want your customers to love you then it’s important that your own employees love you first as they have the capability to be your biggest brand advocates or your worst critics. Be sure to remain true to your own company values and to be mindful of how your own internal interactions can affect your employee’s perception of your business.
