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We’ve blogged about Twitter mishaps and social media fails before, and we have warned companies to implement social media policies for employees. According to a survey done by the Society of Human Resource Management, almost 40% of companies have a social media policy in place; out of those, a third has taken disciplinary action against an employee in the past year.

It is no secret that negative reviews can damage your reputation. When crisis strikes, a brand is affected in its entirety. Stakeholders pay the price, managers pay the price, and eventually customers will pay the price when they are forced to switch their business somewhere else. In most cases, it is not the initial crisis that causes most of the damage; it is an inadequate response from a company’s representative. Companies have known for a long time that turning a negative review into a positive is the best form of word of mouth advertising there is. But until today there wasn’t much solid proof that negative comments could have a direct and immediate effect on the company’s net profit margin - and they do.

The 15^th annual International Customer Service Association, Toronto chapter convention will take place on May 10^th and 11^th of this year. BrandProtect was fortunate enough to be invited to participate this year, offering a presentation on The Power of Social Media: From the Bright Side to the Dark Side.

For any company that does business online, hearing that you’ve been involved in a data breach is quite possibly the worst news to hear.   Last month it was the online transaction processing company Global Payments, who joined the likes of Epsilon and Sony in the list of high profile data breaches in recent memory.  These breaches not only affect the existing customer base but can also do significant damage to your online reputation which could impact customer growth in the future; this is to say nothing of the monetary costs involved in “cleaning up” these PR nightmares.

It is no secret that negative reviews can damage your reputation. We have been urging companies to monitor their social media presence and respond to online chatter in a promptly and efficient manner to prevent it from escalating into a full blown PR disaster. Companies have known for a long time that turning a negative review into a positive is the best form of word of mouth advertising there is. But until today there wasn’t much solid proof that negative commentary could have a direct and immediate effect on the company’s net profit margin.

Most businesses today understand the need of having their own website, but most of those businesses don’t monitor their websites and even more don’t know how to react when their sites have been compromised.

A couple of years ago I wrote a post "Brands Fail to Capitalize on Twitter Marketing Opportunities”  on the BrandProtect blog.  In the post I relayed some surprising information about Twitter and brands, citing 360i whitepaper findings that brands were under-utilizing the Twitter platform. It was noted that “while consumers use Twitter as a conversational medium, most marketers aren’t using it that way and there remains a ripe and largely untapped opportunity for two-way conversations between brands and consumers.” 

Even if your company has no plans of entering the mobile market, you need to be on the constant lookout for cybercriminals who wish to use the popularity of your brands for criminal purposes. The mobile market has exploded in recent years and companies have not yet caught up with the security and protection needed to fight back cybercriminal activity. BrandProtect is always committed to providing the latest tools to defend its clients’ reputations. As part of this plan, we have been offering our Mobile App Monitoring service in conjunction with our Identity Theft or Brand Abuse services.

The topic has been trending since it exploded in March. There are numerous stories of companies who have coerced their employees (or future employees) onto giving them access to their personal Facebook accounts. In the U.S., where this “trend” has been spotted, the latest victim is Kimberly Hester, a teacher’s aide at Frank Squires Elementary in Cassopolis who is currently involved in a legal fight against the board after she was suspended without pay when she refused to provide her Facebook password. And she’s not alone, earlier last month the Associated Press reported of earlier cases of employers asking prospective employees to disclose their passwords or “friend” an HR representative on the social media site in order to have a look around their profile.