9Online ReputationThreats That Are Killing Brands

Fighting online brand wars? Saddle up your brand against these online reputation attacks first.

1

BADAny type of publicity is good for the brand is a myth. Bad/negative media coverage canlead to a trust deficit in no time.

BADBAD

Negative Media Coverage = Ruined public image

In 2011, Toyota faced the ire of the media when it delayed recall of 5.2 million cars having faulty steering problems. Later it was found that the delay was not intentional but the damaged was already done to the image of the company.the image of the company.

Toyota

Negative Media Coverage - Lesson To Learn

2

Negative Visual Content- Pictures talk

Negative, shocking or abusive photos & videos leave greater impact than words can. Biggest blunders of this sort usually happen when the personal

and professional lives are mingled with each other.

Treat them separately

Abusive photos

Shocking Videos

Negative Words

80%

60%

20%

Negative Visual Content- Lesson To Learn

US AirwaysUS Airways accidentally posted pornographic pictures while replying to a customer on Twitter in 2014. Although they made a public apology but it led to a series of sarcastictweets and parodies of the tweets and parodies of the company.

3

Fake Accounts Created By Hackers – Most Malicious

Save your brand from fake online account and intruders who hack website/profiles and then start posting nonsense.Help users differentiate between you and fake profiles in the name of your brand.

Keep a similar presence of Keep a similar presence of your brand across all social networks

Fake Accounts Created By Hackers – Lesson To Learn

When BP was dealing with the catastrophe of oil leak in Gulf of Mexico, a new war front emerged for the company on Twitter. A Fake account was created to make BP look like a company that did not care about the accident. This created about the accident. This created a lot of buzz and was even acknowledged by mainstream media.

When BP was dealing with the catastrophe of oil leak in Gulf of Mexico, a new war front emerged for the company on Twitter. A Fake account was created to make BP look like a company that did not care about the accident. This created

British Petroleum

4

Rival A acks By Competitors – Keep an eagle eye to combat

All these are part and parcel of being a brand but if you don’t control the aftereffects in time, they can lead to reputation hurt. So, monitor your

presence constantly and make sure your target users remain unaffected of these attacks.

Corporateespionage

False accusationsby competitors

Fake stories planted by haters

Perceptionbattles

Rival A acks By Competitors – Lesson To Learn

Bendgate is a known controversy involving iPhone models from Apple. Although the problems were not major, it was hyped by Apple’s

competitors in order to make the products look faulty.

Apple

5

Newsjacking – Don’t invest in a flop show

Using breaking news to boost your reputation or trying to generate fake media coverage can backfire. Newsjacking can uproot trust of target audience, and can

project you as unreliable brand.

Newsjacking – Lesson To Learn

Gap, A clothing line, took a huge brand bashing when it tried to newsjack hurricanesandy tragedy to promote

itself.

GAP

6

Hate Pages And Websites – Ignoring is death for a brand

Commonly, the haters post provoking updates & comments on forums and social networks, which creates a void for potential customer base and damages the online reputation of a business.

This can turn out to be more This can turn out to be more defaming, abusive and vulgar with threaded comments that follow.

Hate Pages And Websites – Lesson To Learn

is one such website that tarnishes the image of the

airline in front ofprospective customer.

iHateryanair.org

I HateRyanairI Hate

7

Online Rumors – Nip in the bud

People start believing to what they see repetitively and take every rumor with a pinch of salt. Keep a close watch on negative information circulated about your

business son web.

Put a full stop to them before they are taken seriously

Online Rumors – Lesson To Learn

Michael Jackson has been the receiver of many rumors ranging from child molester to plastic surgeries. This damaged the career of the singer way before his death.

Michael Jackson

8

Review Websites – Customers’ feedbacks easily get viral

One-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-10% increase in revenue for businesses while a negative content can kill the revenue and goodwill.

Do reputation building to Do reputation building to save your business from

bad reviews

Review Websites – Lesson To Learn

Many brands have taken a beating on websites like ripoffreport.com and yelp, where bad review pages are common. This leads to a huge backlash of the brand in front

of the customers.

Yelp

9

Black Hat Guys – Penultimate form of reputation disaster

Black hat techniques are used for negative marketing of the competitor.

Negative SEO is highly difficult to come into notice and can prove terribly risky for brand image.

Black Hat Guys – Lesson To Learn

is known to tarnish image of its competitors, but it crossed the line when it was found that it paid people to write negative online reviews about HTC phones. It also had to pay a fine for indulging in

such activities.such activities.

Samsungis known to tarnish image of its competitors, but it crossed the line when it was found that it paid people to write negative online reviews about HTC phones. It also had to pay a fine for indulging in

such activities.

Samsung

The Boom Line

You cannot ignore the chatter going on related to you or your brand. Dealing with negative online content is the topmost business concern for 90% of the

businesses.

‘Stay prepared’ is the only way to deal with online reputation attacks

Incorporate a well laid ORM strategy

Gain trust of your consumers

Strengthen relationship with end users

Contact w3Police to Build, Repair, Monitor Online Reputation

Call us at:{IND} +91-95555 96666{USA} +1 469 844 3346

E-mail us at:sales@w3police.com

Visit Our website:http://www.w3police.com/

Internet is the harbinger on open information sharing.You will never know when your Brand is being attacked or been criticized.