Imagine driving down a busy highway and seeing hundreds of large billboards about your business that you had no idea existed. Many of these billboards are off-message, untrue and disparaging.
This hypothetical situation is occurring regularly to many companies with “digital billboards” which are seen by millions of users unbeknownst to brand and marketing executives. In fact, in my experience working with top international brands, I am often surprised that executives are unaware of numerous online business references that perpetuate untrue rumors or slander their name and business online.
The new digital era has been hailed as a time when brands can connect directly with their audiences through digital tools. But conversations about brands often take place in online public forums and secondary spaces and whether or not executives are listening, their brand is being discussed across the public-facing Internet.
This is particularly damaging when negative reviews or unsavory media stories spread. Any untrue information lurking on the internet can easily be found and used to validate negative perceptions and press.
I recently met with an executive of a growing tech company who was actively fund raising. We discovered that there were negative references about this executive and the company. It was unfair because the negative references were really about this executives previous employer where he no longer worked and had nothing to do with. The executive was totally unaware of this content online and had an “ah-ha moment” that the capital raising deals falling through were due to these online references that lenders/investors were finding online. Legendary was able to not only mitigate the negative online content but we added a large amount of positive publicity online for the executive. Two months later, the sought after funding transaction took place for this company.
As specialists in brand management, we at Legendary urge brand managers and marketing teams to understand the scope of secondary digital placements. By doing this, you can build an active promotional strategy and safeguard your brand in a time of complexity and crisis.
Strategic communications in the face of brand backlash requires skill, resilience and a well-calculated response. Given that online digital spaces attract millions of consumers, best practices require a business to remain alert and tap into all digital mentions of its brand. Tapping into these conversations can empower executives to build an effective strategy that strengthens their brand’s resilience. Brand resilience is both an offensive strategy to promote the positive, and a defensive strategy to protect your brand when a crisis hits.
At Legendary, we understand the digital spaces that are time consuming to find and navigate. Monitoring online conversations about a brand, grouping relevant themes and using them to optimize brand awareness is the new mantra for brand management in the digital age.
Legendary is a reputation management agency specializing in strategic communications and crisis management. Past economic crises have taught us that taking decisive action to control your personal brand story — from Google search results to social media — is paramount to securing future growth. Legendary takes a holistic approach to doing just that.
We are powered by a team of experts in digital marketing, SEO, social listening, content creation, crisis communications and much more. We are dedicated to helping you understand how to leverage your unexpected crisis and turn it into a growth opportunity that allows you to optimize your personal and professional brand.
Legendary has expanded our clientele from within the United States to Europe, South America and Africa. Our expertise has enabled us to form a network of big-name companies and individuals that have gone on to leverage their personal brands to secure important ventures and opportunities.