Social media marketing is a great and useful tool for building a company’s brand and managing their reputation if planned and executed correctly. Some companies fear social media because they understand a portion of the brand’s reputation (and control) is in the hands of users. These companies tend to be aware of their service or product flaws and are hesitant to be exposed by unhappy users. These companies won’t succeed using social media unless they plan and execute a campaign to rebuild their reputation after addressing and fixing their known issues.

Companies must learn that a key component of social media success is transparency. Without a willingness to adhere to transparency, a social media effort will fail.

Transparency is a word some social media marketers hate or avoid because it doesn’t have a set definition. In this context, transparency refers to the willingness of a company to reveal details investors and customers want to know. It requires an honest approach and the willingness to address issues head on and have a set public relations plan for potential crisis situations. The crisis control can be approached using social media outlets, but that is another topic for another day…

Companies must understand that passing the torch and allowing users to contribute to their brand shouldn’t scare them away—it should encourage their use of social media and help companies become self-aware and deal with any inconsistent internal or external issues of the business.

Transparency is an important lesson and business value we can take away from the economic crisis of 2009 and if the lesson is learned, will make businesses stronger in 2010. Lack of transparency and honesty will leave consumers feeling cheated, angry and weary to trust again. As we all know, trust is something very hard to build and even harder to regain if it is lost.

To test a company’s transparency commitment, evaluate the current reputation of the company and customer feedback (hint: check for online chatter on social networks). Check for skeletons in the closet and weigh their impact if exposed. If messaging across the company is consistent and strategies are in place to address potential issues, a commitment to transparency exists. The transition to using social media will not be set up for failure.

Jen Cohen is a social media and marketing maven knocked down many times in 26 yrs. Something Creative http://somethingcreativemarketing.com

Tags: Business, community, failure, recommendation, Social Media, Strategy, the right way