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.

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