Today’s organizations, start-ups, and business leaders often need to respond and interact quickly with their online customers, clients and followers in real-time.
Brands are at stake and reputations often ride on every action and message sent on highly-visible public platforms. Indeed, success for SMEs can ultimately depend on being active on sites and channels in different time zones, across borders, and in new territories they want to venture into.
This pressure for instant online reaction requires businesses to remain hyper-vigilant and proactive in this ‘always-switched-on’ global landscape. This guide explores some of the current online challenges to help you handle the 24-hour online environment.
Article Shortcuts:
- Initiate a Rapid Response to Cyber Threats
- Consider Misinformation and Moderate Content
- Take Accountability Around the Clock
- Be Inclusive and Representative
- Avoid Over-Promising to Maintain an Edge
- Dedicate Efforts To Personalized Content
Think of ‘Time’ as the Ticking Time-Bomb
There is no denying that incidents happen and damage limitation online is essential under certain circumstances, especially for businesses in their infancy.
Consumers today have very little patience for mistakes for which companies do not proactively hold themselves accountable.
The more time that passes when a business has to carefully navigate its PR strategy in a 24/7 world, the more difficult it is.
As such, failing to meet high expectations can result in lost consumer trust and lasting reputational damage, depending on the severity and nature of the incident which resulted in negative press.
Innocuous and honest mistakes can be forgiven, but failing to be transparent, not to mention deflecting the blame or ignoring the incumbent problem(s) can result in heavy scrutiny.
To make and continue lasting connections with paying customers, marketing teams need to be vigilant about potential pitfalls across their media and campaign components.
Modern consumers are more discerning and prefer to invest in brands that share their ethical values and drive for a greater positive societal impact.
One negative social media comment, misrepresentation or inability to be transparent can harm a brand.
This requires constant monitoring, strategic reputation management, and supervision. It also means empowering teams to quickly and decisively respond to issues, all while maintaining awareness of what your audiences want and value.
Initiate a Rapid Response to Cyber Threats
Cybersecurity threats have become increasingly sophisticated and widespread, posing a significant risk to SMEs. Cyber attacks can take many forms, including malware, phishing scams, distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, and data breaches.
These attacks can result in financial losses, data theft, and damage to a company's reputation. Data breaches and cyber incidents have become an inevitability as digitisation has skyrocketed.
To mitigate these risks, small businesses can learn to recognise and respond to security incidents with robust cybersecurity measures. These include implementing strong password policies, regular software updates, employee training, and the use of firewalls and antivirus software.
Additionally, having an incident response plan in place can help businesses respond promptly and effectively in the event of a cyber attack. However, it’s best to err on the side of caution and assume that incumbent security solutions are not 100% foolproof.
Assuming that one vulnerability does get exploited - even if minor - this could have a drastic effect on customer or stakeholder information, product prototypes, or intellectual property, especially if that data ends up in the public domain.
Depending on the industry, businesses could also be liable to regulators as well as consumers, leaving their reputations and finances worse off.
Should word break that you suffer a cyber attack, transparency and accountability are key when navigating the complexities. Have a well-prepared data breach response plan in place and ready to send out to inform your customers should the need arise.
Consumers value this higher than if you attempt to sweep the issue under the rug or delay your responses and remediation plans too long. Their data could well have been compromised, and a swift response is vital for:
- Maintaining trust with impacted individuals
- Complying with data breach notification laws
- Mitigating legal and regulatory risks
- Protecting your brand reputation
Consider Misinformation and Moderate Content
In the age of social media and instant information sharing, misinformation can spread rapidly and have a significant impact on a brand's reputation. Rumors, false claims, and negative reviews can quickly gain traction online, leading to a crisis of public perception.
To combat misinformation and protect their brands, SMEs should actively monitor online conversations and engage in proactive reputation management.
This involves responding promptly and transparently to any negative sentiment or false claims, leveraging social media and other digital channels to communicate accurate information, and fostering positive relationships with customers and stakeholders.
SMEs need to create user-friendly content that can enhance your website and engage viewers.
However, content moderation is a challenge as inappropriate, offensive, or harmful content will, of course, damage your brand's reputation and alienate customers.
To address this, implement robust moderation policies and tools, enabling you to promptly identify and remove inappropriate content while fostering a safe and inclusive online environment.
Take Accountability Around the Clock
In today’s 24-hour online working culture, SMEs need to maintain a constant digital presence to remain competitive, and responsive to their customer’s ongoing needs. However, this around-the-clock presence can be challenging to manage, particularly for SMEs or growing e-commerce sites with limited resources.
To address this challenge, use automation and scheduling tools to maintain a consistent online presence across various platforms. Additionally, investing in social media monitoring and customer service tools will support your colleagues to quickly respond to any inquiries and address any issues or concerns promptly.
Consumers have little tolerance for companies making hollow apologies, playing the victim, or blaming others. Regardless of the incident or mistake, it’s important to own them transparently and with humility.
As a guide, outline unambiguous steps for resolution, including any changes to policies, procedures, systems or staff.
Commit and follow through with your actions, providing regular updates on progress and completion to show that you value the lessons learned from your mistake. Making accountability a long-term commitment will do wonders for your brand rather than viewing it as a one-and-done gesture.
Be Inclusive and Representative
Brands are expected to share and exhibit values that reflect our diverse, multicultural society.
Companies that fail to create inclusive and equitable campaigns risk alienating key audiences and appearing detached from reality, as well as their core values. Diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) should be instilled firmly into a PR and marketing strategy from the outset.
Brands should endeavor to include diverse perspectives from people of different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences, using them to inform campaign narratives, creative assets, partnerships, and media outreach.
Regularly auditing brand imagery, messaging, and deliverables will also help you reassess how inclusive your material is, and allow you to make adjustments.
Inclusive marketing shouldn’t just be viewed as a tick-box exercise; it makes wise business sense, as 36% of people surveyed have boycotted brands because of issues with representation and diversity.
Avoid Over-Promising to Maintain an Edge
Marketers have the unenviable task of trying to set their brands far apart from the crowd, and in today’s fiercely competitive space, it’s increasingly difficult to do without making grandiose, provocative claims.
Dispensing this kind of conjecture without any form of source or verification opens you up to heavy scrutiny.
Countless brands have faced severe backlash having dispensed - sometimes unknowingly - inflated claims, wild promises, and ambiguous statistics. On a socio-political scale, there have been notable incidents where fake news and misinformation have spread like wildfire on social media.
The advent and emergence of innovative generative AI tools makes this type of claim easier to dispense unsupervised, and even harder to separate from genuine facts and tangible data.
This presents a huge problem for brands trying to maintain that competitive edge. It’s crucial to not be tempted by increased engagement and visibility if you can’t verify your claims, whether that’s exaggerating product capabilities or overpromising on customer expectations.
Should customers see that the product does not live up to expectations after spending their hard-earned money, it could get ugly.
Ensure that any information you share - however frivolous - is rooted in factual and data-driven information that provides reassurance and validity to your claims.
Dedicate Efforts To Personalized Content
Marketing professionals sector-wide understand the importance of thorough, accurate audience targeting and segmentation. Failing to dedicate appropriate resources and time to this task is inexcusable, especially for brands with established marketing and PR teams.
These can be automated with tailored Apps and web-enhancing Plugins that engage visitors or improve customer service, and chatbots that speak directly to your audience.
Create personalized, engaging, and relevant content with powerful CTAs or Use POWR Form Builder to create your sign-up forms. These assets are exceptionally larger drivers of responses, clicks, and conversions than mass generic messaging that offers viewers no additional value.
Consider which stage of the marketing funnel applies best to specific individuals in your target audience who meet certain criteria.
Deliver personalized assets and content that introduce your brand to these people. For those who have browsed your site, explored your products, or interacted in some way, deliver more intricate content that speaks to their particular pain points.
The personalization imperative cuts across all marketing and PR channels and Abstract management software, whether it’s sponsored social media ads, websites, emails, printed materials, and beyond. Understanding exactly what your specific audience segments are looking for will help exponentially.
Ending Note
Navigating the online business environment requires a proactive and vigilant approach to address the challenges of cybersecurity threats, misinformation, content moderation, and maintaining a constant digital presence.
By implementing robust security measures, engaging in proactive reputation management, and prioritizing brand safety, SMEs can protect their brands, boost online conversions and remain reactive and alert in the face of these challenges.
Once you understand how to mitigate PR disasters across 24-hour digital platforms, you can safeguard your brand’s reputation and grow your revenue streams online. Building consumer trust with complete confidence helps to foster lasting brand credibility with your audiences.
Author Bio
Chester Avey is a Freelance Writer based in the UK with more than 20 years’ experience in IT. He has extensive knowledge of today's evolving tech industry and enjoys writing authoritative articles and up-to-date opinion pieces on a wide range of topics, including: digital marketing trends, Artificial Intelligence, cyber-security, software solutions and e-commerce.
Website: www.chesteravey.co.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chester-avey/
