Using PR to Protect Your Brand Online

The Internet's benefits far outweigh its drawbacks.

If your business isn't using online PR and marketing tools, that noise you hear is the wind whistling through your financial statements as revenues, brand presence and market share plummet to new lows.

But at Walker Sands, we know that the interactive nature of the Internet can have negative consequences for your company. Negative comments and inaccurate news stories have a cumulative effect on your brand, so it's our job to use PR and other strategies to protect your brand online. Here are some of the ways we do it . . .

• Positive mentions. Google your brand. If you dig deep enough, you're likely to find not-so-flattering comments about your company and products. Hopefully those comments are buried beneath pages of positive comments. Good PR makes sure it stays that way. Although we can't remove negative comments from search results, we can use PR to bury them deep enough that they are no longer relevant.
• Online monitoring. Staying on top of your brand's online presence can be exhausting. Fortunately, there are technologies available to streamline the process. A good PR strategy leverages online monitoring solutions and incorporates them into your routines.
• Repetition. Your brand's most important messages can't be mentioned often enough online. Repetition of core messaging through a variety of online PR and marketing channels is a great way to protect your messages from being diluted or hijacked. Each additional mention drives your brand's primary themes higher in the search rankings, focusing your online presence on the things that are most important to your company.
• Industry mentions. Using PR to generate industry mentions is a useful way to counter negative comments on message boards or social media sites. When users are forced to choose between quips from a few disgruntled customers on a message board and a string of positive messages from objective industry veterans, your brand comes out on top.
• Damage control. Sometimes disaster is unavoidable. In the event of a PR crisis, the Walker Sands team springs into action to create high ranking positive mentions that rebalance the scales in your favor. Time is critical, but with the right strategy and expertise, we can use PR to protect your brand, even in the midst of a public relations nightmare.

Your online brand image is your company's lifeline. Walker Sands is a premiere Chicago PR firm with the expertise and experience to insulate your brand from negative consequences in the online universe. If you're ready for a PR strategy that delivers real results, call us today.