7 Ways You Could Be Damaging Your Brand Online

The way you present your company online is important.

There are certain common mistakes that can be hugely damaging to your brand.

Here are some of those mistakes to avoid.

7 Ways You Could Be Damaging Your Brand Online

Image Credit: Pixabay. CCO Licensed.

1. Having no web presence

Don’t have any social media pages? Don’t even have a website? This could have a major negative impact on your reputation.

Without a web presence, you’re likely to be perceived as less legitimate – if consumers try to look up your company online and find nothing, they may assume that you’re hiding something or that you’re not a real business.

When launching your business, making a website should be a priority. There are website design services as found at WebX360.com that you can rely on. You can even build your own website with no doing knowledge using platforms like Wix.

2. Poor website design

While having a website is very important, it’s also essential that this website isn’t poorly designed. You don’t want your website to look amateurish, boring or ugly. It also needs to be easy to read and navigate.

If your website isn’t professionally designed, consider conducting surveys to see what strangers think of it. If lots of people are suggesting the same improvements, it could be worth redesigning your site.

3. Buying followers

Buying followers on social media can help to give the impression of a huge following – which can make your business seem more popular.

However, many of these followers are likely to be inactive accounts. It may look odd to people that you have 1000 followers and no likes. You may even find that some of these inactive accounts are removed in the future, causing you to lose followers.

In most cases, it’s easy to tell when a company has been buying followers and it could lead your business to appear dishonest.

You’re much better off building an organic following by inviting friends and customers to follow you.

This guide at influencermarketinghub.com offers some tips on how to grow your following organically.

4. Not responding to online enquiries

When people message you online with questions or complaints, it’s important that you respond promptly. Ignoring these messages or responding late could be seen as poor customer service. If these messages are public, it could look particularly bad.

Make sure that you’re checking your emails and social media accounts every day and responding to any enquiries. Don’t wait a week to respond to someone.

5. Attacking other brands

It’s common to see larger brands engaging in brand wars on Twitter. Such companies can usually get away with it as they’re able to take the flak, plus it’s usually done in a humorous manner.

Smaller companies should avoid attacking other brands – particularly other small companies – unless it’s done in a joky teasing manner. It’s likely to reflect badly on your company.

6. Stealing content

You should be careful of taking other people’s content without permission. You could be sued for copy and pasting text from someone’s website or taking an image from another company.

Always get permission before using someone else’s content – or make sure that all content used online is original.

7. Using false information

When marketing your product, it’s important that you only use factual information. If you’re found out to be using false information, it could have a very negative impact on your credibility.

Always double-check facts before reporting them. Similarly, make sure that you’re not making any false claims or false promises – don’t tell customers you can do something when you can’t.

Over to You

Are you damaging your brand online?  Which of these mistakes have you been making?