Dallas Lawrence

By Allan Maurer

These days, a company never knows when a brand crisis fueled by Twitter or blog posts, Facebook or a YouTube video may strike.  So every company needs to take three steps toward online reputation managment, says Dallas Lawrence, managing director of Digital Public Affairs for Burson-Marsteller’s digital communications agency.

Lawrence, a frequent contributor to Forbes.com and Mashable, also chaired the social and digital media practice for Washington, DC based crisis communications firm Levick Strategic Communications. Previously, Dallas served as the first vice president for New Media for the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). He also served as a member of the George W. Bush White House communications team for five years.

Lawrence is one of hundreds of Internet executives, interactive marketers, web entrepreneurs and other new media professionals participating in the Digital Summit scheduled for Atlanta, May 16-17.

Three steps to protect online reputation

The first thing any firm or organization needs to do to manage its online reputation is “Just be aware of your current reputation online and potential threats and supporters out there. So many companies we have worked with in crisis planning, have not begun to think about what could potentially befoul their brand through online sources.

Second, he says, there are a lot of tools out there to help organizations be prepared and have a better sense of the landscape where a brand is discussed. “So you have to become familiar with the platforms, specifically Twitter, where they will talk about you whether you are there or not.”

Third, engage and manage at least half the conversations online yourself.

Companies often see the online landscape as nearly overwhelming when they first approach it. There are 30 million blogs, 60 million tweets a day, more than 500 million users on Facebook and they think, “How can I possibly engage in this?”

“The first thing I tell clients,” says Lawrence, “is that you don’t have to do everything at once. Just get started. Pick one or two areas and get comfortable. Create a blog, Get people used to the idea of creating content and allowing users to post questions. Engage on Twitter.”

Structure required

It is also important to bring some structure to the endeavor, he adds. “You don’t want to be on Twitter just to be on Twitter. You need a strategy. What is your objective? What is it your audience wants to hear?” That means, he says, have an editorial calendar. Do a series of tweets on a topic. Add some video content. “Start thinking like that instead of an overall strategy to engage on all the channels.”

There is this “rush,” he notes, to be on Twitter and Facebook. “Social media is not like Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams. If you build it, they won’t come.”

That seems to be the phrase du jour this season regarding social media. We’ve heard it from several social media mavens headed to this year’s Digital Summit. It’s right up there with a suggestion followed by “Rinse and repeat,” the catch phrase we heard most last year.

But it makes a point. To get people to engage with your social media, it is not enough just to start a Twitter account and a Facebook page.

“You have to create content and market it every single day to be successful,” he says.

Get more than the brand marketing department involved

Lawrence says that Atlanta-based Coca Cola is “One of the smartest companies thinking about how they need to position themselves globally. They engage people in pro-active brand conversations online, but they’re also prepared for any potentially critical issues that may arise for them online. And one of the things they have learned is not to leave all their social media strategies in the hands of the brand marketing department. So they have people who know its not just clicks and weekly numbers, but longterm conversations that are important.”

Just having brand marketing departments handle social media is a fault lots of companies fall prey to, says Lawrence, pointing to Toyota’s mishandling of its problems last year. “When their single greatest crisis happened, they had no levers.”

Southwest Airlines and Marriott Hotels are other examples of firms handling their social media well, he says. “You have to have a team with access to the “C” suite, separate from brand marketing channels,” says Lawrence.

The 1440 Cycle

None of this is just frivolous speculation. “If you are doing business today,” Lawrence notes, “It is not a question of if, but of when a crisis will hit your brand. It’s just a matter of time, whether it is a coordinated attack or just a small bomb thrower without any reach. But with million of conversations about brands and companies online, your time will come when you are in the spotlight, and not in a good way. The way you react to that, in many cases right away, will determine the success of your communications strategy.”

Lawrence says he doesn’t talk about 24/7, he talks about the 1440 cycle. “That the number of minutes in a day, and every one of them can affect your brand if you are not aggressively defending it and pro-actively advancing it.”