Promote and protect your brand with these offensive and defensive tips. For more online reputation tips and tricks, download the entire eguide here: http://bit.ly/OvP7nY

1. Page 14
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For more ideas on how to market your
business, visit connect.homes.com.
Offensive and
Defensive Moves
to Promote and
Protect your
Brand
Now that we’ve armed you with the basics of how the game is played, now
you must actually play. So huddle up, practice, incorporate some moves into
your playbook to score points, win over the fans and avoid dropping the ball or
throwing an interception.
In this game, it’s very important to communicate openly. Find out how your
image is faring by listening and, more importantly, responding to what the
public is saying on social sites, review sites, Google searches and blogs.
It’s also paramount to be proactive. After all, how are you going to play offense
without fielding your fans for some winning reviews. Think of online reviews as
“Testimonials 2.0”
8
. Continue to ask for referrals, but ask satisfied customers
post a review about their experience on your business profile in the directories to
mentioned earlier like Yelp and CitySearch. Promote those links on your business
cards, email signatures and other marketing materials. Offer incentives like cash or
discounts for submitting an online review as well.
Sources: 8
National Association of Realtors 2010
Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers
Even more crucial to the game than playing offense and scoring
points, is your defensive strategy and responding to unsportsmanlike
conduct - or handling negative reviews in this case.
Carefully crafting the appropriate response is key to
maintaining relationships and acquiring potential clients.
Reputation Management Defensive Playbook
Offensive and Defensive Moves to Promote and Protect your Brand

2. Page 15
.
For more ideas on how to market your
business, visit connect.homes.com.
Offensive and
Defensive Moves
to Promote and
Protect your
Brand
Sources: 9
Marketing Pilgrim, “Motrin Faces Twitter Headache Over New Video Campaign”
10
Hubspot, “Important Lessons in Online Reputation Management From @AndyBeal [@InboundNow #24]”
11
Remove Negative Review with Reputation Management, Local Gold Mine Blog
2
RULE
Always use empathy and be authentic!
Put yourself in their shoes and try to understand why they feel the way they do.
If you come across as unsympathetic or dismissive you will either look bad to
other clients/consumers or encourage the person to take further action. Being
genuine and open about your brand—good and bad—is always the right way to
go as it lends to your credibility and authenticity.
3
RULE
Don’t blame the customer or another teammate!
Take responsibility for the situation and confront it head on. According to
Marketing Pilgrim, when applicable, you should quickly apologize and then
do some damage control before a situation gets even more widespread (i.e.
Subway’s “Footwrong” debacle above)
9
. Consumers don’t care whose fault it is.
They just want it fixed. If you start pointing fingers at the customer they will go
on the defensive and the situation will escalate.
4
RULE
Never get into an online comment battle!
Always keep it professional and respond quickly to unfavorable reviews. Your
number one goal is to attempt to rectify the situation. Advise the reviewer to
meet or call you to discuss the matter further to show that you are concerned
about their experience. Andy Beal, founder of Marking Pilgrim, says,
“Oftentimes, you have the opportunity to turn a detractor into an evangelist by
fixing situations
10
.” Turn your brand enemies into brand champions!
5
RULE
Keep it timely and never ignore bad reviews!
Always acknowledge the review and respond quickly to set things right.To
recoup their trust, follow through immediately or they may not trust you or
remove the negative review
11
.
1
RULE
Never write a response while angry!
Your harsh words will come back to haunt you. Often customers just
want to be heard. By responding you are giving them the satisfaction
that their complaint was acknowledged. Plus, your potential clients
can see that you addressed the issue.

3. Page 16
.
For more ideas on how to market your
business, visit connect.homes.com.
Offensive and
Defensive Moves
to Promote and
Protect your
Brand
Reputation is an asset and must be managed like other assets. Employees are a company’s best advocate
and become your protectors (defense) and promoters (offense). We recommend setting up a team of key
players representing several departments that have ownership of the brand, social media, reputation and
risk management, legal and human resources. The team should champion the cause for social media and
Online Reputation management. This group’s goal is to ensure that ownership and management of the
brand is carried out at the corporate level. Most brands typically have multiple departments that range
from sales, marketing, public relations, legal and human resources, IT, third-party vendors and customer
service.
The team should have a variety of players with different roles and include one to take ownership of the
company’s image – your quarterback or team leader. This player makes the calls, rallies the team, knows
the plays backwards and forwards and is your “go to” and is responsible for day-to-day management.
The team leader within this group should be responsible for championing resources, identifying internal
and external brand advocates and safeguarding the brand. The team is critical in establishing governance
and best practices, policymaking and conducting company-wide training. Here are steps to help you get
started in creating your team:
Identify the key players to become a part of the team and engage each of them in the creation
of the guidelines.
Set routine meetings for the team to share best practices, new trends, emerging platforms and
technology.
Establish goals, objectives and tactics to support them.
Conduct a reputation and social media audit.
Craft a risk management plan along with response protocol to become a strategic guide for
units of the organization to follow.
Set up listening tools and formal mechanisms to actively monitor, measure and manage
reputation.
Develop internal training material and deliver it to the organization as often as possible.
Evaluate effectiveness of actions taken.
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Create a Reputation Management Team

4. Page 17
.
For more ideas on how to market your
business, visit connect.homes.com.
Offensive and
Defensive Moves
to Promote and
Protect your
Brand
Creating a Policy
Comment and Review Guidelines
Development of corporate policies, with particular
emphasis on those relating to social media
participation and managing your online reputation
is important. You should define the rules of
to help guide your organization’s response to threats. By building in a
defined set of response procedures, it is possible to minimize the amount
of damage that a social media crisis can inflict.
engagement to be followed
Comment guidelines set the boundaries for acceptable behavior on the company’s social media
profiles and across the web on review sites, local directories and search engines. Know what the media,
competitors, employees and consumers are saying about you and track the content of the conversation to
gauge success.
It’s good to respond to the three inevitable types of conversation - questions, complaints and
compliments.
Questions that need to be addressed:
• When are your employees “your” employees?
• Are you responsible for their actions when they are “on the clock”?
• Are you responsible for their actions when they are on their own time?
• Consider your audience and be authentic.
• Remember to protect proprietary and confidential information.
Questions Complaints Compliments

5. Page 18
.
For more ideas on how to market your
business, visit connect.homes.com.
Offensive and
Defensive Moves
to Promote and
Protect your
Brand
According to Business News Daily, by following these tips, you’ll
maintain a solid reputation on the web:
• Focus on a simple, clear and compelling narrative that will stick in the
mind. It’s the main thing about your business. This is what you always
want people to know about you.
• Be authentic. Talk in a language that is real for you and your brand. Avoid
the jargon of corporate speak and marketing theory. The more genuine
and human you are in the way you talk, the more you will engage people.
Don’t be afraid to use humor where possible.
• Talk about the “dramatically different’’ things you do. People want good
stories, so find the things that are exciting to talk about and amplify them.
• Encourage conversations with your customers and even your investors,
employees and the press. Social media allows you to do this via Twitter,
YouTube, Facebook, blogs and LinkedIn. You need to have people
monitoring and actively encouraging conversations.
• Make it as easy as possible for consumers to talk about you. Empower
your team to talk directly with consumers and build rapport, recruit
consumers to be fans and when anything goes wrong, deal with it at
lightning speed.
Lastly, to ensure you’ve not left any stone unturned, print out our “Reputation Management Checklist” on
page 23. This handy list will guide you through getting setup online by publishing your contact information
in every corner so you’ll be seen on search engines, review sites, directories and social sites. It will remind
you what to monitor, where and how often. And finally, it will ensure that you are making keyword
adjustments as necessary so that consumers can find you when using related terms in their search.
Review the “Comment & Review Guidelines” on page 22 to help develop your brand’s
guidelines.