If you have a company, I am sure you hire the best employees who fit the company’s culture. More and more employers are going online to try and find any negative posts or pictures on the candidates they interview and this is another way to ensure if the person is a good fit in the organization’s culture. This is becoming more important since you don’t want the people representing your company to damage your brand you worked so hard on building.
To illustrate the significance of how your brand could be damaged by employees, I will take the classic example of Domino’s Pizza. While on their shifts, two Domino’s employees recorded a video of them doing disgusting things to some ingredients before putting them in a sandwich. These included sticking peppers up their nose and directly adding them in the food to be sent out for delivery. They then uploaded the video to YouTube where it went viral. Since Domino’s Pizza did not have a social presence, it took them a few days to learn about the video and launch a communication strategy to try and save their brand. Since Domino’s still exists today, it means their efforts to recover from this brand attack was successful.
To make sure your brand does not fall victim to this; make sure all your employees are happy and valued. You can go one step further and implement a social media policy in employee contracts. Verbally communicate with them that there may be legal ramifications against employees who negatively reflect the company online.
But what if after all your efforts, an employee still ends up making your company look bad? Here are a tips you should take in order to recover from it.
- Develop a loyal following. These customers will help out even in bad times. Just make sure they know they their efforts are appreciated.
- Have a social media presence to detect negative content.
- Leverage the support of your loyal customers. Once you have made a statement online, get their support by sharing your message all over social media.
- Issue an official statement.
Even ex-employees can damage your brand online. Make sure they leave on the right foot. Sometimes this will be impossible in some cases; therefore it is wise to make them sign another contract stating that they cannot portray the company in negative way on social media.