Your company has a social media presence, whether you know it or not.

Most companies today understand the value of social media, at least as it pertains to individuals.  Whether they are on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn many business owners have a profile at least for themselves personally.  However, it’s becoming more and more critical that businesses have an official presence, and not simply something started by a client, employee or (shudder) an unhappy customer.

Bank of America was recently embarrassed when it was revealed that it’s Google+ page was ‘brand-jacked’ and a fake Bank of America page was not only on Google+, but that it had more activity (posts) and 28x the fans than the official Bank of America page.

As a Google+ user, if you searched for Bank of America the first page to come up was the false page.  Because of the traffic to the site, the posts (none of them flattering for Bank of America) were also being indexed and could be found through Google.

Some say Google+ should have better screening for business pages.  Others say the person that posted the page should be blamed.  Some believe Bank of America should police their brand better.  While there are differing camps on who’s to blame for this, it still boils down to an embarrassment for Bank of America.

At a time when more and more customers are using Facebook, Google+ and other social media to find business, read reviews and post their experiences with a brand, it’s critical that companies not only place value on their social media image but that they are the ones managing it.

Your social media presence provides users insight into not only sales and specials, but thoughts and feedback from other customers.  How happy are they?  How an unhappy customer was made happy.  How is your business engaged with the community?

An engaging social media presence tells your customers and clients that you care – not just about your business, but about them.  If a customer can’t find an official page online, and is only left with false pages, it tells them not only don’t you care about your brand, but you don’t care about what people think of it either.

By Sean Jones
Interactive Enthusiast – Digital Geek – Creative Nut
With a background in computer animation, multimedia design and IT technologies Sean is VP of Digital Solutions and Technology at AIS Media, Inc., an award winning digital marketing agency. Sean tweets from http://twitter.com/sjones_aismedia. Connect with Sean on LinkedIn at: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/sean-jones/2/757/47b