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The Best Reputation in the World

Managing your reputation can lead to lots of good publicity and connections with other businesses and potential clients. But some company's reputations can take them even farther, and now Google has been given the status of "The Best Reputation in the World" by Harris Interactive, a US based company. 

According to Harris' sophisticated rating system, Google beat out Johnson & Johnson for the best reputation, as well as 3M, Apple and other highly well regarded brands and companies. The status of "Best Reputation" was awarded by Harris after conducting a survey of 30,000 Americans on their opinions of the 60 "mot visible companies" in the USA. The survey groups responded to six categories that mattered most to the firm's reputation "emotional appeal, products, services, social responsibility, vision and leadership."

The technology sector had increasingly high reputations, with Apple and Facebook, among others, coming in the top 50. Over the past decade, the technology sector has become one of the most favorable as people interact with technology brands on a daily basis and many of the companies have some element of democratic participation. Additionally, unlike other companies that produce hard products, technology companies have less chance to create reputation disasters like oil and gas companies or other companies that's work negatively impacts the environment. 

One of the best ways to improve your company's reputation is surely to enter different competitions for best brand, best product and other categories. These kind of competitions can be found easily online simply by searching and can provide your company with an opportunity to compete, beat out and shine other competition. Additionally, people love to see quotes from former and current clients and testimonies from their experience with your company. This boosts consumer confidence and improves your company's online reputation.

 

Reputation Management on Facebook Improves

Today, writing comments on facebook is just as important as commenting on blogs. While it doesn't improve your SEO like writing comments on high ranking websites, it certainly can bring a lot of targeted traffic to your website and if done right, improve your online reputation. However, sometimes, when commenting on facebook their is a mistake in posting. Previously, the entire comment had to be deleted and re-posted -- until facebook updated its modification rules. Now users can edit their own comments on facebook immediately. 

To edit commentss, simply press the "x" icon in the upper-right hand corner of the commenting box and select "modify". However, this modification option only lasts for 10 seconds, afterwhich you'll have to delete the whole comment and start again -- the old way of commenting on facebook. 

Even though their is a time limit for modification, facebook's email system still sends two notes to all of the people who have commented on the post and the owner of the post -- first with your original comment and then with the edited comment. Edited comments also don't appear instantly and instead, users will need to refresh their facebook page before they see the changes made to the comments. 

While this new feature doesn't work perfectly, it is a small improvement from the past and can greatly help you to improve your online reputation and insure that each comment that you submit is perfect. If you're interested in learning more about this new feature, you can watch the quick tutorial that facebook created here:

 

 

How to Prevent Leaks and Reputation Management Spoilers

Sometimes, even if you plan your public relations campaign very carefully, someone can spoil your efforts. For example, if you've carefully planned an online contest, tallied the results and determined the winner, you'll want to send out a virtual press release to top bloggers and media sources announcing the results. However, it is usually necessary to send this kind of release out a few days in advance of announcing the results on your site -- thus creating an opportunity for a leak of the highly secret information. 

Leaks can create big public relations messes and reuion your surprise, so it's imperative that you put a big header on your press release that details that this is confidential information. In some cases, it's also a good idea to ask journalists to sign a confidentiality agreement. Take for example the recent case of a Glee extra spoiling the season finale. Last week on Twitter, Nichole Crowther revealed who would become prom king and queen on the show -- a big spoiler.

This created a backlash against Nichole where angry fans responded to her spoiling the show and the producer of Glee, Blad Falchuk, tweeted "hope you're qualified to do something besides work in entertainment" and "Who are you to spoil something talented people have spent months to create?"

Unfortunately in this case, the standard union contract that Nichole signed did not require her to sign a non-disclosure agreement, so filing a suit for liquidated damages would be difficult. However, if Nichole had signed an agreement with a pre-set amount of money for leaking, Glee and Fox would be protected from such actions -- and more importantly -- would probably prevent such reputation management problems from occurring at all. 

Managing Your Green Reputation

Over the past decade consumers have become much more environmentally conscious and are making many of their purchasing choices, including online choices, based on companies with good green reputations. That is making it increasingly important for companies to firstly make wise business choices when it comes to the environment and secondly to manage their green reputations -- especially online. While small companies and brands are less likely to have independent environmental watch organizations conduct investigations on them, bigger companies and brands have to manage their green reputation carefully or else they could end up with a reputation crisis like Apple is currently finding itself in.

Last week, the powerful NGO Greenpeace published a report about the top internet companies and their green reputations. The 35 page report details how much energy data companies like Yahoo, Google and Apple use to create the massive internet cloud. According to Greenpeace, the internet is consuming nearly 2% of the worlds power. After looking at a number of influential companies, Yahoo was ranked the cleanest -- improving its reputation with eco-savvy surfers -- and Apple was ranked the dirtiest. For Apple, who has a reputation of being a progressive organization, this is a blow to its reputation and in order to curb the bad public relations that this report will produce, Apple should change its policies and find ways to save more energy. Additionally, the company should send out a press release acknowledging their lack of eco-consciousness and perhaps even launch a campaign to reduce their energy consumption.

Today, in an ever increasingly environmentally conscious consumer driven world, being green isn't just about being trendy. NGOs and other civil society organizations are keeping a close watch on private companies and using the net to share with the world whose really green and whose just green washing. Thus, it's important that you truly know your companies green record and find a effective way to share it with the world and keep your online reputation as clean as possible.

 

Social Media and the Royal Wedding Buzz

 

The media is a buzz with what is sure to be one of the years biggest worldwide celebrations and public relations campaigns -- the royal wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Aside from the extensive print and television coverage of the not to be missed event, social media is going to be one of the best ways to keep up to date with the every move and kiss of the royal groom and bride-to-be. The Royals have released their plans to blitz Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites with the pictures, videos and interviews of the royal wedding setting a new standard for wedding coverage worldwide. 

In todays ever increasing media savvy environment, coupes around the world will be turning to William and Kate for new fashion and public relations standards. By launching a successful media campaign, the royal couple will be able to control more of the memes generated by their wedding and take some of the attention away from pundits and the mass media which will be covering the event. This will enable them to keep tighter control on the content and the conversation generated by the event and insure that they will be in control of their social media savvy wedding and their online reputation generated by the big day.

Thirty years ago, when Prince Charles married Princess Diana, the media coverage was solely based on print and television. Today, William and Kate will be setting a new standard using social media -- tweets, texts and facebook posts will be one of the most important way that their public relations message is shared. Viewers will not only be watching TV, but viewing the wedding on their iPads and smart phones. The wedding will be livestreamed on Buckingham Palace's YouTube channel and the couple has developed a multi-media blog which will have liveblogging coverage of the event. 

According to the official royal wedding website, the coverage will begin with the bride and groom's individual journeys to Westminster Abbey, their trip to and from the church, the wedding service and the military procession. The BBC will be covering the event live without commentary, but plenty of commentary will be generated online -- the official website, blog, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. 

Photographs will be released via Flickr for all of the media to use and will cut down on the paparazzi problems that pleagued Charles and Diana. Additionally, the royal wedding will have an interactive feature where fans are able to submit video congratulations to the couple via YouTube and wish them a special message -- making this royal wedding more interactive than ever before and a public relations campaign not to be missed.

 

Social Media Necessary for Political Campaigns

Nearly four years ago now, President Obama launched his campaign for presidency to a packed stadium in Illinois. While this public appearance is crucial, it may have been just as important as the online appearance that it made on his website and across social networks. Now as presidential candidates gear up for the next election, social media is becoming an increasingly important component of political campaigns.

A great example of this new trend is how President Obama kicked off his re-election campaign -- via an online video. It shows how important social media has become for politicians and it is a tip of the hat to the public, which is most accessible online. Even though Obama is known for being technologically savvy -- the Democrats in general have been leading in online media since Howard Dean launched his campaign for presidency in 2000 -- it isn't only the Democrats who are turning to social media for political success. Former Massachusetts Republican Governor Mitt Romney announced his presidential bid in an online video as well.

 

This represents a change in voter activity as well. To become informed about political candidates, voters are looking online -- following their candidates Twitter feeds, facebook pages and the buzz written about them on blogs and online news sources. However, it is also increasingly important for candidates to manage their online reputations. If they aren't careful, they can end up in reputation management disasters like GOP candidate Carly Fiorina who released a YouTube video portraying an opponent a sheep. This caused an unnecessary fall out for her campaign and turned her campaign into a mudslinging contest and a reputation management disaster -- something most serious candidates don't want to be associated with. 

Donations are also increasingly coming from online. Instead of the fancy, expensive Washington dinners of the past, big money is being raised online. In 2000, John McCain raised $500,000 online in 24 hours, setting a new bar for online success. In 2008, Obama also used social media to raise large sums of money online -- couping the democratic nature of the internet with the importance of grassroots democracy. Obama also used SMS and text messaging to get his supporters to donate to his campaign and announced his VP nomination via SMS.

As we gear up for the 2012 campaign season, it will be increasingly important for candidates to not only use social media and other online sources for public relations, but also to raise money and engage their supporters in planning fundraising parties, knocking on doors and contributing to the campaign with their time. Over the past few years, it has become increasingly easy for supporters to sign up to volunteer online, an integral part of any political campaign, and in this coming election season we're sure to see more creative ways for people to contribute.

Taking it All Off on Facebook

Taking it all off -- or even partially off -- on facebook can be a big blow to your career -- or not. Last week, a beauty queen was stripped of her title when allegations that she posted nude photos of herself on facebook surfaced. The twenty-three year old model won Miss York City last year becoming the first single mum to qualify for Miss Great Britain since the competition was opened 65 years ago. 

However, Miss Great Britain's CEO says that the beauty queen violated contest rules when she posted 100% nude photographs of herself, bearing it all on Facebook. In response, the contest decided to strip her of her title and has awarded another woman the title. The beauty queen said that she never broke the rules and that there are no nude photographs of her posted anywhere and that only a semi-nude photo of her (pictured below) was posted online -- on her Facebook -- for the past two years, prior to winning the title, and that it does not violate the rules of the contest.   

Whether the beauty queen was bearing too much or not, it is clear that this incident has led to a reputation management dilemma for the beauty queen and the pageant organizers. Responding quickly to the alleged discovery of photos and speaking to the media openly about the pageant's rules has enabled the organizers to cap the reputation management crisis and make it clear that this kind of nudity won't be tolerated.

For the beauty queen, who is a working model, this is certainly a set back, but not one that can't be overcome. Charolette is likely to continue to have modeling opportunities, and may even have more, now that she's gotten some publicity over the photographs and has responded to her de-crowning with professionalism and vigor. Especially for models, who often seem like just a pretty face, it is important to be media savvy, since their image is their income. Charolette seems to have responded quickly enough to this media blitz to in fact gain from it -- even though she will no longer officially be Miss York. 

Taking Care of Business

It is very important for you to manage your reputation online. It doesn't matter if you are a company/business or a individual because the information age has created a situation or permanence that can have long lasting effects on your reputation long after an incident happens.

There are two major areas that you need to pay attention to when you want to manage your reputation as a business. First, and foremost, is taking care of your customers. A single customer angry at your services can have a detrimental effect on sales. It's much easier to take care of this customer and offer ways to mitigate the damages that he believes he has against your company than it is to create campaigns to try to push their negative comments off of the search engine results pages. Don't underestimate the negative effects a customer with too much time on their hands can have against your attempts to manage your reputation.

The second area that you need to pay special attention to when you are doing a campaign to manage your reputation online is making sure that your employees know your policy regarding online behavior. A business does not want a employee showing some risque photos on a page that also shows that they work for your company. One also does not want them to have a blog or social media page complaining openly about the work situation they are having with their job. It's hard to manage your reputation when a employee is rusting out the company from within.

As an individual it is also a good idea to keep a tight reign on yourself so that you can better manage your reputation. More and more businesses are taking a look online at your social media pages in order to see if you are a good candidate for a job. That party you went to last weekend and posted pictures for the entire world to see could very well hurt you when trying to start out your career.