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There are any number of reasons an organization's reputation can be damaged. It has become extremely important, therefore, that we all must pay more attention to reputation risks. Firms with strong positive reputations can attract better talent, be perceived as providing more value, have customers who are more loyal, have higher market value and lower costs of capital, among other benefits. This week's articles focus on ways you can protect, preserve, and, if necessary, repair your organization's reputation.

It used to be said that the first 24 hours of a crisis were critical. Now, it's the first hour. (Item #1)   This article describes various actions that should be taken to boost and bolster reputation. (Item #2)   When prospective customers, clients or employees are searching for you, what do they see? Is a hate site or Rip Off Report the number two listing for your name? (Item #3)  

A great brand can take months, if not years, and millions of dollars to build, and it can be destroyed in hours by a blogger upset with your company. (Item #4)   These tools can help you prevent damage to your online reputation. (Item #5)   Hiring one of the companies that promise to help counter negative info may make nasty comments go away. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing about your concerns with regards to business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like to see covered, please email me at [email protected]

Best Regards,

Bob Mellinger
President
Attainium Corp

Quote of the Week

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it"
- Benjamin Franklin -

Articles

1. Reputational risk assessment
Instant judgments are made on the basis of eyewitness reports, commentary from so-called experts and footage taken from camera-phones. It's important, therefore, to exert early control and communicate effectively to protect your reputation. The starting point for this should be a reputational risk assessment.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0357.htm

2. Guidelines for improving and protecting corporate reputation
With so many forces affecting corporate reputation -- including heightened public sensitivity to corporate responsibility, media scrutiny, the quest for extracting value from intangible assets and the constant request by stakeholders for transparency and trust to be restored and demonstrated -- managing reputation has become a key priority.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0350.htm

3. The Online Reputation Management Guide
This Online Reputation Management Guide will show small businesses how to assess, build, track and monitor their online reputation. In most cases, you can follow these simple steps to easily grow your personal brand and/or small business.
http://outspokenmedia.com/guides/orm-guide/

4. Free Online Reputation Management Beginner's Guide
Every single day, someone, somewhere is discussing something important to your business; your brand, your executives, your competitors, your industry. Are they hyping-up your company, building buzz for your products? Or, are they criticizing your service, complaining to others about your new product launch?
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/03/online-reputation-monitoring-beginners.html

5. Online Reputation Management: 16 Free Tools
Online reputation management is an important activity to adopt in your business and professional life. This post outlines some of the free tools available for monitoring your online reputation.
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/21/tools-manage-online-reputation/

6. Do Reputation Management Services Work?
An industry of online fixers is sprouting to defend clients against damaging information on the Web. With potential customers increasingly heading online to research products and services, bad reviews or complaints that turn up in a search can mean lost business. Reputation management services promise to highlight positive pages and bury offending sites deep in search results.
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/apr2008/sb20080430_356835.htm