Reputation Management

In recent years, occupants of the C-suite are clearly focused on the reputation of their organizations. If your reputation is damaged, your company could be as well... investors won't invest; the most qualified applicants will pass you by; your position among the competition erodes, your top employees could desert you, and you could use customers, members, and other stakeholders. If you haven't been paying close attention to your organization's reputation, this week's articles could guide you on the road to reputation management.

Don't put your good reputation back-of-mind as you deal with day-to-day demands. (Item #1)   Managing your organizational reputation online should be a prime consideration. (Item #2)   Are you familiar with the six new realities of corporate reputation? (Item #3)  

Here is some background on reputation in the digital age plus some basic principles for organizations of all types looking to manage and grow their reputations today. (Item #4)   Here are those critical steps to heed to avoid social media crises. (Item #5)   Here are some of what's trending in corporate reputation. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Why a good corporate reputation is important to your organization

Although reputation is an intangible concept, research universally shows that a good reputation demonstrably increases corporate worth and provides sustained competitive advantage. A business can achieve its objectives more easily if it has a good reputation among its stakeholders, especially key stakeholders such as its largest customers, opinion leaders in the business community, suppliers and current and potential employees.
http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/corprep_important.asp

2. Managing Your Corporate Reputation

Something to remember is that the web makes it easy for you to not only promote your product and reel in consumers, but it also makes people feel much more open to sharing their opinions about you. Both of these aspects are absolutely critical to your corporate reputation. In this article, you are going to learn the relatively simple things that you need to be doing for proper online corporate reputation management.
http://1upreputation.com/managing-your-corporate-reputation/

3. The Company behind the Brand: In Reputation We Trust

Corporate reputation and brand reputation are now nearly indivisible. The importance of a firm's reputation matters more than ever and is unified with the reputation of product brands to create one powerful enterprise brand. Consumers want assurance that their well-earned dollars, yuan, pounds or reais are spent on products produced by companies that share their values. They have higher expectations for the companies and the brands they like and are not hesitant to turn their backs when they are disappointed or fooled.
http://www.webershandwick.com/resources/ws/flash/InRepWeTrust.pdf

4. Managing Corporate Reputation in the Digital Age

The management of corporate reputation is facing unprecedented challenges. Driven by ever higher expectations of good behavior and disclosure, NGOs and activists, newly vocal consumers, zealous regulators and disaffected employees are scrutinizing corporate behavior as never before.
http://www.wpp.com/~/media/SharedWPP/ReadingRoom/Digital/managing_corporate_reputation.pdf

5. Six Steps for Protecting Corporate Reputation in the Social Media Age

So how can a reputation bashing be avoided on the social web? Open communications and speedy response are among the pointers for corporate communicators. Marcus Molina, SVP - Latin American Communications, MasterCard shared these classic examples of corporate crisis and advice on how manage them effectively.
http://mashable.com/2012/01/02/corporate-reputation-social-media/

6. Reputation Trends for 2013 -- Now and Ahead

Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross brings you a mash up of reputation musings. Let's say it is a New Year's summary of what has passed and what may be in the future. The public square and corporate corridor are merging in unprecedented ways with not yet fully understood effects on many a corporate reputation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-leslie-gainesross/trends-business-2013_b_2370623.html