- Twitter to lose its reputation as a free speech platform?
- IIPM worried about Google Suggest, why is it so?
- Reputation Management Tip for 2012: Brands need to tap into social media search!
- Facebook Timeline and Reputation Management
- Apple Siri gender bias or glitch?
- Google+ vs Facebook – its not over yet!
- The Ethics of Self Promotion Through Charitable Causes (A Case Study)
- Google scraps sidewiki – will you miss it?
- Facebook, the trust factor
- BlackBerry Blackout- RIM’s Reputation Takes another Hit
Archive for June 2010
BP Global PR News
June 28, 2010 | 
Author What can you do about fake twitter handles who steal your thunder? Well nothing!! BPGlobalPR is one such that’s enjoying a huge list of followers for his wry humor which seems to be the only way to digest the BP oil spill crisis. Re-tweeting his wisecracks, with the “BPcares” hashtag, have got me some weird comments from people who called me ‘insensitive’. I’ve had to explain that @BPGlobalPR is a fake account that yanks the ‘real’ BP PR chain.
BP has been dealing with this PR nightmare for long now and the latest effort has been in allowing writers to the area to convey to the world their side of the story. The company had placed a ban on journalists to the area and now seems to make amends with this new step. But then, no one seems to be buying it. Allowing their own PR guys disguised as journalists to provide interviews and other stories with a slant is really not going to help.
However, the papers are full of BP’s daily costs at handling the problem and is said to be at a total of $2.65bn (£1.76bn) and the problem has been raised at the G20 Summit in Canada by both Obama and Cameron. They’ve agreed on wanting to keep BP stable while maintaining the pressure on them to clean up the problem. This means they’ve agreed to let BP continue their work in the Gulf of Mexico and BP shares has seen a slight increase in the market.
However, getting a BP sponsorship may not be something you need to agree on according to this BBC article…
More than 170 creative artists have put their names to a letter attacking Tate Britain for accepting BP sponsorship.
The BP logo, the letter in The Guardian says, “represents a stain on the Tate’s international reputation”.
So, clearly being associated with BP in any way may not be a good idea for now.
Now onto other associated problems of the oil spill… Americans who love seafood are a paranoid lot, if tourists are to be believed. You can see them tucking into shrimp and fish with a purpose on their holidays in Europe and Asia. Shrimp is the No. 1 seafood in the US and Louisiana tops in US shrimp output, so the Gulf oil spill has put a thick cloud over the future of the shrimp industry here. Feasting on seafood abroad maybe a good idea, indeed!
Let’s not forget that despite all efforts oil continues to spill by the gallons, the Google crisis page with the ticker is a chilling reminder. For now, we have the satire of fake accounts to see us through the Gulf of Mexico oil spill crisis and BP has to continue to endure the smart aleck jibes and carry on with their work and, of course, put on hold any endorsements plans they may have.
Related posts:
Posted in Company Reputation, Damage Limitation, PR / Public Relations, Reputation Management, Reputation News, Social Network Sites | 
Tags: BP, BPGlobalPr, company reputation, G 20 Summit, Gulf oil spill, Louisiana, PR / Public Relations, Reputation Management, seafood, shrimp industry, twitter | 
3 Comments »
How Reputation Management For.com works?
We have written a lot on online reputation management, but this time the topic is going to be Reputation Management For.com and the business we are doing at Reputation Management For.com. This because reputation management is now an organised industry, with big business being done.
So what’s special about Reputation Management For.com?
- We have been ranked No.2 by topseos.com: topseos.com, an independent authority on search vendors, has ranked us No.2 among the Best Top 10 Reputation Management Firms in the US for the month of June 2010.
- We don’t cut corners: We don’t like taking short-cuts or going the easy way. We work hard to win.
- We move with the times: We move with the times and take in all changes, technology-wise and otherwise too.
- We work 24×7: Spread across continents and with our team-members working from different countries, we manage to keep it all going 24×7, 365 days a year.
How does it work?
Online Reputation Management is not that simple, but with our expertise and experience, we get to make it all simple. So here’s a list of what all we do, for our clients:
- Writing blogs, posting articles etc for you, to make sure you get a real big online presence.
- Writing professional online press releases for you, keeping track of all updates concerning you and your company.
- Branding. Branding is our forte. We take you for a brand and set out to promote you using all resources available.
- Providing quality content, coming from genuine writers who have a passion for writing and who know how SEO works.
- Providing full assistance from a team of writers, SEO professionals, designers, programmers et al, spread over different parts of the world.
- Making sure your presence is felt in a big way on the social networking zone, focussing on social networking sites and doing social bookmarking too.
- Giving top priority to promptness and professionalism.
- Using advance technology, tools and gadgets that help track and mend online reputation management.
- Interacting frequently and freely with clients, making sure we deliver what they expect from us and also to impart to them the feedback that we get.
- Studying things in detail and bettering ourselves so that your trust in Reputation Management For.com remains intact…always.
What makes us different…
Well, all this is what every reputation management company does. So, what’s it that makes us different? Let’s take a look
- We maintain and mend the online reputation of a client who’s in real big reputation crisis. We have done that many a time and know ways to handle it. We salvage your reputation in the hours of the most severe of crises.
- We have been the first to recognise that the age of conventional PR is over and it’s now the age of Reputation Management. We do understand that in modern times, Reputation Management encompasses Public Relations and hence we are masters in Reputation Management as well as PR.
- We do day-to-day monitoring of our clients’ online reputation, maintain graphs, charts et al to support this monitoring.
- When it comes to using new ideas, new tools etc and making the most of research and analyses, Reputation Management For.com scores high marks.
Reputation Management and HR
Does HR (Human Resource) play an effective role to strengthen your reputation? This has been a long debated topic! Well, being the most essential and valued part of any business HR to a large extent plays an active role in shaping the reputation of your firm. HR represents the company’s reputation internally which is most valued and includes answers to what the employees feels for the company, or do they seek a role in the firm, etc. It may seem a passive factor, but it’s a most vulnerable area, where most companies falter.
Building up a good PR and reputation internally in the company reduces more than half the chances for a firm to risk its reputation.
Monitoring the internal reputation is something which most of the companies overlook; HR needs to analyze the feedback from the employees. To act unaware increases the probability for the company to earn a bad name from its own employees, this further spreads like a virus, damaging the bonhomie. To have an effective HR department reduces the risk of such internal unrest and keeps the company’s reputation protected from any employee criticisms in social networks.
Social media too develops a strong link among employees and the company, bringing in a blog or message board helps to know what the employees are looking for or facing or lacking, and gives the company the space to restructure its plans accordingly. Employees’ interest account most for any firm to stand strong, and if the employees lose trust from the firm then nothing can be done. With over 1 billion blogs and other social networking sites it’s really easy to get a bad name, and when such negative stuff comes out from your own employees’ mouth then the damage is even worse.
Reduce the risk of a bad image for your business and keep your reputation high with happy employees and their positive image of the company with effective Human Resource Management.
Posted in Company Reputation, Damage Limitation, Online PR, PR / Public Relations, Reputation Management, Reputation Online | Tags: Bad Press, Business, Business process outsourcing, Business/Finance, Company reputation management, Employment, HR, Human resource management, Human resources, Labor, management, Online Reputation Management, reputation, Reputation Management, Social Media Ventures Inc, Social Networks, Society | 1 Comment »
What a salesman can tell you about your company
If you have ever done cold calling you will know what a tough and sometimes numbing activity it is. As every sales professional will tell you, it’s about doing the numbers. In other words, if you make enough calls you will makes your sales. After a while you prize one thing above all others in the people you call: honesty. If the person you call is honest with you, then you can be honest with them and it’ll just take a couple of minutes to assess whether there is a deal to be done. This is important as wasting time means not making the number of calls you need.
What is the normal situation? Dishonesty. They don’t tell you they are not interested, they don’t tell you what they need and they don’t explain the decision process. So, you witter on while they read emails until they ask you to send them some more information on email as though it is quicker for them to read the information rather than hear it from you.
What does all that tell us about the company they work for? Well, it suggests that the company is comfortable with dishonesty and to a certain extent, with a lack of professionalism. But does the company know this or care? Almost certainly not. I have a reason to think like this: I have noticed that the really great companies treat everybody the same whether they are customers or sales callers. They do not distinguish between different people or situations.
On the other hand, companies that treat sales callers badly and dishonestly often have a bit of a reputation for doing the same to their customers.
Great service is great service to whomsoever. So remember that the next time you forget that the guy making that sales call is potentially a customer and definately a human, you are doing yourself and your company no favours.
From a popular PM to the shortest-serving leader in Australia – Where did Kevin Rudd go wrong in managing his reputation?
It was only a year ago that Kevin Rudd was compared to Australia’s most popular leader Bob Hawke, but today he is coming to terms with the disreputable fact of being tagged “the most unsuccessful Prime Minister in Australian history”, the shortest serving one as well. And his once - popular campaign slogan “Kevin 07″ is today subverted to “Kevin 07, Gone By 11.” So where had he gone wrong?
Right from angering MPs, an unravelling personal image, getting no support in opinion polls and a series of other events (which were definitely not favourable for him) that finally culminated in Kevin Rudd being dumped by the Labour party and forced to hand over his office to Julia Gillard (Australia’s first woman Prime Minister), the reputation of Kevin Rudd has been badly damaged for quite some time now. And the speed of his demise showed the extent to how bad it was!
People who felt fooled at the last election were desperately looking for a hero in Kevin Rudd. How far did he meet their expectations? Mistakes were many, right from ratifying Kyoto to apologising to the stolen generation and the people who elected him to power felt he forgot why they got him to power.
One can get a fair idea of how Kevin Rudd’s reputation got drowned in the sea of the very same people who elected him to power from their views . Most of the people in the streets are of the opinion that Rudd failed in implementing most of the economic policies he himself introduced. The muffed home insulation farce, the school halls building program and the $900 stimulus handout are just a few examples. Finally to top it off , Rudd attacked the mining industry, which is the backbone of the Australian economy. Well now, the reputation of a PM obviously depends a lot on how far you are able to carry out the new economic policies introduced and failing to meet it will have consequences similar to the one Kevin Rudd had to go through.
There are people who say that Rudd has not kept a single election promise since being put in the PMs office. Earlier this week the media were saying that he only won the election because of his wife’s media campaign to get him into power. And, to say you have not kept promises is pretty bad from the reputation management point of view for a PM.
Past experiences whether it was in the case of Gordon Brown or Kevin Rudd speaks out the fact that PMs and politicians will have to keep in mind that people are empowered to throw anyone out of political office and hence they will have to above all maintain their reputation without any blemish at all.
As regards Kevin Rudd the only good news for him is that he does have a few people with him, who do believe that a PM being human can make mistakes or that Australia is not ready for a PM like Kevin Rudd.
But now with Kevin Rudd declaring (almost pledging) he will contest his seat of Griffith in Queensland at the next election, and http://www.google.com.au/ giving suggestions like “Kevin Rudd sorry” and “Kevin Rudd apology” for people typing his name at the same time, Kevin Rudd will have a hard job clawing back support and it necessarily does call for some serious reputation management too!
Posted in Celebrity Reputation, Examples, politicians, Reputation News | Tags: first australian women prime minister, julia gillard, kevin rudd, kevin rudd apology, kevin rudd prime minister, kevin rudd reputation, kevin rudd sorry speech, politicians reputaion, politicians reputation management | 5 Comments »
The most potent tools in any Reputation management armour
Reputation management advisors use various tools and search engines to keep up the optimum online reputation of a company. The search engines typically comprise of RSS feeds, micro-sites, blogging, social media, Wiki-Site, videos, business profile linking, and other media. Whereas the most popular tools that are used effectively to fight bad press and to ensure the site ranks include blogs, SEO and SEM among others.
Blogs form a strong medium of communication with the general public through which you can communicate personal experiences, news, entertainment news or infact anything that you wish to share with the community. Blogs work in a couple of ways. You can link your blog to your Website or can maintain it as a separate Website. Regular blog posts can greatly benefit your search engine optimization (SEO), and help you communicate with the public without any outside interference, thereby helping you to build up your reputation.
Social network sites like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and others help you to build up a community of like minded individuals. Thus social networking sites immensely help you to create positive public opinion based on open communication and shared experience. Â quality reputation management tool, it helps to enhance your brand image and reputation slowly yet steadily. The best part is that it does not require the resources that a national publicity campaign would have involved.
SEO/SEM could probably be the most important tools in reputation management. SEO involves the intelligent usage of key words to ensure that your website comes up in the search engine results; whereas SEM utilize pay-per-click technology, keyword usage and HTML coding to keep your company’s name in the top pages of search engine results and to ensure brand protection.
Other channels of Communications including web content , press releases and even snap shots can go a long way in building up your online presence and a strong reputation. Regular posts will keep your websites active which in turn would attract scores of visitors. Hence it is very important to not only have quality content and keywords but also regular postings. Make the most of the online possibilities to enjoy a strong repute and brand image.
Posted in Reputation Management, SEO, Social Network Sites | Tags: Blogs, reputtaion management, SEM, SEO, socila network sites, web content | 1 Comment »
Some Companies Pay Attention… Land Rover & Quality
Do Land Rover fit together right?
Following the post of the weekend on Land Rover and the JD Powers IQS Survey, Jaguar Land Rover North America (the company name) responded with a more detailed rebuttal which I have quoted below in part (which I hope is okay with them). Two things interest me: they responded that fast which shows that they are paying attention to commentary and they responded in person. In other Jaguar Land Rover are reaching out to people who might be influencers.
I wanted to acknowledge reading your blog post on the J.D. Power quality ranking. Given our ranking, I guess we deserve random shots from afar, so no argument from me. I do want to share with you our position on the matter and give you some background on the survey itself.
The IQS survey measures customers’ reactions to how their vehicles’ function, such as in our case, the ease of closing and opening of a rear trunk, hatch and glove box, as well as items that require fixes, such as software updates for the Hands Free Communication System. Issues raised by owners do not specifically indicate malfunctions or build quality issues, but do represent a concern or dislike. There was no indication from J.D. Power that there were actual mechanical or driving problems, such as transmission failures. Frankly, the issues that arose were more annoying, than impactful on their reliability. Nothing to be proud of, but certainly the light-hearted imagery you portray of customers constantly driving to garages is misleading.On a positive note from this year’s survey, the Range Rover model was actually honored as a top rated quality vehicle in its segment. And in 2009, Jaguar placed tops in the industry for J.D. Power three year reliability (VDS). Also, our brands generally score well on J.D. Power’s APEAL survey, as well as overall sales and customer satisfaction surveys. Which basically means that while our vehicles might have some issues that pop up on this survey, those are strongly overshadowed by their overall great performance and design, as well as the desirability of the ownership experience. Nonetheless, we strive to do better.
In terms of the actual issues reported in this IQS survey, be assured actions are being taken. We have measures in place through the dealers to address most of the “fix” issues highlighted in the survey. In relation to the design issues, our team is committed to analyzing the comments and flowing these into future product considerations. Some criticized design items are already scheduled for improvement.
Delivering wonderful automobiles and ownership experiences is our top commitment. We can do better, but we also know that our customers generally love their automobiles and the service they recieve.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about our company. …
There is some sense of humour in the opening which is great as so many companies respond to criticism with a blank denial or a no comment. (Given our ranking, I guess we deserve random shots from afar, so no argument from me.) They also have a positive take on the survey and a rebuttal in terms of quality as in top rated quality vehicle in its segment.
What can we understand from the two sides? The IQS reveals that Land Rover owners are affected by lots of little niggles with their vehicle which LandRover assures are being addressed with a proviso that underlying design faults or mechanical faults are few are far between. Do Land Rover buyers expect too much from their vehicles? Interesting that Porsche was at the top of the survey when they have never been considered especially reliable, but then owners expect the car to be a bit of handful. Is there an issue with build quality or is this dealer delivery for Land Rover?
Is it coincidence that Jaguar and Land Rover are at the bottom (with Mini and Mitsubishi)? Remember that this is a consumer survey so Land Rover Reputation Managers will be aware that this is their customers’ doing the talking which suggests that maybe they need to reach out to them more and shape their perceptions more. If the faults are small and nebulous, how can Land Rover ensure that their owners are unconcerned by them. Furthermore the issue is critical for Land Rover: the design is excellent, cachet undoubted, brand positioning spot on, but continued issues with quality will undermine all that excellent work. Land Rover has been plagued by issues of mechanical failure and poor dealer and service (see landroverhell.com for an especially angry example from continental Europe, my business partner experienced some of this as well in Scotland.)
End of Term Report for Land Rover: your communications team is on the spot, but service and customer perception needs work.
Posted in Automotive, Company Reputation, Product Reviews, Quality | Tags: JD Power, Land Rover | 2 Comments »
Land Rover’s Quality – Not an Issue!
J.D.Power’s 2010 US Initial Quality Study does make not bedtime reading for Land Rover Executives as their cars perform worst of all surveyed cars. (see graphic) Not just worse a little worse but substantially worse than their next rival Mitsubishi. Is this a problem for Land Rover? Not necessarily as there are two types of Land Rover owner: those who buy for prestige and those who buy for performance. Those who buy for prestige and who opt for Range Rovers do not seem to care about the quality and love the Columbian Cartel chic. There is another type of owner who buys the Discovery because it is practical for shopping and the kids (these are the people who think the streets are a mini Beirut where driving a tank is your only hope of survival) and for them, the constant gearbox failures and wonky electronics will turn them off the brand for life. Bad news for new owner Tata.
JD Power 2010 IQS Survey
A quick glance tells you something else: British car manufacturers still don’t get quality with Jaguar and Mini in the bottom five. That makes three out of five for British cars: enviable, NOT. The interesting thing to note is that these are prestige cars without an awesome reputation for design and style (except maybe for the Jaguar). They are bought for looks and possibly not for reliability. However, we have been here before with English cars… poor mechanics impacting long term sales. The Japanese built their market on reliability and service and the British lost their for the same reason.
What does the survey tell us: that owners of Land Rovers are more pissed off than other owners after 90 days! Closely followed by Mini. One reason may be that there is a perception in the market of quality which is not experienced. Bad news: early problems are predictors of long term problems with a car. Next time a Range Rover Vogue with darkened windows swooshes past you, remember, he is probably just driving to the garage!
Posted in Automotive, Company Reputation, Quality, Reviews & Quality | Tags: Car Quality, IQS, JD Power, Land Rover | 1 Comment »
Watching 11 Millionaires NOT earn their keep
There was a collective groan of despair as England got up from watching their team play Algeria last night. Fans in England watching from pubs mostly straggled home: what was there to talk about so awful and boring had the match been. For the fans who had spent thousands travelling to South Africa there wee boos for the England players.
Wayne Rooney displays his natural charm...
Wayne Rooney was typically unapologetic after the match complaining about the fans booing him. English football was reborn after 1990 by the display of the team at World Cup Italia where to a soundtrack of Puccini we rediscovered a passion for the game. Since then Football has become very big business, but at the heart of it are the footballers and their attitudes. It may be that the non-appearance of England passion at this World Cup will change fans attitudes to the “beautiful” game. Footballers are millionaires and we expect them to play brilliantly every time! This group of England players have been non-performers in the England shirt for some years. Lets hope something happens in the next match or this will be another competition where England Fans 1, Players 0!
One of our Footballs Has Gone Missing – Adidas and the case of the missing footballs
The World Cup should be the highlight of the year for Adidas as they reflect on beating off Umbro and Nike to the main sponsorship of the tournament. How sour it must feel to be the butt of criticism for the performance of their soccer ball: the Jabulani Ball. It is being accused of being light when it is in fact heavy, they claim it has perfect soccer characteristics… but everyone hates it .
Jabulani Ball Construction
The drought of good goals in the first week of the tournament (apart from Argentina) is being blamed on the ball as well. You spend millions developing a new ball with amazing new technology, and this is all the thanks you get for it!
The English camp have been muttering with monoglot Capello hating it and accusing Adidas of not providing balls for practice. Now it is the English FA with very red faces after Adidas have provided evidence that the balls were delivered to them earlier in the year: the FA admit they have no idea what happened to them. Judging by the English performances so far, they need those balls for practice after their shambolic performance against Algeria which saw fans booing the millionaire English players off the pitch at the end of their 0-0 draw.
There is something wonderfully English about the FA. Amateur hour which is why the Premiership was formed to allow top clubs control of their own destiny. If there are not scandals of senior officials bonking their secretaries, they are presiding over the fiasco of Wembley. Now, the glittering history of mistakes and incompetence can be joined by the loss of the footballs and the possible loss of the World Cup in consequence. What a balls up!
Posted in Reputation Management | Tags: Adidas, Ball, FA, Fashion, football, Herzogenaurach, Jabulani, NIKE INC., soccer, Sports, Sports equipment, The World Cup, Umbro, World Cup | 1 Comment »