- 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
Posts Tagged ‘Bad Press’
Brand Reputation Management is imperative
April 19, 2010 | 
Author Brand Reputation Management - it all starts with social websites. The content on Social websites are consumer generated, more people use social media to share their agony about a service or product. So watch out, the CGC (Consumer Generated Content) on social media may be different from your company’s policy, and if left unattended it will have a huge impact on your brand. So there is a need to track what is being said about your product.
We at Reputation Management For.com understand that brand is the foremost important thing for every company. When we talk about brand reputation management…
- It’s a strategic approach to reinstate your online image, to turn negative into positive that allow customers to vest faith in your brand, and
- A tactical approach with search engine optimization targeting keywords, to help businesses in the long run to give you an edge over others.
At times targeted keyword SEO also fail to get the desired results and then pushing down negative content can be quite challenging. Most successful online reputation manager sometimes find it hard to get rid of bad press despite pumping heavy finance. This is probably because of the nature of the content that sounds more like advising business owners on how to reform their business or brand. So dealing with negative content can be a nightmare.
Secondly, as the number of visitors on such social website increase it tends to rank high on search engines, unfortunately it will be above your official website. This results in the need for brand reputation management.
How do you go about this? Never think brand reputation will improve by itself. There are plenty of opportunities and you just have to pick the right ones. A few things you need to be doing.
- Company needs to be a Media Socialite, it needs to on top of the latest thats happening in the social media circles and update itself,
- Hands-on experience with technical blogs and internet marketing skills will add value to your initiative,
- Promoting your brand online through blogs, articles, discussion forums and press releases, is also a great way of letting your voice be heard, and
- Monitor your brand reputation by setting Google alerts, which is easy and free to keep track of your brand. The company can even start a parallel website to counter bad press and allegations if any.
Brand Reputation Management is all about the expertise in promoting your company’s brand and apply preventive tactics accordingly for the long-term. Brand reputation management, after all your business hinges on it.
Amitabh Bachchan aka controversy
Amitabh Bachchan, the legendry actor of Bollywood seems to be amidst a controversy for all the wrong reasons. This time it started with Amitabh Bachchan agreeing to be the brand ambassador for Gujarat (a state in India). This led to massive opposition by the ruling Congress party. Meanwhile Amitabh had claimed that, by accepting the brand ambassadorship for the state, he is not endorsing the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi or his politics, but just the state’s tourism.
If we look at the large picture, we can find that, its not the first time Amitabh Bachchan has been dragged into such a controversy, the star does have a history of being part of many such controversies.
The political boxing involving Bachchan has raised a serious concern for his online reputation. Being a national icon and noted celebrity all over the world, Bachchan has to give a thought, on does he really needs to be watchfull when it comes to politics.
“You want to stop me from promoting tourism in a state because you have reason to believe that there are political connotations to the event. This is such rubbish! All I shall be doing will be working in a short film that shall highlight the various places of interest in the state, so that it encourages more tourists to visit the region,” he said. Bachchan said those who take umbrage at his association with Gujarat do not have the courage to stop “a Ratan Tata or an Ambani” from investing in the state and running successful ventures there.
Its not only Amitabh who is in soup, his son Abhishek Bachchan too has had to face the music when the posters featuring him were removed from the Earth Hour event held in Delhi.
We, at Reputation Management For.com feel that,
- Amithabh Bachchan meticulously needs to chalk out a well defined strategy for himself, clean of all controversies.
- We also found that he runs a blog where he express his views about all the controversies he faces, which is a good sign.
- The need of the hour is a strong PR and a perfect online reputation.
- Being a celebrity entails lots of responsibilities; you are there online and obviously people follow you.
- Imagine one bad comment can tarnish your online reputation beyond repair. And search engines have the habit to show those posts which gets maximum hits on top, needless to say people love reading all sorts of negative stories about their stars.
Online Celebrity Reputation Management is one tool which ensures that every negative comments is tracked and dealt sternly. Also we feel that Amitabh should clear his stance and make more positive vibes online before being considered a political football by his fans.
Google searches now show mixed results both negative as well funny ones for the star. This can be damaging for the iconic hero, and surely he will not want to take chances with his goodwill, which others are enjoying at his expense.
Posted in Bad Press, Celebrity Reputation, Damage Limitation, Online PR, politicians, PR / Public Relations, Reputation Management, Reputation News, Reputation Online | 
Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Amitabh Bachchan blog, Bad Press, Bollywood, Bollywood celebrity, Indian Politics, Online Reputation Management, Reputation Management | 
2 Comments »
Lindsay Lohan E-trade saga
Lindsay Lohan is yet again in news. The 23-year-old actress has filed a lawsuit against E-Trade for $100 million over a Super Bowl ad featuring a “milkaholic” baby named Lindsay. The controversial TV ad features a baby boy apologizing to his girlfriend for not calling her because he was busy trading stocks on E-Trade. Lohan alleged E-trade for breaching of civil rights and use of her name, ‘Lindsay’ and characterization without payment or permission.
This is nothing new for the glam doll who has the habit of being in news for all the wrong reasons; starting from spending a day in jail, her relationship with Samantha Ronson, being shooed away by enraged people in the Paris Fashion Week, Lindsay has it all in her to invite controversy.
If we look back, Tracy Palmer, the Director of Consumer Advertising Sprint, made no fuss when her name was used for the girls character in the sprint ad. So doubts are afloat if this whole controversy by Lindsay is a publicity stunt. The allegations levied by her lawyer also seems inappropriate to stand up in the court.
“Many celebrities are known by one name, and E-Trade is using that knowledge to profit,” Lohan’s lawyer, Stephanie Ovadia, said in a statement to the New York Post . “They’re using her name as a parody of her life. Why didn’t they use the name Susan? This is a subliminal message. Everybody’s talking about it and saying it’s Lindsay Lohan.”
The whole drama has done a world of good for E-trade, with thousands of people searching for the controversial commercial online. Wonder why LiLo seems so offended, or is it a mere frustration of hers. She is in real need of a quality PR and some strategic celebrity reputation management to be in place to regain her lost image as a celebrity rather than as a troubled star.
We, at Reputation Management For.com, feel that Lindsay has to retain the confidence of the public and should work towards getting back her stardom. Who will want to sponsor a celebrity who may turn round and sue them later, had she not mentioned anything for the best part the ad would have gone unnoticed, now even we are writing about it now!
Naomi Campbell- past catching-up
The British catwalker is again in the news for all the wrong reasons. The extent of her temper has invited suggestion to instate sirens and lights to alert those vulnerable souls she hires. They say ‘When you are with Naomi better don’t say “No”, or else you get a bloody nose. This time it was her 27-year-old-driver, who was boxed and slapped from the back seat of the car in Manhattan. Naomi immediately fled the scene. The driver called 911 and the NYPD was looking for her to be questioned.
Naomi Campbell’s reputation is on the rocks. Just Google Naomi and you will find majority of the websites are related to her bad temper than modeling. She had been in and out of trouble numerous time before, the charges she faced ranges from beating an assistant, hurling mobile at her maid and throwing abuses at British Airways staff.
What is it that makes this sultry siren go wild? Is it because she had a trouble childhood and struggled in life, so all that frustration has to be taken off by beating up people? Money is not a factor and she doesn’t seem much bothered about her reputation. Serious loss in waiting and she need to realize that negative comments influences everybody and travels faster than her imagination. Her recent show to raise funds for Haiti earthquake is over shadowed by bad stories.
Is Naomi Campbell adept to change herself? Half way through this blog I came across the news that Ms. Campbell’s driver has apologized and he is blaming himself for the confusion. How did this happened? Naomi later issued a statement
I have worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I will not be held hostage to my past.
We at Reputation Management For.com feel that this was a great PR move by Naomi because she was able to turn this around while the news was still buzzing. But more than that celebrity management is one thing she may need, to realize success and failure in its true form and reputation management to defend her super stardom status.
Naomi Campbell Reputation Management Report
Related celebrity posts
Posted in Bad Press, Celebrity Reputation, Negative Forums, PR / Public Relations, Reputation Management, Reputation News | Tags: Bad Press, Celebrity Reputation, Naomi campbell, Naomi campbell anger, naomi campbell news, naomi campbell reputation, Negative Forums, Reputation Management | 2 Comments »
Sony’s PS3 woes end
The electronics giant Sony on Monday came up with a message for it’s millions of PlayStation3 users not to use their games consoles. The reason for such a call was due to a glitch in the older ‘fat’ PlayStation3 which stopped the players to connect to the PlayStation network. The bug in the clock system led the consoles to act as if 2010 is a leap year messing up the system’s internal clock. The bug though is said to be more serious for the PS3, which holds a better reliability than the rival Xbox360 of Microsoft.
Being a global name, Sony came up strongly and tackled the situation smartly making sure this glitch won’t torment its reputation. Showing signs of how to deal with crisis management, the company came up with an announcement on it’s blog, that the problem with its PS3 clock system has been resolved and gamers can adjust the date manually or by Internet.
Meanwhile setting an example for those big companies who fail to handle such critical situation, Sony showed the smart way to take control of the issue before it spiral out. Sony has sold over 33.5m PS3′s worldwide, with Microsoft which has sold out about 40m Xbox 360′s and Nintendo,which has sold 67mWiis.
Though its not the first time a Japanese company is facing such a situation, earlier Toyota was also seen battling out to safeguard its brand value and reputation. But Sony true to its reputation about quality and customer service has dealt with the situation brilliantly and not letting their reputation stink.
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Crisis Management – Vital for Online Reputation Management
Crisis management is the new buzz word now, everybody from Celebrities, Politicians, Automobile companies to Theme parks are in dire need to salvage their reputation from getting tarnished online. No organization wants to be in a situation that would stimulate bad press against them and cause disruption to their business.
Some companies that are hard hit recently were not able to handle crisis efficiently. Toyota is one company that is finding it difficult to stop the embroiling situation, the quality crisis refuses to die down for them. This clearly shows that the company is not good at handling crisis. The initial slow response, the half-minded recall, poor communication had adverse effect on the reputation of the company.
Managing crisis is the second best thing you can do for a successful business. To deal with crisis needs accurate and decisive action. Take for example ‘A Gun manufacturing company loses a gun while on transit and before the public or the media ever comes to know about this the company is able to find it and put it back into the inventory‘. So rapid and precise action saved the company from getting a bad name.
Some of the ways to handle crisis is as follows:
- Identify the problems: The first step towards crisis management is to identify the problems in clear terms, so that you can sort it out easily.
- Collective decision: Fighting crisis can never be a one-man-show, a collective decision and team work is always better. Consider the relevant team and their decisions pertaining to the risk factor and go with the best option.
- Leadership: Lead from the front and talk with everybody in the team. Monitor the function required to minimize the crisis.
- Communicate: The most sought after action is to have continuous communication with the public and media. It is always good idea for the company to have their own portal or hub to update their view.
- Segregate issues: Take the best team out and let them work on every piece of the issue, break the issue until you identify the grey areas. Hire a reputation management company, which has standard practices to deal with crisis related issues.
- Encourage feedback: Read customer/client online reaction, this will help you know the correct pulse of the general public and help you overcome crisis.
- Analyze the problems: So you know from where it took shape and who is responsible and what corrective measures can be taken to get rid of it.
- Learn: Take a cue from your last experience, this will help you mold a better strategy in future. Always keep your last crisis experience in perspective and put in place tools so that your company is safe from similar crisis.
BA strike returns – Ballot today!
A possible strike is in waiting for British Airways as the second ballot results of its 13,000 cabin crew members is to be announced shortly. After the first strike called by the cabin crew members was luckily overruled by the High Court due to the busy Christmas season, seems this time a sure strike is in the offing from March 1.
With the BA cabin crew strike still looming on the UK travelers, things even got worse when the pilots union of Lufthansa started a strike today over worries of pay and job security. BA which lost over £400m is planning for a layoff for its present staff and a salary freeze this year in order to save £140m a year. It’s crunch time for BA with nothing less than an acid test ahead.
Things can’t get any worse for BA with the ongoing unrest among the cabin crew and the airline, at the same time comes the threatened walkout, seems like nothing is going well for BA. All this unrest is also damaging the reputation of the airline. Well, the extent of damage on BA is widely seen with the internal bickering proving out to be a PR disaster for the airline specially when BA is really struggling to survive. This is not the first time this inner conflicts is proving fatal for the airlines online reputation, in the past also few disgruntled employees of London Heathrow airport Terminal 5 aired their anger on Facebook,with rude comments about passengers.
Being a top airline company BA seems failing to make both the ends meet, the airline should give a thought on repairing its reputation and getting back the lost faith of its customers by putting into act the effective tools of reputation management. As the adage goes, A stitch in time saves nine!
The real question is how many people won’t be booking a flight with BA over the summer period with fear of the staff threatening about going on strike again. The staff have 2 choices, either get over it and realise in order for a business to survive then they need to streamline or watch BA come to a disastrous end. BA is a global company and needs to be able to compete on a global scale, it can’t if there is a lot of wastage, might be unfair but unfortunately a fact of life for open global market.
Related BA Posts
Apple’s iPad or iSad?
Apple’s iPad has caught up with yet another controversy. Previously, it was the host of features, which were missing making it lose out to be a better choice than a notebook, now even the name ‘iPad’ has become an issue. It seems as if Apple has a habit to be in the news for various reasons .
The controversy saga continues; with the name ‘iPad’ in trouble. A Japanese electronic company ‘Fujitsu’ has alleged Apple for stealing their name ‘iPad’. According to Fujitsu their handheld computing device launched in 2002 was named iPad. There are also other takers for iPad like Siemens, which claims to be using the name iPad for their engines and other equipments. But in case of Fujitsu the name iPad is used for a similar kind of product like Apple’s.
Apple’s products have always been in the buzz for varied reason, similarly iPhone too had its share of woe when it rhymed with Japan’s Aiphone which led to confusion. Luckily Apple escaped with an agreement for a slight alteration of the Japanese spelling.
Though Apple has time till the end of Feb 2010 to prove this claim against Fujitsu, but it has to be seen how they defend this latest assault on the reputation of their brand. We strongly feel that Apple needs to realize that PR and reputation management are two different things and needs to be dealt accordingly. Being in news for all the bad reasons, is not good business. Remember reputation management is like a goal keeping, you save many but people tend to remember the one you missed.
Posted in Company Reputation, PR / Public Relations, Reputation News | Tags: Apple, Apple's Ipad, Bad Press, Reputation Management | 1 Comment »
Reputation Management for MPs to restore public faith
Have the public lost faith in MPs? The expenses file shows MPs more than half the entire House of Commons are involved in the controversial expenses scandal. They exploited the system of parliamentary allowances to promote their lifestyles and homes. The revelation has angered many voters and the reputation of the MPs has taken a beating.
People at large knew nothing until the scandal was out in the open and how MPs claimed for items far beyond what was allowed. Change in the system was voiced, but unfortunately there weren’t many takers. The after effect of not heeding that advise is all out in black & white.
It’s not easy to get this scandal off the mind of the taxpayers. While some MPs are guilty for the wrongdoing it has tarnished everyone in the house of Commons with the same brush.
So what does this mean? Is there a need for an urgent damage control to restore public faith?
A need for a strategic reputation management to get back the lost glory. There is no quick-fix method to fix the problem, but MPs need to realize that they are the representatives of their constituency and are not traders.
Politics and politicians are definitely not immune to bad press or negative comments, the above scandal shows how a politicians online reputation can go for a ride even if you are not at fault. You need to apprise the public your accomplishments, and what you are planning to do. This will allow people to respond positively and garner faith in the system.
David Cameron, when said ‘all MPs who do not repay will be sacked and be termed not eligible for election. This is a welcome statement and will infuse confidence in public, and also minimize the resentment in public for those in the House of Commons.
Politician’s reputation holds greater significance as electorate comprising of different age and group will have a common thinking about their representative, which makes sense to them. Let your positive image be known to the public, after all that is all you need to face the polls.
SEO – A Part of Your Reputation Management
If you own a business, no matter what you deal with, your ultimate intention will be to have a growing revenue with a list of happy clients/customers. So the point is your business needs to have a strategic marketing in place to let others know about it. So if it’s online the buzz word is SEO. An essential part of every business- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is crucial, because it’s effective when you are promoting your business online.
Naturally not everybody will be happy with your business and that leads to the creation of one or more unhappy customers, which is not a good sign. Remember one unhappy customer can give your business a bad name. The funniest part is that Internet being an affordable place, anyone can post anything at their will, and thankfully there are plenty of ways to air comments. So it’s tantamount important for companies to have a tool that allows to monitor negative contents.
Bad comments or reviews are not new to businesses or individuals, in fact people love to comment on anything, which they are not happy with. They say ‘A happy customer will refer you to one, but an unhappy client will literally blow it out off proportion at every given chance to speak.
Negative comment if posted, bookmarked or tweeted; lets be sure it will show up in search engines. Anything that invites maximum hits tends to remain on search engines, unfortunately if your own official website ranks below that, fasten your seat belts, you need reputation management before it turns your business the other way round.