- Twitter to lose its reputation as a free speech platform?
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- 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 ‘personal reputation’
Lanny’s Pension Pot – Lanny Davis and Ivory Coast
December 22, 2010 | 
Author 
As working men grow older they start to think more about their pension. That must be the reason why old time Clinton adviser, Lanny Davis has decided that working for Ivory Coast dictator is more important than his reputation. For those not following the intricacies of African politics, the Ivory Coast managed to conduct an election last month that observers declared was fair (an unusual state of affairs in Africa). Since then Laurent Gbabgo has decided he does not want to give up power and has started abducting, detaining and torturing his opponents according to Amnesty International. The French government has recommended its nationals leave the country in the light of the situation warning of civil war.
Of course Davis has some pretty dodgy client already including the for-profit universities that are much in the news for the poor quality of education on offer, but if you were a client of Davis you might be feeling a little queasy being labeled with an African dictator. Whilst the UN is calling massive violations of human rights, Davis declares Gbabgo opposes violence.
You wonder why professional people do this. Partly, they are unconcerned about what their clients get up to and partly they simply don’t care about their reputation. If you worked for Lanny Davis, you might be unhappy as well, but then again as Obama signs up the Indefinite detention order, you know that human rights is not a big deal in the States any more.
The X-Factor Bad Press Mafia
If there’s one show that’s guaranteed to generate headlines, it’s Simon Cowell’s The X-Factor, screening on ITV in the UK. And while we’re all used to the stories of grief that the shows contestants claim as their motivation, this year has seen a couple of disturbing stories that are attracting all the wrong kinds of attention (forgetting momentarily that all publicity is good publicity).
It started a couple of weeks ago when Gamu Nhengu’s performance was adorned by audio-enhancement techniques. This created quite the ruckus amongst viewers who were upset that they were not getting an unbiased exposure to the contestants. But, as well as the folks at home not being all too pleased, Gamu’s troubles didn’t end there. A long with hundreds of thousands of disgruntled fans of the show, Ms Nhengu’s performance was also being watched the UK Border Agency.
It turns out that Gamu’s mother Nokutula was in the UK on a working visa which had actually expired without the possibility of extension. Yes, that would make Gamu, her mother and her two younger brothers illegally residing in the UK.
I’m sorry, but if you’re not entitled to live in Britain, and you’re staying in the country illegally… why in God’s name would you make an appearance on national television? If only Simon’s troubles ended there…
Other former X-Factor hopeful Chloe Mafia has already had to put up with articles popping up all over the news and media about her ‘professional life’ (the oldest, thereof), and now self-proclaimed misfit has openly admitted to taking drugs (cocaine). She also failed to make it past the ‘boot camp’ stage of the show, after arriving unprepared for her audition. Again.
No loss, she was rubbish anyway.
But, all the while contestants like Gamu Nhengu and Chloe Mafia are making headlines for all the wrong reasons though, the X-Factor is going from strength to strength. It seems nothing can touch this music behemoth’s reputation, but the same can’t be said for the contestants. These girls (assuming both are still in the country this time next week) are going to suffer from their auditions more than they stand to gain.
Everywhere they turn they’re going to be facing bad press. It’s not just the papers, which tend to go away and be forgotten about, but more and more frequently employers are ‘Googling’ potential employees and so every negative story about a person or company is available at the touch of a button. And now, with new Google Instant, users don’t even have to be searching for a negative story for one to come up via Google Suggest. Online Reputations are at an all-time vulnerable, and unfortunately for these X-Factor entrants – there’s very little they can do about theirs.
Posted in Bad Press, Celebrity, Company Reputation, Personal Reputation, Reputation Online | 
Tags: Chloe Mafia, Cocaine, Gamu Nhengu, personal reputation, Simon Cowell, x factor | 
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Reputation Management and Social Websites
Reputation management is here to stay as it will be an ongoing threat. The social media has made it easy for all to plug in and play. When user feeds in a negative comment it is more likely to generate new type of threat for your brand. Your infrastructure vendor will be good at blocking malware, but not the negative comment circulating on the web. So most companies will need to find way to shield their repute. We need not have to dig deep to take into consideration what the future holds, but we’ll see that in coming year companies will take a serious stand to monitor their reputation.
One of the main factors why I chose to pick on social networking sites is because they are a very important part of reputation management. If there is one thing that we learned from social media is that user content ranks very well in the search engines. Just sit back and do a search, I am sure you will come across at least a couple of social media sites in first page of your search. So imagine the height of damage these hi-speed information portals can do in a click of the mouse. The usage and access to social media in workplace will be on top priority to help protect companies from getting their brand tarnished.
If you notice many of these social websites allow users to register in company user ID and even generates URL that ends with the name of your company.
http://twitter.com/companyname
http://companyname.Wordpress.com
http://www.myspace.com/companyname
You need to be the first to register with your name and URLs on these sites and do it fast. The problem with such provision is that you are always at risk and someone use these sites to damage your brand reputation. It will be immature to say that such things will go off and settle down by itself. Companies should not take for granted the power of social websites and its impact. The one-click-connect-to-all kind of platform is powerful to damage your reputation and is an established form of media today. Remember when a user tweets about the pathetic service you offer, it will obviously put your business in trouble, that’s the power of social media
While you want to remove bad press or comments on social website, you need not have to change the way you do your business. Even if you run your business perfectly you are bound to get a dissatisfied customer who will do the rest to tamper your reputation. The best way to counter malicious content on the web is to hire a reputation management firm to take care of your stake. They will counter these allegations, build up your profiles and gets them listed on search engines with keywords that are important to your reputation. It’s one method to gain access and be in control. It also provides you with a chance to reach those customers who never visited your official company website. Safeguarding your brand reputation comes with a cost and should be included in your business budget.
Social Media tuning for better reputation management
Social media lets people discuss the products or services delivered by a person or a company without a personal intervention. It allows
- a person to enter into a dialog with his/her customers
- let him/her optimize the products
- respond to the respective markets
and ultimately manage the real time reputation.
This fabulously leads the concerned person to be successful and have a thriving business. All these advantages of social media sounds really good on paper. You may think a person can do all this without a social media. So what’s the big difference. One big difference is the cost. Maintaining an ongoing social media presence is a huge use of time and effort, which you would definitely gain when your accountant calculates the return on investment compared to other promotional activities you have been doing.
When it comes to content from business to customers, there is a dearth of sustainability. The free content generation will diminish over time, unless there’s a clear return on investment to it. Quality content is hard to produce. Companies that can afford to hire someone to be a web presence will generate quality content. While, social media will continue to be important as a channel for monitoring end consumer needs, wishes, and experiences after using the products.
However, social media requires a large following which seems to be a function of direct marketing skill, more than high quality content creation skill. Ultimately you find that social media is a giant gossip network, and your personal reputation is part of your brand, so you’ll have to manage it. So. if you want to get ahead of the trend then follow Twitter, Facebook and social networks alike and keep tracking your online reputation.
Posted in Company Reputation, Online PR, Reputation Online, Social Network Sites | Tags: facebook, Online Reputation, personal reputation, social media, twitter | 2 Comments »