Every institution should know that it is dangerous to think that community looks at you as you look yourself. And with falling of dictators in the Middle East reminds me of how the above principle tends to apply, very democratically, through to brands, governments and individuals.

When you look at this from a close quarter, you see that the crisis lies with the leaders who tend to forget that governance, product or service will not withstand for long time, if you have a battered reputation down the line. Public or customer opinion is a key factor, and it’s only when actions ally with the reputation it enhances your brand worth.

And this brings us to the Middle East. Taking into account the ousted leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and now in Libya with Gaddafi feeling the heat, it is obvious, that Public will revolt and is likely to spiral to other parts of the world.  With no concrete measures and hard rule stance the gap had grown between misinformation and public opinion.

Like how, Hosni Mubarak, Gaddafi and Ben Ali, color their hair black and is symbolic how myopic they are, when I quote from the above that “Community does not look at you as you look at yourself”.  The development was waiting to happen as the three failed to notice the changes happening across the world. In the age of Internet and social media were people find easy and effective ways to raise their voices, the pressure is always there and it keeps mounting.

The above rule is applicable not only to Gaddafi, Mubarak or Ali, but to everyone from Corporates, Politicians, Manufactures and Celebrities, your reputation is vulnerable if you fail to see beyond your own thinking and sense of self.

So how do you ensure your organization does not suffer a reputation bashing? You can start by having yourself to look at the situation and analyze the differences between your current and desired reputation. And that is the only way you can be in control before you are shown the doors.

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.

Just how good it is when an Organization says that ‘Employees are their assets’, well let’s keep this debate aside for now. But here we are going to highlight how employees’ reputation creates a huge impact on those who look at you from the other side and just how critical it is for the reputation of your company..

Your employees’ carries the attitude and brand of your company. Have you ever noticed when visiting any office and waiting at the front office. I think this is the best place to analyze how true the employees carry the brand. You can feel the elements of the company culture and values coming through in the way people speak to each other and how they greet you. After all, employees are the caretakers of a company’s brand.

Employees and corporate reputation goes hand in hand. Though company reputation is vital, but employees are also the key factor that link to manage it. This generates positive performance and ultimately cements a place for you in this competitive era. So how to keep a positive reputation of your organization is about recognizing the significant role employees’ play in the overall positioning of corporate reputation.

However, to encourage employees to ‘live the brand’ are not much practiced. It is further suggested that to highlight your brand through your employees there has to be solid strategies in place. So when employees are trained to do their part perfectly the battle is half won. Let the employees know what actions are effective in return that successfully portray your strong brand.

In my opinion a brief training exercise and the know-how of the company and its regulation will go a long way in shaping employee reputation. Apprise them of the various vulnerability that could sabotage their reputation; for example ‘A tech savvy employee when comes across some website that has negative thing about the organization, what he should be doing? Persuade them to take advantage of the situation and come up with better solution to counter that after all it’s reputation at stake.

Nestle – as if the controversy was not enough for their Honey Shreddies, here comes another blow from FDA over their Juicy Juice drink BOOST.  The company claims it is a complete Nutritional Drink.  FDA says – ‘Nestle is promoting the drink as a medical food and that it treats “failure to thrive” and helps children in chronic illness.

Well about Nestle “Their actions are so loud, one cannot hear what they say“. Nestle seems to oversee the fact that consumers aren’t fools, this age when the world is just a click away it will not take much time for your reputation to go for a ride in matter of minutes. In the recent case we have seen how Twitter and Facebook were flooded with articles and calls to boycott them.

While we know that Nestle is always in controversy, what surprises me is they have no action in place to counter it and are always wondering what hit them.

Strangely they say one thing and go on doing something else. Nestle responses are always generic – send them an e-mail only to get a reply ‘the mail is forwarded to the Switzerland, Headquarters. Their handling of a situation is poorly managed – they bask on PR, which is just an aspect of the approach and not a substitute of Reputation management.

Buying time will only make matter worse; the consumer has the power of Internet. Nestle should let it be known that they are transparent. You cannot hide things from consumer; the skeletons will be out and the rest internet will ensure that you don’t stay in single piece.

Better late than never Nestles should do some brainstorming. Internet and plenty of social media out there it’s a classic example of “word to mouth” for your reputation.

When you get a spam mail do not delete it and take sometime to read it (do not reply or react). If you notice the content of the mails are mostly promotional about all kinds of business. The majority of spam mails is to do with breast enlargement or about male enhancement. Do not be surprised to know that these mail as they claim comes from bigger companies than you own.

Now that’s a bait!
Some people ignorant of the fact what spam mail are suppose to be tend to reply them. What tempts them to respond is something interesting, well! It’s the big names like MSN, Amazon or Paypal attached to this email.

Now that’s what we call bait – you being skeptical shoot an email to that owner only to know it was spam. Unfortunately the damage is already done, you have authenticated and confirmed your email address, and now the spammer has all sources at his disposal to flood your Inbox.

What is the point.
Well give it a thought! If the spammer thinks that using reputed companies like MSN, Amazon or Paypal is perfectly fine, what makes you think that your business is safe. As we all know burglars are always on the lookout for huge cache, and they en route their plans using smaller companies because they know with smaller companies it is always a win-win situation. If this situation is not handled properly, imagine the kind of damage your business will inherit, you may even close your shop.

How to shield
Now urgency has pounced on you, there is nothing as important, but to shield your reputation before more people gives it a bad name. This not only results in loosing business even your identity too.

Smart move, you want somebody to take responsibility and guard your business and personal reputation.

Reputation managers will then try to capitalize on the already done damage until such time your reputation is secure. This is probably the best option and least you worry about the reputation of your business.

Send out a strong message and let no one think about using your company’s goodwill to fill their own coffers in future.