I have always wondered if those huge advertising ads in airports do their job in reputation building. It is hard not to notice them and they are fairly captivating to me. As I get off the airplane, I look forward to what new campaigns might be up. So I was glad to see some data behind my question. The Ipsos MediaCT U.S. Business Elite Study that was conducted for the American Association of Advertising Agencies (AAAA) found that airport ads are indeed a good way to build reputation and get your message across. Nearly six out of 10 say they notice them.

• Have You Noticed Advertising at the Airport on Your Last Trip?
  Total Business Elite   59%
  C-Suite    59%

As well, the survey answered the question about viewing TV while waiting at the boarding gate. Nearly four out of 10 business executives said they do so. Again, another way to capture this audience although I imagine that the other six out of 10 are watching their blackberries or iphones.

• Have You Watched TV at the Gate on Your Last Trip?
  Total Business Elite   39%
  C-Suite    39%

One other fascinating fact that I picked up from the survey was that the U.S. business elite turn to the Internet first for “helping them in business.” Among CEOs, however, the first place they go to is business magazines. I guess that is why the business publication space is expanding despite the advertising decline over the past several years. In addition to the stalwarts – Fortune, Forbes and BusinessWeek, we now have Portfolio, a new Slate business site coming to us in June I believe and Bloomberg ramping up its business and news coverage once Norm Pearlstine gets in the door.

Clearly, the Internet is a main source of information for the U.S. business elite although national newspapers, cable TV, and business magazines are close competitors. Reputation building online is as important as ever but let’s not lose sight of the power of these other mediums.

I guess there is something for everyone and every profession. I have blogged before about reputationdefender. The company (whose slogan is “watch your back”) helps individuals and families defend their reputations by getting negative comments taken down from the Internet, lowered in the search rankings or explained more accurately. They counsel individual and organizations on strategies for removing harmful information which is ultimately a good thing. Now there is politiciandefender.com for those politicos who need to counter negative or untrue bloggerisms with truthful messages. As the site says, “The program is designed to build personal branding online and minimize harmful blog posts that would influence an election. Our company allows politicians to hire our bloggers to create posts on social media venues and blogs throughout the Internet in an effort to get the target message across.” In essence, the company will counterpunch or should I say counterpost right back when a politician’s reputation is being pummeled. I guess there truly is something for everyone and expect soon to see celebritydefender, professordefender, prdefender, lawyerdefender, doctordefender, cashierdefender, computerhelplinedefender, etc. You see where this is going. 

On another subject, I am often asked what companies should do to reduce their ever-mounting reputation risk. As corruption, fraud, recalls, security breaches, tainted products and financial wrongdoing continues to escalate, one idea that deserves serious consideration is assigning reputation risk responsibilities to company boards, officers or outside firms. UBS recently announced that they would establish a stand-alone risk committee as part of their board restructuring. This committee would be responsible for assessing and being informed about management’s strategy for monitoring and managing corporate reputation threats.  Financial Week has an excellent article by Jeff Nash on how companies are now in the hunt for hiring chief risk officers and fully understanding their own risk scenarios today. He quotes Spencer Stuart who told him that only 3% of S&P 500 companies had stand-alone risk committees as of 2007. That is not encouraging. Apparently Bear Stearns and Northern Rock had separate board risk committees which does not fill me with much confidence that they work as well as they should.

So what are the alternatives? I like the other ideas that surfaced in Nash’s article. Pitney Bowes reportedly has a list of 60 risk categories which are assigned to individuals who report about them to a board committee. Pitney Bowes thinks that when a particular risk or two is assigned to an individual, they are more likely to be accountable and take this oversight seriously. I agree that being able to focus on a few risks makes more sense in determining threat-levels than having to worry about 60+ risks all at once.  The article also raises an idea from a governance expert who suggests that a non-board risk committee comprised of select company executives and outside risk experts could work. I definitely see value in that idea as well because outside points of view are often critical in shaking up organizations who are rightfully concentrating on the next quarter and next customer demand. It is not easy.  

Risk radar is increasingly imperative today. Have no doubt about it.

Yesterday turned out to be a fun day. I was a panelist at BlogHer Business ’08 conference in New York City. BlogHer is a community of women bloggers and the annual conference has become quite successful. The case studies presented were truly amazing.I was joined by fellow panelists Mary Clare Hunt (www.ecolutionarySelling.com), Janet Eden-Harris (CEO of Umbria) and Tara Anderson (evangelist for Lijit) and moderator Elana Centor (blogger and independent marketing consultant). Our topic was “Who You Are, Not What You Do.” However, it was fairly obvious to all us gals that we do what we are. As panelists, we were passionate about our jobs and what we were advocating (whether it was sustainability, reputation, online research, and start-ups). The audience was equally passionate, engaged and articulate about their entrepreneurial enterprises, blogs, or businesses. Lots of companies were there in support – Google, Hearst Digital, Fast Company, Kodak, Wiggly Wigglers, General Motors, Graco, HP. Although us panelists were not sure how all of our disparate jobs were going to tie together for the panel discussion, Elana made it seamless and fluid. I could tell that we all had fun which surprised us all. Of course, I got to talk about reputation and how to manage it online and offline. My company Weber Shandwick videoed the entire conference so it should be available online shortly. Take a look. I will post the link once I get it.

Thought you might want to hear about a new book on managing your reputation online. The book written by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss is titled Radically Transparent and here is their seven point guide on online reputation management. I made it my business to read the book (I just received a hard copy in the mail yesterday from amazon). The authors sent me a pre-copy weeks ago which I read with gusto. Lots of great information which got me up-to-speed quickly and smartly. I liked it so much that I was happy to give them a testimonial on the back cover. You might want to get a copy too. As I have said before (and everyone else), online reputation management is the new black.