online reputation

 Today at Weber Shandwick we just issued a new reputation offering that I particularly like. As safeguarding company and brand reputation continues to rise to the top of executive agendas, 99 Tips to Safekeeping Reputation provides a simple visual roadmap to navigating crises and restoring reputations. We think it will come in handy for anyone interested in reputation. Enjoy and let me know what you think or would like to see added in our next version. I am thinking of doing this annually.

 A woman living in the Chicago is being sued for allegedly Twittering that her management company is okay with moldy apartments where she lives. Horizon Group Management sued her this week for publishing “a false and defamatory tweet” on Twitter. According to the suit the woman Twittered “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.” Horizon Group Management is suing because it says it has been greatly injured in its reputation as a landlord. How much? In excess of $50,000 in damages.

Reputation injury law suits a la Twitter are starting. Wonder what the law says about Twitter defamation.

Some random notes on reputation from the past few days….

1. “Green” is having a hard time when it comes to reputation. Greenwashing claims are piling up as more advertisers try to appeal to socially conscious consumers.  According to the U.S. Advertising Standards Authority’s public affairs department, “We received a record number of complaints about green claims last year, which had more than doubled from the year before, to over 300.”  Companies need hard and clear evidence to make statements about their products being carbon-neutral, sustainable, organic, non-toxic, ozone friendly, 100% recycled. The reputation of “green” is quickly losing its power over consumers if it continues to be used irresponsibly. The Financial Times article where I read about this evolution of green’s reputation said that there are certain terms that are more passable than others such as “kinder to the environment,” “ecologically improved,” and “more environmentally friendly than before.”  These might not satisfy consumers and marketers although they may be more credible. More stringent rules are on their way in the U.S .and U.K.  Greenwashing charges against “green” could dilute its reputation altogether if we are not careful.

2. As our research on managing reputations online revealed, executives are very worried about the leaking of confidential documents. Another article I read recently in the Financial Times states that networking security is at greater risk than ever before.  Executives seem aware but will be surprised at how easy it now is to break into company networks and steal information. The CEO of NCC Group, a network security firm, says that his team of “ethical hackers”  has a success rate of 97.8% in hacking into corporate networks.  Not only are wireless networks making it easier to break into corporate networks but so are stolen or lost laptops and devices. I thought it was very cool to read that one of the safety recommendations was for companies to use a “remote device wipe” so that all the data on a lost device could be obliterated on demand.  Sounds very 24 to me (the program with Jack Bauer). After reading this article, I vow to never leave my laptop out on the desk of a hotel room just waiting to be taken. The article says that we should never assume we are safely covered network-wise.  The executives in our study are right to be worried.

3. In today’s WSJ, an article on CEO turnover in the financial sector helps make a point that surfaced in our other recent survey on CEO reputations. We learned that nearly one-half of rising executives (49%) say that they would take a CEO position if offered. We stated that this was good news because positive CEO succession is critical to our nation’s economic recovery. The authors wrote, “ There  aren’t any highly attractive CEO prospects in the financial-services industry. The best players won’t risk their careers going to a troubled enterprise.” Therefore the job number one for companies right now is to increase their leadership development programs and groom rising executives for the long-term.  According to the Booz & Co. terrific survey on CEO turnover, 18% of financial services firms lost their CEO in 2008 and of these, more than half were pushed out. As the WSJ reports, several firms are now looking for CEO replacements – AIG, Hartford, Freddie Mac. The reputation of the financial services sector is in great need of repair and only when we have willing, seasoned and values-driven executives in the corner suite, will we be able to talk about a reputation recovery in the financial services sector.

  There is a new officer title emerging that includes reputation as one of its responsibilities. I learned about this in an article on CSOonline.  The new (and not so new) title is Chief Security Officer and although it is still about business continuity and enterprise risk, it is quickly evolving to include brand protection and reputation security. We just have to be reminded of the Dominos incident to realize how important brand protection and integrity is nowadays. In addition, just think about what happens to your reputation when email scams, copyright infringement, phishing, brand high jacking, etc., accelerating even more.  As the head of global security at Caterpillar rightfully said: “With the proliferation of social interaction tools any company’s brand could be put under attack for a multitude of reasons. We all have to be very, very astute about watching for those emerging risks and to be able to deal with them.” 

The need for CSOs is all the more urgent. Our research among executives around the world about online reputation management found that confidential document leaks and negative employee chatter are keeping leaders up at night. [I read today that the federal deficit is keeping Obama up at night these days. High on his risk agenda I presume.] Companies need to do much more to protect their reputational integrity as well as that of their employees, partners, and supply chains.

Aon annually reports on global risks facing industries and is cited in the CSO article. Reputation damage is among the top 10 greatest risks that executives are concerned about. The survey was taken last fall when the economic news was fairly catastrophic and the U.S. presidential election was close. Therefore not surprising how high the first three risks are below.

The Top Ten Risks Around the World
1. Economic slowdown
2. Regulatory/legislative changes
3. Business interruption
4. Increasing competition
5. Commodity price risk
6. Damage to reputation
7. Cash flow/liquidity risk
8. Distribution or supply chain failure
9. Third-party liability
10. Failure to attract or retain top talent

Maybe we just need more CROs…chief reputation officers to combat this increasingly menacing reputation infection.

    I recently Twittered about this survey since I thought it had some excellent information. The research comes from Deloitte LLP and is their 2009 Ethics & Workplace Survey. The topic this year was social networking and reputational risk in the workplace. Timely.  Since we conducted our survey on how executives manage their reputations online, Deloitte’s survey added some nuances that we did not cover. Deloitte had Opinion Research survey 2000+ employees and 500 executives in the U.S.  Here are some of the more interesting facts that caught my eye.

Employees

• 74% of employees believe that it is easy to damage a corporate reputation through social media (That’s high awareness for sure)
• 24% say they don’t know if their company has a social media policy and 11% say their company has one but they don’t know what it is about.
• 49% say that they would not change their online behavior if their company had a corporate social media policy (the survey also found that 29% of employees were being a bit more careful about what  they did online in insure that they kept their jobs in these tough economic times)
• Somewhat more than one third said that they rarely or never think about their boss, colleagues or clients when participating online (I’d call that risky)
• 26% say that their company does not allow them on certain social networking sites during work hours (I hear that often when traveling in Europe and was initially surprised. But there seems to be a large enough portion of the workforce that has no access to certain of these sites.)

Executives

• Only 15% of executives are addressing risks from social media at the board level
• Only 17% say that their companies have management systems in place to identify online social media risks (Not good news)
• Only 22% say that their company has formal social media policies and guidelines in place for employees (This is increasingly important as the FTC becomes more involved with social media and begins thinking about changing rules.)
• 67% of executives say that their company does not discuss how to use social media to leverage their strengths or mitigate risks (That’s an awfully high percentage. This is risky in itself!)

I caught up on some articles I was meaning to read over the long weekend. Here’s one worth noting when it comes to managing reputation online. Since we have extensively researched how executives manage their online reputations, I find everything that makes it easier to do so worthwhile reading. However, I wonder how anyone has the time to do all this and get their jobs done.

Robert Scoble in Fast Company says that “Reputations are created and destroyed online in the speed of 140 characters.”  He is obviously referring to Twitter and the common phrase today that reputation can be created (Susan Boyle) and destroyed overnight (Bernie Madoff). Scoble recommends seven tools available online, of course, for companies to monitor their reputations online. Thanks for the great list.

TweetDeck – the must have dashboard for the Twitter set (free) to determine what’s being said about you in the Twitter and other worlds

Scout Labs – the sentiment and tone in which your brand reputation is being spoken about online (not free)

BlogPulse – taking the pulse on your reputation using keywords and a easy to use charting (free from Nielsen Online)

Vanno – “It’s Digg for reputation.”  (free)

CoTweet – multiple users can tweet from one user name (free) and manage your company reputation

TNS Cymfony – heavy duty tool for drilling deep into your online reputation among stakeholders (not free) (also similar tool from BuzzMetrics)

Terribly interesting article today in The Wall Street Journal about college rejection letters. They name the colleges with the best and worst rejection letters.  The list is below according to how the WSJ judged them. Many of the letters are posted on CollegeConfidential where students go to complain and commend these eagerly awaited letters.  Most important, these letters help define college reputations. In tough economic times, colleges should think twice about how they are communicating to families and young souls.  These first brushes with big rejections are not forgotten and with the Internet today, college reputations are hyper-vulnerable to these critiques. College admission directors should take note and perhaps test and refine their rejection (and acceptance) notes before they go out.  In fact, how about asking freshman for honest appraisal. They are right nearby.

Toughest: Bates College

Kindest: Harvard

Most Confusing: University of California, San Diego; Penn State

Most Discouraging: Boston University

Biggest Spin: UC Davis

Best Coaching: Mount Allison University

This article reminded me of my son’s search for an internship this summer and the many responses and non-responses he received. I was fascinated by how most companies went very much out of their way to put their best foot forward. They communicated personally on the phone and always met their deadlines about telling him when he would hear about an opportunity. He had one interview at a financial services company that was astonishingly bizarre and I guess I will never forget it. Their reputation sank in my mind and I always repeat it when talking to friends and family. So does he. The HR person asked very inappropriate questions including who his parents voted for. When she heard that President Obama was the candidate of choice, she told him that she was surprised his parents could be so clueless despite their graduate educations. Just a reminder about how important reputations can be damaged by one single employee and the importance of making sure that all employees understand their role in creating good names.  In addition, as more people look for jobs in this tough economic climate, HR departments and people who receive letters with attached resumes should think about their role in creating their company’s reputation. Time for a refresher.

In an article from Tom Friedman today on Pirates and U.S. foreign policy, he said. “The issues we have with them look less like problems that can be solved and more like conditions that we have to manage.” This made me think about social media – not easily solved but you need to manage. This week I was talking to a company about the importance of online reputation management and the need to be prepared and understand how to use this media if your “Dell moment” arrives.  I do not think I made much headway because they felt safer being under the radar.  Companies might not be able to solve the countless ways that their reputations can be harmed online (think Dominos pizza) but they need to try to manage their online reputations because doing nothing or next to nothing is irresponsible. You’ve got to think of your employees, customers and investors. That’s my two cents.

By the way, participated in a new business meeting with my colleagues in LA. They are damm good!

  “Schawbel is a personal branding force of nature,” according to Fast Company. I have to agree. He is relentless at branding himself. I don’t know how he finds the time. Dan is a leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y and just about for anyone. He is the author of a new book called, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 2009). Clever title…Me 2.0. Dan has a magazine on personal branding, personalized press kit, his own personal branding awards (love that!) and personal branding TV. Gives me the idea that perhaps I should create the Reputation awards but I think that Fortune already does that! I feel like Rip Van Winkle compared to the speed in which he has branded himself already since he’s only in his 20s.

Dan and I have had a few emails back and forth awhile ago since he must have found me in a Google search on reputation. Personal branding and personal reputation are very much intertwined. I see personal reputation as a benefit for one’s company and he sees it a way to enhance your career and standing in life.  I did not realize that he was a Social Media marketing specialist at a much admired technology company, EMC. 

Dan provides useful advice in his new book on the importance of branding yourself, especially in this current economic environment. He advises people to develop their own authentic personal brand and then network the hell out of it. He does it for himself so his book has the ring of truth to it. I only read the first chapter since it’s been a busy week. But check it out.

The Conference Board Reputation Risk Research Working Group issued a new report on Reputation Risk. They concluded from the working group and a survey among 148 large company risk management executives that risk management needs to be better integrated into the enterprise risk management (ERM) function. Only about one-half (49%) highly integrate the two.  The report provides insights into how some companies are measuring reputation risk and new tools that deliver on this need. Reputation Institute and Evolve24 are both cited. One of the findings that parallels ours is that social media is gaining traction in the corner suite but many executives are overlooking its risks.  According to the Conference Board report, only 34% of respondents stated that they extensively monitor social networking sites and an even fewer 10% actively participate. As I have said, the good news is that executives are no longer asking their assistants to print out their emails to read but they still have far to go in terms of understanding the new media and making it work for their companies in identifying opportunity and yes, early warning signs.