reputation

(This is the second in a two-part series on Corporate Reputation.  The first post, Why Your Corporate Reputation Matters, explained the definition of corporate reputation, the method Reputation Institute uses to measure corporate reputation, and the benefits of having a strong corporate reputation among different stakeholder groups.  In today’s post, you’ll learn how to improve your corporate reputation and what you as a leader must do specifically to build an excellent reputation.)

Having an excellent corporate reputation prompts customers to buy your products, investors to value your company more highly, employees to be more productive, and other stakeholders to recommend and support you.  How?  Three companies show how to establish and maintain a strong corporate reputation.

Example 1:  Johnson & Johnson — Strong Foundation of Trust

Corporate reputations and brands are not the same things, and it’s important to understand the difference.

Reputations are the result of what people know about a business based on their judgements of its performance, gleaned through buying stuff, working there, owning stock, etc. It’s the present value stakeholders assign to the meaning, believability and reliability of a company’s future performance.

Which should you focus on: reputation management or customer experience management? Or both?

The other day, I read a story at Fast Company titled Why You Should Google Yourself And Not Feel Guilty About It. I agreed with the reasoning of the author, Lindsay Lavine (@lindsaylavine), but was slightly puzzled by the “guilty” part.

Horse meat keeps turning up in European food products. Though the vast majority of brands tested most recently by the UK government came up clean, meat from Taco Bell and Bird’s Eye got flagged. This comes after major equine revelations about Burger King’s cheeseburgers and Ikea’s meatballs.

The ability to interrogate and make decisions based on consumer data from social media is a key 2013 priority for European bankers according to a survey from the European Financial Management Association (Efma) and the Fair Isaac Corporation (Fico). The survey of credit risk professionals from 27 European countries found that analysing these data to better understand consumer needs was a priority for 54% of respondents.

by: Laszlo Kovari

You can start with any of these today! Start with your direct reports and let it pass through the entire organization.

No analysis required, just commitment, communications and GUTS (CC&G)! I won’t get into technicalities, you know how to do what you need to do!

Guest Post by: Jon Stokes

According to Warren Buffet “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”. With the rise of social media it feels like it can take  less than five minutes to potentially damage your online reputation.

Serendipitous (as is so often the way) that the day after reading John's piece about time-lagged value on social networks, prompted by the news that Friendster is deleting backdated profile data so that it might change the direction and type of services it offers (and lord knows it needs to do something), I happen across this cautionary tale from Danah Boyd about the disappearance of her Tumblr account.