Online Reputations and Authenticity

Through Andy Beal , the Marketing Pilgrim , I saw this interesting visual presentation (embedded at the end of this post) on the importance of online reputation management. The presentation is interesting in its design (more dense and active than your regular power-point presentation) but more importantly in its content. And, the presentation simple and complete enough to inform your average, busy manager.

Maybe you’d want to show this presentation to someone you know or even check it out just for yourself.

Here’s why you should care:

* Many managers and management scholars are unaware of how important an organization’s online reputation management is to the organization’s overall corporate identity, the organization’s corporate social responsibility efforts, and the organization’s employer branding.

* Managers who remain ignorant of blogs, or twitter, or whatever online tool is being used to discuss an organization, do so at their organization’s peril.

• Although online reputation management seems to be taken seriously only by those in social media and marketing circles, an organization’s online reputation can influence everything about how an organization is perceived . When you consider how perceptions of an organization affect how every stakeholder in the organization’s circle responds to the organization, you can begin to imagine the power of an organization’s online reputation.

And, if that is not enough to get you to pay attention, think more selfishly about your own “brand”. Online reputation management is also critical to individuals,  as any teenager on Facebook can tell you.

Four points made nicely in this presentation, that we all should use online reputation management tactics to:

1. Offset negative content by promoting what is good, and true
2. Take ownership of your reputation in (yet) another medium,
3. Address negative feedback in a constructive way, and
4. Be open, transparent and authentic in your communication and self-presentation.

Tagged as: corporate image, Employer Branding, management scholars, managing your corporate reputation, Marketing Pilgrim, online reputation management, reputation, social marketing, social media, stakeholders, Twitter