“My reputation! My reputation!” Cassio famously cried out in Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s Othello. “I’ve lost my reputation, the longest-living and truest part of myself! Everything else in me is just animal-like. Oh, my reputation, Iago, my reputation!”
The genius playwriter’s description and the value placed on a reputation has echoed through time since Othello was first performed in 1604.
Fast-forward 417 years and what do reputations look like now? Well, they’re still a social construct. An abstract ‘thing’ is made up of opinions others form about a person or company. But how those opinions take shape and are influenced has changed as much as our social interactions and access to information has shifted
The scale of that change is nothing less than seismic! Think about the influence Google has on your reputation and what information rises to the top of search results. What are potential customers finding online when they’re researching suppliers? Do you have a strong enough online profile and how positively are you reflected?
Online Reputation Management (ORM) has become a branch of corporate communications with its technical skillset. To win the influence game, one has to first convince the algorithms that your point of view is worth pushing. Unfortunately, these are usually skewed towards sensation and negative news. From my PR perspective, I’d like to raise three points:
- Manage your platforms and channels
This might sound obvious, but it is easy to slip into the misconception that apps like Facebook, Google, Instagram, Linked In and WhatsApp have a social conscience. They don’t. They are for-profit businesses and if you rely too heavily on them, it’s the same as sourcing all your raw materials from one supplier. So maintain a balance and semblance of primary contact with leads and customers. Keep your email database up-to-date and clean. As a digital asset you control, your website should be the centre of your online presence. It’s where your resources should be focused.
- Create your own content
To shape opinions, you need to be putting out useful, regular, engaging content. Sometimes it feels like you’re feeding a voracious beast but if you’re not talking about yourself, you leave a vacuum for others. Re-use what you have, be inventive and keep telling your own story.
- Validate the positive
Testimonials and reviews are an online reputation game-changer. There is no referee keeping it fair. A few noisy complaints aren’t balanced by the happy silent majority. This needs to be actively managed and monitored. If you have to nudge clients to publish reviews, it needs to be done.
The good news is that we’re here to help. If you don’t have the time to keep tabs on what’s being said online, we can do that. If you need inspiration and a new perspective on how to protect your company, we can bring in a fresh perspective. If social media is not giving you returns on what you’re putting in, perhaps it’s time to re-allocate resources.
OK, we didn’t get as far as Zuckerberg’s Metaverse. From what the gamers are saying, we’re not missing out on much.
If you agree (or disagree) on any of these points and want to chat about it, give me a call.
