Now, for the first time since 2009, I am taking on new clients. I love agency work for the collaborative effect and the diversity of clientele, but it makes more sense to either go independent or start my own agency.

If you’ve contacted me in the past twelve months and are still interested in receiving Reputation Management and Monitoring, please reach out again and let me know. I’ll only be taking on two clients to start, so contact me sooner rather than later.

I look forward to hearing from you. May 2012 bring you increased success, both personally and professionally.

- Daniel Dessinger

Related Posts:

• Execute Your ORM Strategy or Lose Your Company
• Abandoned Profiles Affect Your Reputation Too
• Weber Shandwick White Papers on Reputation Survey
• Brand and Reputation Issues for eCommerce Businesses
• Michael Vick's Indictment Damages the Atlanta Falcons Reputation

I had an international client whose brand name you would all recognize, but will remain anonymous here. This client was not willing to spend much money on web marketing due to the particular standards, vision, and business style of their leadership. When profits were down, so went the marketing budget. In other words, they were cheap.

This company wanted to monitor its reputation for potential crises, so I performed a one-off reputation analysis. In early 2008, I delivered an extensive report to the company, detailing the issues, potential issues, and misprints that needed to be addressed. The company thanked me and proceeded to do absolutely NOTHING. They decided that the time, effort, and money required to address the public’s perception of their brand was too costly considering the nation’s economy and some losses already incurred during the year.

Before 2008 ended, this major company declared bankruptcy. Yes, bankruptcy. Granted, the execution of my proposed strategy would have cost them tens of thousands of dollars. It takes some time, effort, and money to rebuild what has been damaged. Client X opted out of the expense. They have since lost billions. Makes you wonder why they balked, eh?

Now, as powerful as it would be for me to use this company as example of what can happen as the result of a bad reputation left unchecked, I must admit that there were multiple factors involved, including the economy and the rising cost to do business, which cut deeply into profits. Add to that dilemma the inability to get credit due to the recession and you get the perfect storm.

Consumer confidence was at an all-time low. The lack of reputation management allowed confidence to erode and when additional shares were offered up to the public, not enough were sold to keep the company afloat. One way or another, your corporate reputation will make or break you. It may not boost your profits to an all-time high, but it could keep you afloat in a recession.

Since September, I’ve heard more than once that indirect methods of ROI are first to go when the economy takes a dive. The board of directors wants to see results, and in times of crisis, narrowmindedness leads to inexcusable vulnerabilities. My ex-client COULD have salvaged something, had their reputation been intact.

Let this be a lesson to all of you who are looking for places to cut corners and free up budget. Your reputation is NOT an area you can afford to sacrifice. Image, reputation, and consumer confidence are what keep commerce alive during rocky times. Are YOU doing what is necessary to guard your brand’s reputation?

Related Posts:

• Taking on New Clients in 2012
• What Is Search Engine Reputation Management?
• Abandoned Profiles Affect Your Reputation Too
• Weber Shandwick White Papers on Reputation Survey
• Brand and Reputation Issues for eCommerce Businesses

If I boiled down the message of this post into one sentence, it would be this: Every profile you create should be visited and used regularly.

The focus of search engine based reputation management used to be all about rankings. If you could artificially populate the top ten Google and Yahoo results for your name, you were doing well. But this mindset was limited to one basic principle of ORM: push negative search results lower than page one of search results, and your reputation will be spared most of the loss.

But what happens when someone clicks these results you’ve created? What impression are you making? A first impression is still a first impression. Research still tells us something about the person we’re searching.

I know there are 50 “gurus” out there now who will manage your personal reputation by building these profiles or recommending you build them yourself. But think through this strategically. You want to BUILD your reputation, not just sweep bad comments under the rug.

That’s why you need a REAL STRATEGY for reputation management. It’s not enough to read a few blog posts and go flying off to create some half-cooked scheme. Building your reputation involves proactively creating a positive image. A bland, neutral image cannot combat the negative comments, nor does it impart a positive vibe about you to the searcher.

What are your goals? Get a job? Establish credibility? Sell leads? Impress potential clients? A deadpan profile does none of that. If your prospect finds an abandoned profile, you WILL appear to be just another colorless Joe who doesn’t make things happen. You’re just another guy or a girl with a lame profile page.

How does a winner sell himself in person? Take that creative energy and apply it to your online reputation. This is no place to cut corners, people. In fact, what is found online is more permanent than the words you speak. Handle with care, and see a professional before executing a premature campaign.

Related Posts:

• Taking on New Clients in 2012
• Execute Your ORM Strategy or Lose Your Company
• Weber Shandwick White Papers on Reputation Survey
• Brand and Reputation Issues for eCommerce Businesses
• 6 Easy Steps to Personal Reputation Management

Issue One covers “Strategies to Recover Reputation”, in which they state that the average length of time required to recover a damaged reputation in the United States is 3.2 years. If you do the math, that’s millions or billions in lost revenue, depending on the size of the company or senior executive. Issue One also encourages readers to develop an early warning system – i.e. a reputation monitoring system. There are many reputation monitoring tools and services out there, and each has its own flavor and approach.

Issue Two covers how “Corporate Responsibility Aids Reputation Recovery”. Adhering to the laws of the land should not be the only measuring stick for a corporation’s social consciousness. By pushing your company to the forefront of social responsibility, you both aid the community and generate significant positive press. Not that everything should be discussed in matters of what you can gain from it, but it’s important to note that companies with advanced social / environmental policies are rewarded with an abundance of positive press.

Issue Three is on “Triggers of Reputation Failure.” Financial irregularities, unethical behavior, and executive misconduct round off the top three triggers of reputation failure. One only has to stop and think of Enron, Michael Jackson (boy troubles), the New England Patriots (SpyGate), and the New York Knicks (Isaiah Thomas) to realize how damaging these three issues can be to a corporation’s global reputation. Your profitability stems from a reputation of trustworthiness and civic responsibility. These foundational issues must be protected as closely as you would guard the safety of your own spouse and children.

In case you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea who Weber Chandwick is and why you should care what they say, read their About Us page and check out their entire website.

* * * * *

The posts have been flowing like mud around here, and I’ll do my best to provide more value to you loyal RSS readers. Keep in mind, however, that the most prolific subject matter expert bloggers typically “work” the least. Do the math. There’s only so much time in the day. It’s all about finding the balance.

Related Posts:

• Taking on New Clients in 2012
• Execute Your ORM Strategy or Lose Your Company
• Abandoned Profiles Affect Your Reputation Too
• Brand and Reputation Issues for eCommerce Businesses
• Michael Vick's Indictment Damages the Atlanta Falcons Reputation

For the sake of client privacy, we’ll call this client, “Flamingo Crossing.” Flamingo Crossing sells a high-end product to the posh VPs and real estate agent types who relish living in the lap of luxury. Flamingo Crossing not only sells their product through an ecommerce store, it also sells through a list of approved vendors. Now comes the problem(s).

There are dozens of non-approved vendors selling Flamingo Crossing’s product. They are using the company name “Flamingo Crossing” in their PPC ads, matching old or incorrect logos/images with the product, selling stolen product, reselling product without permission, etc. On top of these issues, even the approved vendors are not adhering to a consistent branding theme, thus diluting the potency of the Flamingo Crossing brand.

This is where the reputation manager enters into the equation. With several hundred approved vendors to review and potential thousands of non-approved vendors to deal with, Flamingo Crossing needs someone to monitor their branded names and products in hopes of serving these offenders with cease and desist letters from their legal department.

This project revolves more around brand management, but rolls over into reputation management as these inappropriate vendors may generate negative reactions from the consumer. So we have a multi-tiered problem to deal with, and a client that is VERY motivated to make things happen. Let’s look at the basic outline of this project:

Identify Goals
We have already established that the primary goal here is to locate vendors selling the brand or the product. We also want to inform the client of negative statements made against their brand so that they may both generate responses and follow the trail to possible misuses of their brand names.

Identify Terms
We begin by requesting a comprehensive list of identifiable terms, including SKUs (SKUs optional, based on scope of approved project). We take that list of terms and run it through our keyword analysis tools just to make sure there aren’t similar words and phrases that could lead us to our targets.

Monitor Tool Setup
We set up several monitoring tools to begin scouring the Web for information regarding our targets. We don’t implicitly trust any one tool at this point to provide comprehensive information, so we use each client as a case study for comparing the tools and how they perform.

Data Analysis
Perhaps the most lengthy part of the ongoing project. We take all the URLs that lead to mentions of our target keywords and review each instance not stemming from a website owned by the client for possible negative statements or misuse / abuse of intellectual property. We compile a list of pages on the Web to be addressed along with comments about each.

Reporting
In addition to compiling a list of troubling mentions / instances, we deliver to the client comprehensive reporting on the overall status of brand mentions, the proliferation or lack thereof of negative mentions / brand abuse, and deliver recommendations for how to appropriately deal with visible or forseeable top level issues that could spread.

Execution
This includes both the daily and the top level strategic responses that should be made to stave off the PR slide that can come from negative press online. The reputation manager distributes cease and desist letters to brand abusers (NOT an action taken for standard reputation issues) and assists the client with implementing approved measures to counter balance the negative statements already made. This is also the time for proactive PR and marketing initiatives to stave off potential future crises.

In the end, the client is responsible for legal actions taken, and the reputation manager is not in any way responsible for discussing legal terms with brand abusers or illegitimate vendors. When not directly responsible for the creation of ORM responses, the reputation manager is charged primarily with the task of locating the problems, accurately assessing the atmosphere surrounding each issue, and ensuring a timely response to crises, questions, complaints, and negative statements so that further damage to the company name is avoided.

Related Posts:

• Taking on New Clients in 2012
• Execute Your ORM Strategy or Lose Your Company
• Abandoned Profiles Affect Your Reputation Too
• Monitoring and Managing the Crisis Age
• Weber Shandwick White Papers on Reputation Survey