A good reputation is good for business, good for profits and ensures long-term prosperity. Reputation is a measure of customer experience and helps to establish a vital emotional link, which goes far beyond individual products and mere brand loyalty. It is the visible accumulated effect of your past activities, a benchmark against which a prospective client can make a judgment about the quality of service they are likely to get from your organization.
All of this is meant simply as a reminder that the days when you had complete control over what is said on behalf of your brand are now well and truly behind . Such control is never coming back and fundraisers and marketers alike need to accept this and adapt the way they approach reputation management to at least try to keep track of what is being said in their name online.
There are a growing range of tools available to help you rise to this challenge, but as a first step it’s worth simply taking a look online to see just what is being said about you by people you don’t know – starting with some searching through the search engines on the major social media sites. Then you can at least begin to assess the level of reputational risk your specific organization may be facing – and you may well also find a whole online supporter community that you didn’t know you had.
One need to be cautious and start to protect a hard earned online reputation now. On social networking sites, people welcomed into your circle who then get rubbed the wrong way can immediately begin giving you and your name negative reputation. In such situations need arises is of Reputation Managers depending on your situation, they can either build your reputation before something starts, but if you are in the need of emergency removal of these comments, they can help right away and work until it’s done.
A good reputation is also an effective entry barrier to most competitors. It builds confidence and grows sales; which ultimately leads to better revenues and higher profitability. In today’s Internet era erroneous & malicious gossip, rumors, unfair opinions and other bad news can spread fast, globally! Negative news can easily compound problems and if not tackled in a timely manner, the damage can be irrevocable.
The work these Reputation Managers do, you may not feel the effects of it immediately. It can take a while for a bad reputation to hit your bottom line, or a good one to increase profits. What’s important is you think about this as a long term business strategy built upon the hundreds of little things you can do right on a daily basis.
