Reputation, the One Thing You Cannot Really Buy

I'm in the Big Easy this week for a conference of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). You can view the real time blogging from the conference board here. New Orleans, I'm told, is not what it used to be and is coming back very slowly. The events connected with Katrina have put a really big dent into the city population and, in some respects, its reputation.

In the last couple of days I have been following a story at Deep Jive Interests where Tony Hung has been talking about how to make conversational marketing work and providing a recipe for real conversations. Do take the time to read his previous post on The Real Nature of Conversational Marketing as well. He has some very good points and thinking there, which involve reputation.

Our reputations, personal and professional, matter. We only have one, and we need to do everything in our power to protect it. Reputation is the reflection of your organization over time as seen by the stakeholders and can add significantly to your bottom line. In our discussion with Warren Bickford of Vancouver Coastal Health, reputation is earned, it cannot be bought. Let me say that again, it is earned, and it is extremely vulnerable.

The elements that stakeholders consider when making a judgment about your company are:

• product quality -- if your product is not good, there is no amount of spin you can do
• management
• financial performance
• social responsibility
• market leadership

It is a less trusting world the one we live in now. People, publics are watching for behavior and commitment. There is a very emotional, thus irrational response to lack of trust. And there is a silver lining. When managed right, reputation can be your best asset.

If we go back to the conversation at Deep Jive Interests, what might be the elements that we judge when thinking about reputation in the blogosphere?

• content quality
• the voice behind the writing and the respect of the voices behind the comments
• usefulness, the currency of self publishing
• responsibility to being authentic, honest, and ethical
• behavioral leadership and participation

How do organizations measure that their consistent behavior and commitment enhance reputation?

• taking the pulse of the workplace environment
• getting feedback from social responsibility
• the quality of its products and services
• financial performance
• understanding and awareness
• vision and leadership

Could these principles or similar ones be applied to social media? Not only blogs and self-publishing tools, but the whole environment of free exchange of ideas and conversations. How would you apply some of these principles and measurement tools to blogs? After all, loyalty is a direct measure of how we make people feel. How do blogs measure up?

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Great post, Valeria. I believe and my firm encourages that we build brands (reputations) from the inside/out. That means everything that we say or do must exceed our expectations as well as our customers expectations.

Image (perception) is everything in the business world, and it evolves from within the heart of the business.

Enjoy New Orleans.

[Mark Northern]

John Wooden (if you don't know who he is, Google him) once said: "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is who you truly are. Your reputation is merely who others think you are." I believe that... but... perception is often reality. Reputations are built and crushed rapidly in the digital age. We should all fine-tune our filters to resist both "instant credibility" and those who seek to damage others' reputations.

[Tony Hung]

Hi Valeria,

Thanks for the kind tip of the hat, here.

Sadly, while we may have all been taught about what happens on the inside, managing what people think of you is what reputation is all about -- and branding is a close cousin to what that's all about as well.

As for measuring reputation, that's a very tricky thing -- but I think that it has to be done. You just can't know without asking ... a pretty self-explanatory statement, but I think its true.

Cheers
t

[Andrea Morris]

Great post Valeria. I agree that reputations are earned through consistently exceeding your client's expectations.

[Valeria Maltoni]

Lewis -- it starts with who you are (people) and where you are (place/context) and then radiates outside. I like the distinction you make of image vs. brand.

Mark -- "We should all fine-tune our filters to resist both 'instant credibility' and those who seek to damage others' reputations." You are saying something very important here. Who among my readers has felt lulled into a sense of intimacy to them be disappointed? Credibility, like reputation, take time to build.

Tony -- Your posts were outstanding and we have been talking about reputation here at the conference. I think it's worth exploring what reputation means for brands, where the perception is, who owns the values and benefits, etc. Reputation can be measured in impressions and, yes, with feedback.

Andrea -- and maybe we are also responsible to uphold our personal reputations to ourselves and our colleagues by being consistent in communicating with them.