The Catch-22: Fixing Your Company’s Reputation Online or Fixing the Problem?
by
on May 27, 2008,
With the explosion of user-generated content ranging from blog posts to product reviews to complaints registered via Twitter, companies are growing more and more concerned about their reputations being sullied. An entire industry has sprung up to help corporations (as well as individuals) track their image online, as well as try to improve the image. Companies like Techrigy, Radian6, and filtrbox will help you track references online, while others like Reputation Defender propose to help you fix things you might find.
We've been watching companies enter the social media space repeatedly trying to manage negative customer feedback, such as Comcast's use of Twitter. It's a proactive approach that tries to grab customers when they first communicate a problem, hopefully changing that customer experience right in the moment. Others, like the Zappos CEO and his band of fellow Zappos Tweeters, are using social media to create the image of their company themselves, operating under the premise that putting a positive image out there to begin with makes customers more likely to believe they can contact you for resolution of a problem before broadcasting it online.
However, there still exist companies who view the Web and social media along with it as enemies to be feared. The Register notes that a TJX Companies employee (that would be the company that owns TJ Maxx and Marshalls) was fired for disclosing on his blog that not only was network security there still unbelievably lax even AFTER their massive loss of customers' credit card information, but that higher-ups refused to do anything about it. The dismissal was made on the grounds that the employee divulged "confidential company information online," but TJX has a much bigger problem than this blogger.
TJX already had an image problem after the security breach. I'm sure I'm not the only one that was the not-so-proud recipient of a brand-new credit card after the information theft. I've been wary of shopping there since unless I've had cash, but I know others who have gone right back to shopping there, assuming that TJX would be doing everything possible to make sure it never happened again. We now know that wasn't the case, and it's all because TJX thought that they could manage their reputation more effectively by firing the employee rather than rectifying the situations described in the blog.
Firing a blogger still makes news. And now, while the blog may have escaped much notice if not for the firing, TJX has an even bigger mess on their hands. Any PR person worth their salt would have recommended that the employee be commended and a public apology issued. Instead, TJX is giving the impression that they still have something to hide. And it's going to to take more than SEO techniques and some decent PR to fix that. Their effort has been pointed in the wrong direction.
Would you shop there now?
Image from Shawn Zehnder Lea used under Creative Common License.
Leslie previously talked about managing your online presence and taking responsibility for it yourself here.
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Svetlana Gladkova
Opensource 
Michael Fidler 
Hi Cyndy,
You have hit on an important issue. By far, the most effective way for companies to improve their reputation online is to authentically participate in the conversation and ACTUALLY improve their reputation. If they are finding issues that are being discussed online then the best way to deal with them is to listen effectively, engage transparently and honestly and most importantly address the issues. Any form of “gaming” or online manipulation will not result in long term success.
On the other hand, authentic engagement with customers online will go a long way even if issues remain. Customers will give brands (companies) a lot of credit just for listening and caring enough to reach out to them as people.
As Brian Solis & Geoff Livingston coined, “Participation is Marketing”.
Marcel
CEO, Radian6
Hi Cyndy,
You make an important point “there still exist companies who view the Web and social media along with it as enemies to be feared.”
I would go as far as to say this is a large percentage of companies not the minority. The level of insight social media can provide companies should be embraced not feared. When else in history has it been possible to “get into” your consumers heads without even having to ask.
The companies that embrace this and actively monitor and participate in social media well realise increasing brand strength and popularity. The ones that fear it and try to manipulate are unfortunately for them going to be banging their heads against the wall!
Leon
http://www.SentimentMetrics.com
@Marcel I agree to an extent, but the good will of customers will only last so long if issues aren’t fixed.
@Leon I think there is a definite gap in the types of companies who are engaged. Companies that started out on the web or have launched since the original dot-com boom seem more willing to engage than enterprise companies that have been around for decades or longer. It also has to do with the type of employees; if you have a high percentage of employees already engaged in social media, it’s more likely that the company as a whole will be engaged. I do see some strides in enterprise companies, but not nearly as quickly as they are supposed to be moving.