Online Reputation Management

How Internal Company Reputation Can Affect Your ORM

Online Reputation Management (ORM)

I asked fellow blogger and SEO/Online Reputation Management specialist Warner Carter if he would do a guest post (or two) on my blog. I was delighted when I read his posts. This one perfectly illustrates the possible problems for businesses, as well as giving useful tips on maintaining a good reputation online. You can find out more about Warner in the bio at the end of this post.

How Internal Company Reputation Can Affect Your ORM

I just read an article about a company whose reputation was ruined just because of a careless, reckless employee. It was alarming because no one thought that a simple ‘mistweet’ and a ‘misunderstood’ profile photo could break hundreds of professional relationships. What hurt the company most were things broadcast without the management’s knowledge. Every detail was bent and twisted, and the very first one to pick these tasty bits of information up was their direct competitors. Malicious advertising jingles and print ads surfaced; all these were undoubtedly created to destroy the company’s name.

Monitoring your employees’ behavior will help protect not only yourself but the company as well. It may sound a bit like a baby-sitting task, but you don’t have to literally keep a close watch on them just to restrain their behavior when outside the company’s premises. Many employees believe that their non work-related lives are outside the company’s authority. There are even reported cases of employees suing their employers for encroaching on their private lives, for giving sanctions for events that happened outside company premises.

The social network effect The popularity of social networking sites and personal blogging opened convenient ways for ordinary people to express what they feel. For simple employees, blogs and social networking sites are perfect extensions of their emotions, of the emotions they can’t express directly to their bosses and co-workers. We all know that these sites offer advantages and disadvantages, too. These sites are great tools for marketing and communication. Majority of companies today also use these sites to communicate with their employees even during weekends and non-working hours. One drawback about using these sites, however, is that these sites are faster ways of spreading gossip in and out of the company. This disadvantage leads to a lot of problems that have been affecting many employers and employees today.

What you can do to change your company’s reputation: Do not prohibit your employees from using social networking sites. Social networking sites are great tools for expanding a service and delivering messages quickly. Let them post messages or updates about what they want. Let them blog. Democracy has no limitation. Allow your employees to blog and say anything about your company. If you treat them well, they’ll write good things about your company, too. Do not go overboard. Let them do what they want to do outside the office. The executives of some companies act like school principals and even track their employees’ lives outside work premises. This causes your employees to lose trust in you, and can even make you liable for lawsuits. Obey the law, compensate your employees properly. There is no room for anger in a satisfied employee’s heart. A satisfied employee will always be a grateful employee. These are the loyal employees who devote not only their talent but also their lives to the company. Be a walking testimony. You can’t control all your employees. They have free will, too. You cannot please everybody, so be open to the possibility of at least one person being dissatisfied with your service. Just in case these matters end up in the courtroom, let your own history save you. Your loyal employees will surely attest to your good work. Employees have the power to put you down, but most of them won’t use that power against you, if you have not committed any wrong.

Social networking sites can empower employees to ruin your company’s reputation, but these sites can help you maintain good professional relationships as well. One wrong tweet and you’re gone, but one good tweet can put things right. To summarize, the reputation of your own company is in your hands. It is not about catering to all the demands of your employees; it is about relating to them and understanding their needs. Treat your employees kindly because your company will not succeed without them. We were all employees once, so we should know how it feels to be in their shoes.

Author Profile Warner is interested in everything online that fuels discovery. I find SEO a facinating puzzle so of course work for an SEO Reseller, Endless Rise

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Posted by Warner Carter - February 15, 2011 at 11:00 pm

Categories: Online Reputation Management Tags: Online Reputation Management

www.sourceinterlink.com | Reputational Woes

I was looking at a job posting for a Social media Manager at Source Interlink. My interest and experience with cars and motor-cycles (together with my social media background) seemed to be a good match for many of Source Interlinks areas of expertise and the job requirements.

However my Reputation Management training (as well as a bit of curiosity) prompted me to research the company a little more. So my first stop was Google. I did a search for “www.sourceinterlink.com” – Ok I’m a little lazy and so I copied the url from the advertisement.

The first page results were mostly the usual company pages( about, jobs etc) however the 7^th result was “ Www.sourceinterlink.com’s Blog | Www.sourceinterlink.com …” – Well this was what I was looking for asit would give me an idea of their use of blogging and social media as well as, hopefully, links to their social media profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. So I immediately clicked on this hyperlinked title.

Imagine my surprise when instead of seeing the Source Interlink blog I got instead a warning message on my computer – See below.

As you can imagine I was totally dumbfounded and a little annoyed that such a reputable company would use such tactics in their social media campaign. This is exactly the opposite of social media campaigns by the majority of companies who instead encourage an open, transparent and honest interchange with their customers. Certainly no reputable company would stoop so low as to do even 1 of the actions mentioned in this warning.

I therefore did not proceed to this “Blog” and instead clicked the “Get me out of here” button. As I believe most sane people would. I was however left with a sense of betrayal by this company that I had until then assumed to be totally above board and indeed a leader in the industry. Certainly I would not trust anything more associated with this company or it’s affiliates.

For most people that one warning would have been enough to dissuade them from further use www.sourceinterlink.com or it’s associated company www.simautomotive.com -

However there is one interesting thing that I noticed when I returned to the Google search results page. That is that the URL for this site is in fact not the company URL but the address of a URL shortening service, which of course then redirects visitors to another page. This means that this listing might be (and quite possibly is) the site of someone completely unrelated to Source Interlink. Off course without visiting the site it is impossible to ascertain the truth of this assumption also.

This means that either:

o Source Interlink is indeed using underhanded methods of collecting information from a blog, thereby also possibly damaging visitor’s computers.

o Another person/company is using this tactic to damage the reputation of Source Interlink and it’s associated companies.

Either way the result remains the same and the loser is www.sourceinterlink.com witha big dent in their Brand’s reputation, growing bigger each day this practice is allowed to contuinue.

I personally found it hard to believe that this practice was sanctioned by such a well-known company as source interlink and so instead of writing a cover letter and applying for the position, I sent them a report on what I had found.

For all of you, my readers here (below) is a screenshot of the search results and the BLOG page you would be redirected to, so if you have already been there you may decide if it is indeed a company blog or an imposter.

If youhave any more info on www.sourceinterlink.com and their blog please leave a comment here.

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2 comments - What do you think?
Posted by mac - January 29, 2011 at 2:47 pm

Categories: Online Reputation Management Tags: Brand Reputation, redirect scam, www.sourceinterlink.com

Ryanair Wins the Battle but Loses the War

The recent case involving Robert Taylor the owner of I Hate Ryanair website and Ryan Air is of interest to all Online Reputation Management specialists.

Reputation Management Problems for Craigslist.com(London)

Reputation Management Problem | Example Craigslist.co.uk

Recently I was looking for rental accommodation in London, UK. Having lived in USA I immediately looked on Craigslist in London. I was happy to see that despite being fairly new in UK there were a number of listings each day in the “Rooms/Shared” section.

However it was only when I looked at all these listings that I got the true picture. For the purposes of this article I will take 1 day’s listings (September 15^th 2010) as an example.

On that day 25 listings for shared/rooms were to be seen. Out of that number 15 listings (60%) were for properties that could only be seen on a site (www.interlet.com) after paying for membership to their site, with the basic plan costing £89.99 (approx. US $140). This company added a minimal description (on Craigslist) with a standard last sentence (including link) saying that for more information the viewer should visit their site.

In my opinion these ads are not complying with the terms and conditions of Craigslist which state (under “Conduct” section) –

You agree not to post, email, or otherwise make available Content that constitutes or contains :
•   ”affiliate marketing,” “link referral code,” “junk mail,” “spam,” “chain letters,” “pyramid schemes,” or unsolicited commercial advertisement;
•   “that constitutes or contains any form of advertising or solicitation”
•   post the same item or service in more than one classified category or forum, or in more than one metropolitan area;

I do not know if any of the properties listed by this advertiser actually even exist or if as I suspect they are just teaser descriptions that promise greater things upon paying for a membership.

Well for any company (or for that matter state) there really is little point in having terms and conditions (Laws) if you are not also willing and able to enforce them.

As far as this practice concerns Online Reputation Management, we should consider the user experience.

•   The frustration of opening, over 60% of the ads, only to find, essentially a dead-end.
•   The realization (later) of the time wasted in opening all these ads.
•   The assumption that maybe Craigslist is allowing this practice for it’s own nebulous reasons.
•   Possibly even a review of whether the viewer’s time might have been better spent on a competitor site like Gumtree.

From a Reputation Management viewpoint this is an easy fix, as it merely requires that the company allocate time and resources to ensuring that their terms and conditions are adhered to. After all the T & C s were written for a reason.

Sadly however on Craigslist the problems do not end there. After searching listings of multiple days I decided to “reply” to 10 such listings. I had chosen these because they offered accommodation in “Premium” Neighbourhoods of Central London at very affordable prices. All listings included utility bills and cable TV and Broadband internet. Some even intimated possibilities of “other benefits” with phrases like “I’m a lovely and friendly lady..i love meeting people”
With my favorite being the line “We are currently both women in their late twenties living in the flat, who are lovely! Which did beg the question “were these women contemplating a sex change soon?”

Unlike my experience in USA where more than 75% of my enquiries were answered within 2 days, here in London only 20% were answered. One of the replies asked me for details so that a “Lawyer” could include these in a Tenancy Agreement/Contract – This before I had even seen the property or met the Flat owner.

I came to the conclusion after comparing the listings I had chosen to reply to with similar listings on other sites, that Craigslist was also unable to stop what I came to assume, were for the most part scams, from being published on their site. This is of course a different and harder problem to solve. However it does affect a user’s experience on the site (not least if that user happens to be the victim of a scam as a result) and impact on a Company’s Online Reputation.

For the reasons mentioned above my overall impression of the time I spent on Craigslist (4 hours) was that it was completely wasted as far as the property searches go and I would therefore not be returning.
OK maybe it was not a “complete” waste of time, after all it did get me to write this post which I hope will give a good example to all interested in Reputation Management of a well known company’s reputational problems.

Lastly there was the listing for Free room for fit, active lads aged 18-24yo
With phrases like “So, if you are a fit, masculine lad who’s sexually top,” this was at least an interesting slant on how to find a “boyfriend “ by an enterprising gay man. All this without seemingly breaching any terms and conditions even if many might consider this listing to be in the wrong category. As far as Reputation management is concerned this was but a minor hiccup.

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3 comments - What do you think?
Posted by mac - September 19, 2010 at 10:38 am

Categories: Online Reputation Management Tags: craigslist, london, Online Reputation Management, propert rental, reputation management, rooms, share

Google Simplifies Reputation Management for Local Businesses

Apart from the tools Google offers to monitor your Online Reputation, they have now taken another leap forward.