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Archive for the ‘Reputation’ Category
Action Plan: Reputation
Friday, February 29th, 2008
So you have found someone complaining about you, your company or your product (hopefully using Attenalert when it launches!), what do you do next? In the book “Radically Transparent” by Andy Beal and Judy Strauss, a 7 step action plan is set out which explains the best way to handle such a situation and it has been published on the book’s accompanying website:
1. Check the facts
2. Determine the impact
3. Bring together trusted counsel
4. Understand your detractor
5. Decide on the appropriate response
6. Host the conversation
7. After the dust has settled
Whilst it is certainly a good plan, a lot of the steps seem to be common sense. The crucial factor of course is not rushing into responding, which really applies to any situtation, and thinking carefully about the ramifications of your reply. This is much more likely to be of use to larger companies which have set PR policies than smaller businesses or individually but that said, attacks on reputation can happen to anyone and it is important to have an idea of what to do next even if there is no formal plan.
The book, Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online (to give it its full title), is not out in the UK until 13 March but is available in the US right now. Once our (UK) Amazon order arrives, you can be sure of a full review.
Sunday Times: Reputation
Sunday, February 24th, 2008
The Sunday Times has an interesting article on reputation management and mentions a couple of companies that offer services to help recover when someone has hijacked your name in search engines.
Although not an in-depth “howto”, it does have a few tips about how to be proactive in protecting your name including registering as many domain names as possible that contain your name including variations containing swearing. It is interesting to note that the companies mentioned charge a huge amount to help you, the figures quoted mention a fee of £900 GBP (~$1750 USD)!