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In the midst of a recall, you want to save as much face as possible. Reputation Management Professionals have the background needed to help you do just that.
“Lose money for the firm, and I will be understanding. Lose a shred of reputation for the firm, and I will be ruthless.”
-Warren Buffett
Salomon Brothers was a brokerage firm with a long history of growth and trustworthiness by the early 1990s. That was soon to change. In 1990, and then again in 1991, they submitted illegal bids for US Treasury Securities. When they were held accountable by the SEC, the entire organization almost fell apart.
Luckily for Salomon brothers, a man named Warren Buffett had invested a sizable amount of money in the firm in 1987. When the firm started coming apart at the seams, he stepped in as chairman, rescuing them from utter collapse. At a subcommittee hearing in September of 1991, he spoke the above words sharing a philosophy that ultimately saved the firm.
Buffett has been strong in his opinion that reputation is a determining factor in the strength of a company. At almost no other time is a company more worried about reputation than during a recall. Just as Buffett stepped in, getting more involved in order to make things right for Salomon brothers, it is helpful to have an outside party evaluate and manage reputation in the midst of a recall. They are not involved in the day-to-day decisions that may or may not have led to the recall, and can give their unbiased, professional advice to save the public perception of the company. These individuals are known as reputation management professionals.
What is a Reputation Management Professional?
Reputation management professionals are public relations specialists that have taken their speciality even further. They have certification or a niche degree from their business school in the field of reputation management. Using subtle methods, they guide public conversation toward positive aspects of the brand and their efforts, rather than the negatives that can so frequently arise during the recall process.
What Do Reputation Management Professionals Do?
When guiding public conversation, reputation management is largely focused on media. In today’s day and age, a large portion of that conversation is happening on social media.. Search engine results are also a large area of focus. Reputation management professionals create positive content to counter the negative with the aim of having it appear in search engines before the negative pieces.
How Do I Find a Good Reputation Management Professional?
When you’re in the market for a reputation management professional, you want to look for someone who has experience working with companies of a similar size while they were in crisis mode. Many ORMs (or Online Reputation Managers) focus on individuals, removing old Facebook pictures that don’t match their professional image, or removing search results that air on the side of personal or inappropriate rather than professional.
If you’re a company, you need a different set of skills in the person or firm that you hire. To make sure you’re getting what you need, interview their past clients. Be sure that they use the best possible search engine optimization techniques, and no black hat techniques where they would be focusing only on the search engines and not on the human audience. Establish that they themselves have a sparkling reputation before you hire them to manage yours.