Reputation Management, the #1 Reason the C-Suite Needs to Listen to Social Media

A good reputation is priceless. Once damaged, it can be both difficult and expensive to reverse — and in some cases, impossible.

With the onslaught of corporate scandals a decade ago there were significant changes in corporate governance, including the introduction of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. These wide-sweeping changes were introduced to rebuild consumer confidence.

Back then, our biggest worries were about what was said in the latest press reports. Add social media to the mix and a whole new dimension has been added to protecting corporate reputation. The question then becomes, What is your company doing to monitor and protect your reputation in the social space?

More recently, there has been a momentous change in how corporate reputation is affecting the bottom line.  In fact, a 2011 Eisner Amper Board of Directors survey, found that reputational risk had actually overtaken regulatory compliance as their number one concern.

Image: Thesportsblog.com

To underscore just how important reputation has become, RepuStar launched its Corporate Reputation Index, calculated by the Dow Jones indexes in late 2011. Corporate governance experts now recommend that you manage reputation the same way you would manage any other asset that you have.

So what are the critical social media conversations that the C-Suite could start with?  Here are four that can really shed some light on corporate reputation:

1. Brand mentions (both the volume as well as the sentiment.  Are people being positive or negative about your brand?
2. Names of your executive, board of directors other high profile public facing employees.
3. Discussion around key initiatives, events or activities.
4. Safety and health issues.

Has your enterprise company listened to conversations around its brand and reputation? Now’s the time, before you have a reputation management crisis on your hands.

(Note:  this is a blog post that I wrote for my day job and it originally appeared on http://www.radian6.com/blog/2012/07/reputation-management-the-1-reason-the-c-suite-needs-to-listen-to-social-media/ on July 20, 2012)