Reputation matters, whether you’re an ordinary individual, an extraordinary individual, a crook, a saint, a political figure, or an entertainer. But reputation matters for more than just individuals. In the world of business, reputation has an ever broader impact.
It’s hard to change someone’s mind. However, it’s easy to confirm one’s biases. And nowhere is this more true than in the world of political reputation management.
Corporate reputation refers to people’s collective opinion regarding a corporation or enterprise. It’s based on such features such as search engine results, news coverage, and the publicized actions of the company.
Corporate sentiment, or business sentiment, is how people feel about a brand. In more technical terms, it’s the level of confidence that shareholders have in a corporation or business—the prevailing mood or attitude about that company’s success (or lack thereof).
In today’s digital environment, reputation is more important, more pervasive, more unforgettable, and more meaningful than ever before. It’s easy to neglect, abuse, reject, or shred a reputation. It’s difficult to build, sustain, protect, and enhance a reputation. It can happen in minutes, and circle the globe within hours.
How reputation works: The information that shapes it and the people who perceive it
A person or company’s reputation is based on information (of some kind or another). And every reputation is perceived by people (of some kind or another). Put information and perception together, and you’re left with a potpourri of differences, reactions, interactions, and misunderstandings in the grand arena of how reputation works.
What is reputation management? Reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a brand or person.
Your company has fallen from grace. Maybe your CEO was arrested for fraud. Maybe E. coli was found in your food and made your restaurant customers sick. Or maybe you’ve just made some ill-advised business decisions over time, and it’s finally caught up with you.
Today, it’s easier than ever before to spark misinformation, watch it spread, and then witness it take down corporations, crush reputations, and topple political figures.
Exaggeration this is not. A brief glance at the news tells you all you need to know. Fake news is powerful enough to shake technology juggernauts, crush world-famous personalities, and wipe entire businesses off the map.