Active Reputation Management

Coordinated collective attacks can seriously damage brand assets and websites. To guard against these attacks is the key to your security program. Equally important, however, is maintaining continued vigilance about mentions of your brand. The end result of a social media attack is brand damage, in most cases, versus damage to computer assets. An accumulation of negative brand mentions around service or product features can do lasting damage to a company by destroying brand value that has taken years to build. The principal competence in reputation management is the ability to respond, report, and remediate situations affecting a brand’s reputation. When this is not handled properly, the brand can suffer or even be destroyed. When the group Anonymous hacked into the e-mail of the Internet security company HBGary Federal in February 2011, the brand suffered a major hit.² HBGary was presenting at the RSA Security conference and was forced to pull out of the conference. HBGary did not come out with a strong response quickly. There were a number of negative stories about the company and the leaked e-mails that revealed the private communications within the company. Once a security company has been penetrated, how can that company possibly recover from the lack of trust around the company’s ability to deliver quality service? Could HBGary have responded in a more coordinated manner to defend its reputation? We will never know; the company response processes were definitely not exceptional. But considering that HBGary is still in business does show that the company is repairing its reputation and customers are still relying on its services.

²Josh Halliday “Anonymous: US Security firms ‘Planned to Attack WikiLeaks,’” The Guardian (February 15, 2011), http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/15/anonymous-us-security-firms-wikileaks.

Respond

The ability to respond depends on

Having systems in place that monitor mentions

Understanding the authority and influence of people posting the mentions

Having trained Community Managers in place

Leveraging existing relationships with the community

Maintaining an active presence on social networks

These capabilities and competencies benefit from the learning associated by building them up over time. In other words, a company is severely curtailed in its ability to communicate effectively without these capabilities in place.

The ability to respond effectively also depends very much on being able to respond quickly. A quick response is monitored in minutes and hours—not days. When rumors and innuendos start, it is best to address them as soon as possible by establishing the facts and by opening up lines of communication with the community.

Report

Reporting on social media mentions instills a discipline and gives valuable experience in analyzing the results. Over time, the company learns what are the most important terms and related terms to track, where the mentions are occurring, who is doing the mentioning, and when those mentions are likely to occur. Reporting also acts as an early warning signal by highlighting changes in consumer sentiment when they occur. Reporting helps link marketing and promotional activity with consumer perceptions and identify possible backlash or attack. Finally, reports can form a part of a chain of custody documentation and records and can provide important context around situations that do develop. For reports to be effective, they have to be operationally useful by providing data that supports the decision-making process.

Remediate

Successful reputation management depends on the ability to remedy troublesome situations. Beyond responding, remediating involves business processes and key stakeholders within the company. When a company’s community of customers discusses problems in service delivery, product features, customer service, or other aspects of a company, action must be taken to meet customers’ expectations. If they are misinformed, then it is a matter of communicating the facts in a forum and a tone that is meaningful for customers. For example, as we discussed in Chapter 3, when Taco Bell was faced with social media attacks against the quality of its meat, Taco Bell successfully addressed the community’s concerns about its ingredients through an extensive social media response. On the other hand, when customers have legitimate concerns, then Community Managers must be able to take the message back to senior management and steps must be taken to address the problems. Thus, when Domino’s Pizza suffered the ignominy of prank videos posted by two of its employees, the brand took actions to review its processes and to improve the quality of the food it serves. These internal changes were supplemented by wide-reaching advertising campaigns highlighting the company’s efforts in shoring up its reputation.