Worried about your company getting flogged in the blogosphere? Hey, it happens — look no further than consumer-watchdog site The Consumerist for some chilling examples of companies taking a serious reputation-beating. Marketing guru (and book author) Andy Beal offers 10 tactics for saving (and improving) and your company’s online reputation. For starters:
Assume everything will make it’s way to the web You should assume that every phone conversation will be taped, every internal memo leaked, and every hallway conversation shared with a blogger. No matter what policies you put in place, no matter how many times you tell a journalist something is “off the record,” you should utter only the words you’d want to see on the front page of the Wall Street Journal.
The author also recommends recognizing your company’s weaknesses, stuffing your Web site with helpful information about the company, and joining the blogosophere yourself as an ideal way to communicate with customers — and exert at least some control over your online reputation.
