Why reputation matters

A couple of stories that really show that reputation does matter.

First up is the adorable rogue, Gordon Ramsay. I can't believe I'm mentioning him twice in my blog. But here goes.

He's been up to no good again. Upsetting TV presenters and the prime minister of Australia. But worst of all, he upset his mum! Actually the mum part possibly helped to save his backside. He was perceived so rude and offensive to a favourite Australian TV presenter that the country's prime minister waded into the argument causing bad press worldwide for Ramsay.

Perhaps his type of sense of humour doesn't work in Australia, or he hadn't realised just how fiesty Australian women are. But either way he should have thoroughly checked their culture before he started using his style of "charm" on the Australians. With his reputation at risk, he needed to apologise. And quickly. And so he said sorry. On Australian TV. It was the best thing to do. We'll soon see whether this recent episode affects sales of his books, TV series or restaurant attendence.

The second story is about the expenses crisis happening in the UK. The story below is from the CIPR's PR Voice blog - http://http://prvoice.typepad.com/. It's written by Kevin Taylor, CIPR President.

"The crisis caused by the exposure of the expenses of many MPs threatens more than just the political future of some of those individuals whose claims were highlighted and criticised.

Because if anybody ever doubted the importance of reputation, the current crisis is evidence of just what can happen when reputations are destroyed.

It is worth stating again that whether you are talking about an organisation or an individual, reputation is largely determined by three factors: what you say, what you do, and what others say about you. I’m afraid that – at different times in this crisis – various MPs and their representatives have failed on all three counts.

And where we stand now, is that the reputational damage is so great – it threatens Parliament itself. The collapse in voter confidence could very well see even lower voter turn outs in the next round of elections, which in turn could favour minority and extremist parties.

And it is hard to see where all this is currently heading. Until you go back to those factors that affect reputation and look closely at the first two – what you say and what you do. Parliament – not one party or another but the institution itself – needs now to be seen to be putting its House in order, it needs, more than ever before, to communicate clearly what it is doing, and some individuals need to either explain, apologise, or stand down – in some cases all three.

The media has played a crucial role in exposing some of the worst excesses; and – when the right actions are being taken – can also play a role in helping to rebuild confidence. I do worry, however, that the media opinion will likely divide into party political lines and that’s one reason why I feel that the organisation leading change needs to be seen to be Parliament and not necessarily Government.

There is an opportunity for party heads to show leadership, but Parliament needs to unite around a series of changes and measures that have all-party support. The issues at stake here are, I feel, too big for party point scoring."

Social media – how impactful is it?

I’ve watched with some interest as many of my peers have got very excited about social media.

I'm intrigued by social media's power and ability to spread information. I especially like the fact that it is global. I’ve been a member of facebook for nearly two years, Linked-in and blogger for three. And I joined twitter a couple of months ago. Currently I am following Obama on twitter. Yesterday I joined Xing. You can probably tell that I’m a little obsessed with it. And it seems that everyone else is too judging by all the headlines in the marketing and PR magazines/blogs. But who is using these applications? And should PRs and marketers consider them?

You would think the whole world was at it from the miles of media coverage on social marketing in traditional media, online and in PR and marketing literature. But not everyone is using social networking. While nearly all my friends use facebook, and even their parents in some cases, not everyone is logging in as regularly as I do. Busy mums log in about once or twice a month. Only 1% of my friends are using twitter. About 5% use Linked in. And a handful of my friends have a blog – mostly about traveling or living as an expat. We're in our thirties so perhaps we're not the target audience. And this is why I don't consider it as the "white knight" that everyone else does.

I believe that social media can complement traditional communications channels but will not replace them, for now. We should not rely on social networking sites entirely to promote our brand especially if our target audience is not using it (which goes without saying). However, PRs and marketers should consider it, investigate it and find out whether it fits their company's objectives and is used by their target audience. Time will tell though and you never know, the majority of people over 40 might be on facebook and tweetering daily by the end of 2009. But as yet, I'm not convinced.