Someone in your industry is going to be the eco trendsetter. Will it be you? It’s a label that draws a lot of media coverage and widespread appreciation. Any company looking to enhance its online reputation should take a closer look at going green.

Telecommuting, i.e. working remotely, is a fairly easy way for any company with phone sales or computer based employees to contribute to a greener economy. According to Treehugger, most employers still resist telecommuting despite the obvious benefits.

“In a poll of 1,500 technology workers, 37% said they would accept a salary cut (of up to 10%) if they could work from home, according to Dice Holdings.”

The United States could save an estimated 9.7 million gallons of gas and $38.2 billion per year from white collar employees working remotely from home just two days per week.

IT and technology based companies are slowly making the conceptual transition to accept the obvious: saving money and the environment is good. As the CIO, CEO, or IT leader of your company, look at this opportunity quickly. In five years, every company that can will allow employees to telecommute. Bob Hirsch has predicted $500 per barrel of crude oil within the next 3-5 years. That would put a heavy strain on the profits of every industry and the global economy.

Thinking ahead, any organization that can quickly make the switch to telecommuting can get a jump on the masses and come out on top as an environmental thought leader. Other benefits include:

• Higher employee satisfaction
• Less money spent on employee salaries
• Less money spent by employees on fuel and car maintenance
• Excellent material for PR and online reputation enhancement
• Contributing to the conservation of fuel
• Established environmental thought leadership in the industry

There will be some bumps and bruises along the way. Most objections to telecommuting revolve around organizational structure and production accountability. Employee production is a legitimate concern, but one that can be creatively overcome by the company focused on becoming a trend setter and thought leader.

Add to that mix the millions of dollars, the “party lifestyle”, and the total freedom to do whatever they please, and you have a recipe for public disaster. Whether it’s drugs, DUIs, rehab, separation, divorce, custody battles, indecent exposure, sexual harassment, insider trading, gambling addictions, or dozens of other morally dubious activities, celebrities have the money, the freedom, and the time to get into trouble.

To be more than a shooting star, these celebs employ image consultants and other PR / style professionals to help them craft the ideal public image. They have to appear just so to their target audience in order to maintain the mystique or desirability. An unexpected photograph, news article, or blog post can cause a whirlwind of gossip and speculation to beat against their already fragile careers.

Enter the reputation management professional. Savvy celebs (or their savvy agents) are already approaching ORM pros to have them monitor and report on negative mentions on the Web. From celeb gossip blogs and online entertainment mags to forums and Twitter convos, there are hundreds of virtual nooks and crannys for fans and anti-fans to spout off and spread their version of the latest story.

The Power of Celebrity Gossip
Before you know it, everyone believes that the nerdy kid from The Wonder Years is actually Marilyn Manson (try getting a job with THAT stigma) or Rob Lowe is labeled a repeat sexual harassment offender with babysitters / maids. Are these stories true? Unfortunately, most people spreading the rumors don’t care. They just want to hit the topics that will drive more pageviews and generate more ad revenue. The actual truth is entirely inconsequential.

But what do you do when approached by a celebrity’s agent? They’re looking for someone to manage Celeb X’s questionable reputation, and are dangling money in front of you like a carrot to help them make X smell like a rose?

Everyone is guided by a unique moral compass. Some of you see no problem marketing for anyone who pays. Money is money, you’ll say. Some of you won’t stick your neck out for anyone with a questionable reputation. And the majority of you probably sit on the fence, waiting to evaluate each situation individually before making a judgment call. Do you believe that X is telling the truth? Is he/she innocent of accusations? Do you feel comfortable assisting in a cover up? That’s for you to decide.

Be warned, however. It’s a slippery slope. You’ll be sworn to secrecy and you’ll sign a slew of documents that lets you know how badly you’ll be sued if ever you were to publicly acknowledge the existence of your contractual relationship to X. Once you’ve defended someone online and covered up their mistakes, there’s nowhere else to go but down. If you’re good at what you do, you’ll earn a reputation for being the guy/gal who can make online problems disappear (or dissipate), and celebs will come out of the woodwork seeking your expertise.

Word of Mouth Referrals
Word of mouth in Hollywood is the strongest form of marketing. All it takes is one director, producer, or starlet to discover your unusual talents. Word will get out. That’s why it’s so important to draw the line in the sand early. The first opportunity you have to work with someone famous, closely analyze the circumstances. A safe method is to sign an initial agreement to monitor and report only. That way, you can form your own conclusions about the person and allegations before you make a move to silence or disarm gossip and accusations throughout the Web.

Know Where You Stand Before You Negotiate
The best way to avoid an uncomfortable situation: know your professional standards BEFORE the situation presents itself. Ask yourself what your standards are/should be and draft a professional statement of professional guidelines that you will always adhere to. Having this document on hand will also be useful should you need to provide it to an agent inquiring about your services. If you set expectations early and provide supporting documentation, you’ll be much more likely to stay on safe side of your personal and professional boundaries.

Issue One covers “Strategies to Recover Reputation”, in which they state that the average length of time required to recover a damaged reputation in the United States is 3.2 years. If you do the math, that’s millions or billions in lost revenue, depending on the size of the company or senior executive. Issue One also encourages readers to develop an early warning system - i.e. a reputation monitoring system. There are many reputation monitoring tools and services out there, and each has its own flavor and approach.

Issue Two covers how “Corporate Responsibility Aids Reputation Recovery”. Adhering to the laws of the land should not be the only measuring stick for a corporation’s social consciousness. By pushing your company to the forefront of social responsibility, you both aid the community and generate significant positive press. Not that everything should be discussed in matters of what you can gain from it, but it’s important to note that companies with advanced social / environmental policies are rewarded with an abundance of positive press.

Issue Three is on “Triggers of Reputation Failure.” Financial irregularities, unethical behavior, and executive misconduct round off the top three triggers of reputation failure. One only has to stop and think of Enron, Michael Jackson (boy troubles), the New England Patriots (SpyGate), and the New York Knicks (Isaiah Thomas) to realize how damaging these three issues can be to a corporation’s global reputation. Your profitability stems from a reputation of trustworthiness and civic responsibility. These foundational issues must be protected as closely as you would guard the safety of your own spouse and children.

In case you’ve been living under a rock and have no idea who Weber Chandwick is and why you should care what they say, read their About Us page and check out their entire website.

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The posts have been flowing like mud around here, and I’ll do my best to provide more value to you loyal RSS readers. Keep in mind, however, that the most prolific subject matter expert bloggers typically “work” the least. Do the math. There’s only so much time in the day. It’s all about finding the balance.

For the sake of client privacy, we’ll call this client, “Flamingo Crossing.” Flamingo Crossing sells a high-end product to the posh VPs and real estate agent types who relish living in the lap of luxury. Flamingo Crossing not only sells their product through an ecommerce store, it also sells through a list of approved vendors. Now comes the problem(s).

There are dozens of non-approved vendors selling Flamingo Crossing’s product. They are using the company name “Flamingo Crossing” in their PPC ads, matching old or incorrect logos/images with the product, selling stolen product, reselling product without permission, etc. On top of these issues, even the approved vendors are not adhering to a consistent branding theme, thus diluting the potency of the Flamingo Crossing brand.

This is where the reputation manager enters into the equation. With several hundred approved vendors to review and potential thousands of non-approved vendors to deal with, Flamingo Crossing needs someone to monitor their branded names and products in hopes of serving these offenders with cease and desist letters from their legal department.

This project revolves more around brand management, but rolls over into reputation management as these inappropriate vendors may generate negative reactions from the consumer. So we have a multi-tiered problem to deal with, and a client that is VERY motivated to make things happen. Let’s look at the basic outline of this project:

Identify Goals
We have already established that the primary goal here is to locate vendors selling the brand or the product. We also want to inform the client of negative statements made against their brand so that they may both generate responses and follow the trail to possible misuses of their brand names.

Identify Terms
We begin by requesting a comprehensive list of identifiable terms, including SKUs (SKUs optional, based on scope of approved project). We take that list of terms and run it through our keyword analysis tools just to make sure there aren’t similar words and phrases that could lead us to our targets.

Monitor Tool Setup
We set up several monitoring tools to begin scouring the Web for information regarding our targets. We don’t implicitly trust any one tool at this point to provide comprehensive information, so we use each client as a case study for comparing the tools and how they perform.

Data Analysis
Perhaps the most lengthy part of the ongoing project. We take all the URLs that lead to mentions of our target keywords and review each instance not stemming from a website owned by the client for possible negative statements or misuse / abuse of intellectual property. We compile a list of pages on the Web to be addressed along with comments about each.

Reporting
In addition to compiling a list of troubling mentions / instances, we deliver to the client comprehensive reporting on the overall status of brand mentions, the proliferation or lack thereof of negative mentions / brand abuse, and deliver recommendations for how to appropriately deal with visible or forseeable top level issues that could spread.

Execution
This includes both the daily and the top level strategic responses that should be made to stave off the PR slide that can come from negative press online. The reputation manager distributes cease and desist letters to brand abusers (NOT an action taken for standard reputation issues) and assists the client with implementing approved measures to counter balance the negative statements already made. This is also the time for proactive PR and marketing initiatives to stave off potential future crises.

In the end, the client is responsible for legal actions taken, and the reputation manager is not in any way responsible for discussing legal terms with brand abusers or illegitimate vendors. When not directly responsible for the creation of ORM responses, the reputation manager is charged primarily with the task of locating the problems, accurately assessing the atmosphere surrounding each issue, and ensuring a timely response to crises, questions, complaints, and negative statements so that further damage to the company name is avoided.

Quick Summary
All government planes used to refuel other planes in the air are extremely old and need to be replaced. The U.S. government opened up bidding to the public and two companies responded: Boeing and Northrop/Airbus. There was heated debate over the possibility of a European manufacturer landing this tremendous $35 billion contract. Never before has a non-American manufacturer won this kind of government contract.

The question now is how does Boeing recover? No other American company can compete for these deals, and how do we know that one loss doesn’t lead to two or three? What happens if European contractors take away hundreds of billions of dollars from the U.S. economy? And maybe more importantly, how did Boeing screw this up?

These are questions investors will have to ask. $35 billion is nothing to scoff at. According to MSNBC, Boeing has been responsible for supplying refueling tankers to the Air Force for the past 50 years. That’s a lot of tradition and revenue to lose.

At this point in time, Boeing appears to be responding with silence and general acceptance of defeat. That could come back to haunt them in the days to come. Anytime your company or brand makes the headlines alongside negative words like “mistake, loses, loss, error, bad news, or defeated”, public perception and confidence in your brand dips at least marginally (if not drastically).

The Boeing PR staff better get it in gear. There’s another $65 billion out there to be had over the next 30 years, and Boeing needs to position itself to be the frontrunner to get it. I’ll keep an eye on this and see how it unfolds.

That one complaint post ranks #1 for the specialty garden tub company’s name. The company website ranks #2. In his particular niche, search engine reputation is huge. The company depends on their website for sales and promotional information. And somehow, this one post outranked them and was hurting their search rep big time.

As I said in the title, handle public product complaints with care. It’s easy to get offended and rush into battle like a bull in a china shop. But before you try blasting your accuser out of the sky, remember that the decisions you make now will affect your reputation forever. Your words are permanent once you’ve sent them out into the ether, so choose your response with care.

Casey’s (not his real name) initial response was to jump into the fray. He asked me for help finding comparable blogs/forums where he could post his own comments to outrank the complaint. His thought was that anything ranking higher than this negative piece would be better than being beaten outright. To some extent, this is true. But a little more thought put into his response would probably work in his favor in the long-term.

My response to Casey was to forgo the blog/forum hunt for now and focus on printing a response on the same forum/blog that the complaint was posted. My reasoning was twofold: 1) anyone reading the actual complaint would find his response listed immediately after, and 2) there’s always the chance that his response would outrank the original complaint.

My strongest recommendation, however, was that Casey allow me to at least review and revise whatever statements he would write in response. This is key, especially when the accusation comes from an ex-employee or anyone you’ve had relationship with. Your personal offense should not be counted against your company. Allow a “disinterested” third party review your response and make honest comments on style, tone, and content. Not everyone can afford to keep a PR firm on retainer, so choose your third party assistant wisely.

And, as always, feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas you might have.

Best of luck to you all.

A word to employers: Grow up! Realize that any quality blog posts written by an ex-employee still benefit your company by remaining visible. Those are searchable pages containing industry specific content that can still make you look good. But what about when the employee joins another team? This is your big PR opportunity to look like a mature corporate entity - one that embraces career development and speaks well of employees as they continue to pursue their dreams. It doesn’t hurt you to have an ex-employee’s name on your blog archive bylines. In fact, that employee may go on to be more successful somewhere and his/her name could become a valuable commodity to have in your archive. So don’t jump the gun by erasing ex-employees’ blog posts or by removing their names from the bylines. That’s just childish. And think of all the people those ex-employees may point out your faux pax to. Do you really want a whole group of people knowing that your company is so small minded that it feels threatened by each employee that leaves? Or would you rather be known as the employer who is proud of giving some future stars an excellent opportunity to hone their skills? Seems to be a rather obvious choice here.

Now, a word to ex-employees: Do not fear. WaybackMachine is here. If past employers delete your valuable blog posts from their corporate sites to “stick it to you” for whatever cheesy reason they might have, you can still get credit for them forever. Simply visit WaybackMachine online and search archived versions of your ex-employer’s site. This is especially effective if you make sure to get your name posted in the bylines of every site you write for. Simply pull up archived photos of your blog posts through the WaybackMachine and save screen prints of the actual pages with your blog titles and name in the byline. It will serve as absolute proof of your prolific blogging abilities regardless of whether your ex-bosses are savvy enough to keep them visible.

Take those screen prints with you to interviews in case a discussion should arise concerning the validity of your claims to have blogged professionally. Not only do the WaybackMachine screen prints give you credit, but they prove to your prospective employer that you are intelligent and creative enough to find the means to prove your work history in the midst of adversity.

According to the article, Facebook Beacon made the same mistake some time ago. It’s unusual to see giant web corporations lacking the foresight to handle this type of situation in advance. But when hundreds of complaints start coming in, it’s hard to turn a blind eye.

The Web is obviously the most advanced method of information storage and retrieval the public has ever experienced. eCommerce and social media are such staples in our society today that companies should automatically place user privacy and data sharing policies at the top of the list of importance.

When Google can make the mistake of releasing thousands of details about its users without realizing there’s a problem, allow yourself to become alarmed. As Google continues to grow and store a greater percentage of the world’s information, someone has to hold them accountable. I personally used Google Reader only once, at the behest of Graywolf. I found it to be boring and not nearly as interesting as reading my own feeds and twittering. It’s no big loss to me. My only concern is what this kind of mistake says about the future state of affairs.

Stay tuned.

It’s rather obvious that most executives are not going to understand the value of proactive reputation management. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it… right? Managing something you don’t know or believe could actually become a problem is not worth the monthly maintenance fee of several thousand dollars. Or is it? Only the cautious, conservative investor is likely to acknowledge the wisdom in proactively managing and guarding the corporate brand reputation.

Why spend money on something that hasn’t happened yet? Well, as Downhill points out, “Extensive reputation repair can entail building out as many as 10 sites - in other words 10 separate SEO jobs. At the heart of reputation management is an effective organic SEO strategy, and as we know - good organic SEO is not cheap.”

Well said. Building out sites and pages to fill the top 10 results of Google, Yahoo, MSN Live, and Ask will inevitably cost you much more when you’re competing with a solid negative authorities already in the top 10. The earlier you establish your presence, the better your chances of remaining at the top.

Let’s consider the options:

$3k-5k per month for proactive reputation management, OR

$40k+ per month for last minute emergency reputation repair.

Hmmm….. tough decision.

More details as they come available.