Picture this: You are sitting at your desk. It's half-past midnight. You can't sleep, so you've decided to engage the Internet in a rhetorical game of Google-stalking. You type in names of
long-lost friends and colleagues to see where they've landed. Then, out of morbid curiosity, you decide to type your own name into the search engine. When the list of results pops up ... well,
let's just say it's not a pretty (or accurate) picture. Sleeping soundly will not be in the cards tonight.
Welcome to the day-in and day-out routine of defenders of corporate reputations (read: PR professionals). The consumer-generated content phenomenon has empowered anyone with an Internet
connection and a bone to pick, and their greatest joy is felt when their vitriol is heard loud and clear on search engines. A savvy cyber geek can rig their blog or fill-in-the-blank-sucks.com site
to appear higher in a list of search engine results than the official corporate Web site itself, even if that rant is unwarranted or just plain wrong.
For corporate communicators with a vengeful spirit, the inclination may be to go on the offensive and target these derelict Internet users. However, the communications department - or, whatever
unifies the PR and marketing functions - has the internal resources to boost its own corporate Web site and news without ever setting "foot" outside its own corporate Web parameters. These strong
and strategic digital practices will boost positive, "official" corporate information and bury the flamethrowers.
Tear Down The Walls
We sing the praises of strategic integration on a weekly basis, and this one will be no different. In this case, the marketing department in an organization usually owns information that is
valuable to PR professionals when it comes time to create search engine-optimized press releases. This is true for Countrywide, whose PR and marketing departments work closely to issues press
releases that overshadow any negative conversations online.
"The most helpful thing about the marketing group is their ability to define the key words that people tend to type into search engines before landing on countrywide.com," says Cari Kerns, vice
president, corporate communications of Countrywide. "We then take those words and put them higher up in the press releases we issue."
But, truth be told, it's not always easy to share information between two departments that traditionally viewed one another as competitors. When confronted with this statement, Kerns notes that,
as the old adage goes, the proof is in the pudding.
"The first SEO press release we did, marketing wasn't in the picture," she says. "But once it came out, they were very interested. We started collaborating and found that we got better results
in the end. After all, from the PR side of things, you can't just send out a press release anymore. It's a full media approach, and it behooves PR and marketing to work together."
Keeping with the SEO theme, another corporation facing the fires of Google hell made a strategic decision that paid off big time. In 2004, the Environmental Protection Agency began an
investigation of DuPont, the manufacturer of Teflon, under the allegation that chemicals in the product caused cancer. Conversations germinated on blogs and message boards, and searches for
"Teflon" and "cancer" skyrocketed. The company's next move in managing and mitigating the fallout would determine the amount of damage done to its reputation.
They bought the search term "Teflon + cancer." By doing so, they regained control of what popped up first in online searches.
Blogs Eat Blogs
SEO press releases that embed search terms with proven results are an initial step in saving corporate reputations from damnation to search engine hell, but abandoning keywords there is a flat-
footed strategy. A corporate blog is another hot spot for keywords that can generate and maintain high traffic, and thus boost a company's ranking. This is especially true when your corporation is
the butt of some unsavory blog jokes. Creating a corporate blog is an entirely different discussion, but, once it's there, Horn Group Partner and EVP Shannon Latta offers these tips for
managing and promoting it:
- Syndicate the blog via news aggregating services;
- Use social tagging and search services such as Technorati;
- Track mentions of the blog through RSS services such as Feedburner;
- Submit the blog to networks for additional visibility;
- Build voice & credibility by concurrently posting on other sites; and,
- Link back to other high-profile blogs.
Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None
The old adage has corporate reputation implications aplenty, as online consumer critics are especially inclined to attack companies that are responding to their outcries in phony or unnatural
ways. For example, if your organization is not predisposed to blogging, but there are blogs throughout the Web on which it is criticized, creating a corporate blog in response will not make strides
in rectifying the damage. On the contrary, the lack of knowledge and expertise will be obvious, and it will only incite additional mockery from bloggers.
"At Countrywide, we don't blog," Kerns says. "There are negative blogs out there, but we don't know how to get in and respond, so we don't."
It's a wise move in an environment that inherently encourages people to communicate communicate communicate all over the place, and to have their hand in as many pots as possible.
"In the current environment, it's crucial for every company to use every medium possible [to communicate and enhance reputation]. We still run up against the misrepresentation that all we do is
make light bulbs," says Peter O'Toole, director of public relations and public affairs for General Electric. "That said, you have to stay true to who you are. Otherwise, you will look like
you are betraying your history, your strength and your connection to customers now. To suddenly run 180 degrees in the opposite direction is a very high risk, and you will most likely get negative
returns. [When approach reputation-building initiatives] online, take your time and be methodical."
Enable Your Employees To Raise The Dead
It may sound like preaching to the choir, but your employees are your greatest strength, and your greatest brand evangelists - at least, they should be. The companies with the greatest
reputations, both online and off, have rigorous employee engagement programs.
Take IBM Corporation. The innovation superstar made a boomerang turnaround when, in the mid-90s, it was suffering from a sickly image. But such is not the case today, thanks in part to
innovative internal communications initiatives that target employees to build the brand themselves. For example, during the 2004 ValueJam, more than 57,000 employees posted 32,000 ideas and comments
on how the company's values could be applied to improve IBM's operations, workforce policies and relationships. To date, 35 of the best ideas -- as rated by IBMers themselves -- are in various stages
of implementation. Living corporate values from the inside-out:
- Builds internal loyalty;
- Allows the organization to cope with change, both internally and externally, especially in the context of consumer-generated media;
- Ensures a positive reputation accordingly.
"These new media models give us additional ways of reaching audiences with messages," says Jon Iwata, VP, corporate communications at IBM. ""Most challenging is that you have to be willing to
allow others in the company - I'd say everyone in the company, eventually - to engage with each other and the external world without continuous monitoring and oversight by 'authorized spokespeople.'
But it starts with a recognition that we are no longer in control of our company's messages and channels. Once we liberate ourselves from that illusion, we can begin to adopt news ways, tools and
approaches."
CONTACTS:
Cari Kerns, [email protected]; Peter O'Toole, peter.o'[email protected]; Jon Iwata, [email protected]; Shannon Latta, [email protected]