3 Reasons for Company Reputation Damage and How to Fix It

Company reputation damage is not to be taken lightly. Preserving a positive online reputation should be a part of your business strategies. Your consumers’ trust is a commodity that is hard to attain and sensitive to keep.

Customers are more proactive with their buying decisions and are more careful before trusting a brand with their loyalty and support. Once a company’s reputation is damaged, it takes so much time and effort to restore it.

Even then, the reputation may not be completely restored to the level it was once before. Sometimes the reason for the reputation damage may not be valid, but word of mouth is so powerful among consumers that even gossip can hurt you.

In a recent survey among 1,843 participants from 60 nations, owning either private or public companies, rank reputation damage as a top management concern.

Here are the reasons that can cause company reputation damage, and some tips to avoid them:

1. Personal Online Reputation

If you think that you can separate your identity from the brand you represent, think again. In this digital age, where almost any digital footprint can be retrieved, you need to align your image to what you are representing. It does not equate that you need to be perfect. Of course, that is improbable. You are bound to find one picture of you somewhere you might not be too proud of today. Or maybe you wrote about something in the past you no longer believe in. If you hold an essential position today, or you are the face of your brand, then manage your reputation. Go over past posts. Delete anything that can compromise your privacy and your integrity. Sadly, people do not care to verify information that thoroughly, and so a gossip does not have to be true to hurt you and your business.

Moving forward, make sure you are mindful of whatever content you put online. Think twice and assess if it will benefit you or compromise the reputation you are building. Integrity is defined as one, or whole. If you are a person of integrity, how people see you in your corporate accounts should not be so far from whom you are as projected from your accounts. We have seen the downfall in the online reputation of some of the most influential in society because of a rash comment, biased action, abuse, or even criminal behavior that got exposed online. People change, yes. Audiences can forgive, yes. But most often than not, the reputation that was damaged could hardly be recovered, depending on the gravity of deception that viewers feel they were subjected to.

Andy Beal, an Online Reputation Management expert, mentions of a California student whose boastful Twitter update about receiving a job at the tech giant Cisco led to the company rescinding their offer.

We need to consider the Internet as a public space where our online persona can be scrutinized and judged by others. Do not allow your online persona to affect your reputation and the way people deal with you.

Employers can find so much information about you on the Internet, sometimes even before they decide to meet with you. Is your personal online reputation sabotaging your real-life job prospects?

2. Bad Social Media Presence

Social media engagements can make or break your reputation. Be careful then who manages your social media accounts. Make sure they carry the heart of your business and not risk misrepresenting you and your brand. One insensitive comment can damage your reputation.  Reacting negatively to users who bash you have a tremendous backlash. These are just some pitfalls of bad social media etiquette.

You need to show consistency when it comes to your posting. You do not want to come off as inconsistent and unreliable to your followers. On the other hand, avoid over-posting as well. Be guided by how many times it is generally acceptable to post on various social media platforms.

So, how many times you should be posting content? CoSchedule recommends the following schedule for social media posting:

• Facebook: Once a day
• Instagram: 1-2 per day
• Twitter: 15 tweets a day
• LinkedIn: Once a day
• Pinterest: 11 pins a day

Abuse of hashtags is also something to be avoided to keep your online reputation positive. It can increase the social media visibility of your posts, but too many hashtags make your post and your brand look spammy.

Do not be slack in responding to your customers, whether in the comments section or your messaging or chat functions. Use chatbots to resolve any time delays in your response speed. Customers do not mind whether a chatbot or human customer representative responds to them, as long as their queries or concerns are being resolved. Chatbots can also be programmed to upsell or suggest promos to your clients. No matter what you resort to, make sure to respond as quickly and as consistently as you can to avoid damaging your online reputation.

Care to fact check whatever you post as wrong information can also damage your reputation. Check your posts for grammar errors or plagiarism as well, to ensure you are releasing a clean copy every time.

It is always helpful if you practice social media etiquette for your business.

3. Data Breach Caused by Employee Error

Remote working has become more common nowadays, which means that employees are using personal devices at home, accessing the company’s private network through connections that may or may not be secured.

Bring-your-own-device (BYOD) is also common now, especially since people are more mobile and want to have more flexibility with regards to work schedules.

The disadvantage of these work setups is the increased risk for malware attacks and data breach. There could be an accidental leakage of corporate or customer information. Data leakage can hurt corporate reputation, which can affect a company’s bottom-line and revenues.

Your company must have security protocols that are stringent enough to protect the company and its reputation. You need to be a step ahead with your cybersecurity measures to keep your networks secure from hackers as well.

Conclusion:

Online reputation management should be a priority in your company. Yes, the internet is such a vast place, but it is also hard to hide inconsistencies and lapses of judgment. Just with your website alone, you need to keep watch if you are violating any search engine rule to stay open as a site. You need to actually do good work to get a good ranking on SERP. It is the same with your online reputation. You need to guard it, do what is right by customers and contemporaries, and do your part as a digital citizen to keep your brand’s positive online reputation.