Tag Archives: Shannon Wilkinson

Interviews with experts, Online reputation management, , , , , ,
Shannon Wilkinson, CEO, Reputation Communications

This week we interview our founder, Shannon Wilkinson. She discusses the online reputation management (ORM) industry, the goals of the clients it serves and the types of services Reputation Communications offers.

How does Reputation Communications differ from other online reputation management firms?

We specialize in providing guidance and solutions for executives, leaders and professionals in business, culture, law enforcement and philanthropy, as well as their organizations. That includes artists, authors and their representatives. We have made a point of taking a leadership role in the industry by contributing to consumers’ understanding of online reputation management. There is a lot of conflicting information out there, and this can be confusing for them. So we have published extensive educational content, and links to other reliable resources, on our You(Online) blog. It has attracted readers from all over the world.

Who is your average client?

Someone who is not highly active on social media but has a visible presence on the Internet due to media coverage of their career, company or initiatives. In the majority of our cases, clients have not been proactive in taking ownership of their online image. Often they just want to create a polished personal brand on the Internet. Sometimes a crisis, major or minor, has prompted them to start actively managing it. Increasingly we are the second online reputation management provider they have used when a first one has been ineffective or not the right fit.

What kind of help do they seek?

Everyone has a specific goal.  They want to know how it can be met, how long it will take and what it will cost. Some clients are too invisible online and want to create a distinctive online presence. Others have too much visibility, but their online image is dominated by third-party content. It isn’t negative or inappropriate, but it doesn’t represent them authentically. Because we have a history of building a strong media presence for clients, sometimes they utilize us to begin building or expanding one. Common reasons our clients reach out to us include online legal notices and media coverage that might be years old, or pertain to a personal or professional crisis. Often the material that shows up at the top of Google results isn’t necessarily negative, just out of date. It doesn’t reflect our client’s current brand. We can fix that. Other clients come to us looking for different outcomes. Some are concerned with protecting their personal lives. They are closely watched, and their private lives are drawn into the public sphere—regardless of whether they want that. We help them create a digital defense so third-party reportage about their lives doesn’t take control over their image. Or, their personal data is published on several “people search” databases. We remove it.

What are common issues businesses face?

Businesses are now grappling with consumer and employee reviews and how to best manage them. We often consult on that issue and recommend the best review management systems for their type of issue.  Companies also seek help updating or editing Wikipedia entries. Several businesses we have worked with used public relations or crisis management strategies to try and improve an online reputation issue, but it didn’t work. ORM utilizes optimization and SEO techniques that such programs often lack.

What is the most common mistake that causes online reputation issues?

Not being proactive in taking ownership of your name on the Internet. Closely following that is the related problem of waiting too long to address an issue. Three years is the average amount of time many of our clients have waited before taking action.

How does Reputation Communications’ approach differ from other providers?

We are different from the ORM providers that market themselves online to individuals. We don’t advertise and don’t have an 800 number. Our approach would not be appropriate for the customers those providers are pursuing—most often people that are looking for a fast and inexpensive way to “suppress” unwanted online content. That is usually a low-priced, low-quality solution that Google and other search engines frown upon. For that reason, we don’t use the word “suppress.” Nor do we use mass-market suppression techniques. We replace online content.

We also don’t promise a quick fix. ORM can take weeks or months. Our clients are generally very careful with their brand, both online and off. Our strategies don’t involve any actions that dilute a client’s online image with generic or low-quality content. Many of our clients are as concerned with building a stronger brand as they are with repairing reputation damage, if they have any. Often we do restructure search results and displace content from page one of Google search results. This requires creating new material and optimizing it to ensure it replaces the old. Our clientele base needs high-quality content that is appropriate to their brands and adds value. That scenario is our specialty. Except for some social media content creation services, we don’t work offshore. Privacy is the main reason. We are accustomed to working offline and meeting confidential needs.

What is your pricing structure?

Our most accessible service is our consultations, which cost $1000. That is a four-hour service in which we assess a situation and advise the client on the most effective ways to mitigate it or reach their goals. We created this service to help new clients make the right decisions regarding best approaches, strategies and—sometimes—providers. Our next level is our consulting service, which encompasses 20 hours of counsel. It can be utilized over a three-month period, costs $5,000 and is most often used by clients who can implement a program independently but need a strategic plan and our guidance.

Our other services average $3,500 to $5,000 monthly for content creation and media representation, and can be higher for enterprise-level organizations or VIPs. Pricing is higher for clients that have a large amount of online content and need a more comprehensive program. Design and IT services are additional and are billed by the hour and the project. Our team creates extensive digital content and we have a large network to draw from for special projects. We also have an extensive public relations background which is summarized in Our Story.

An ORM campaign often requires six to twelve months to substantially change the structure of search results. So we aim to provide our clients with the best range of approaches to choose from. That includes our Reputation Reboot advice column, Essential FAQ overview and related help at You(Online) They can tell a lot about our approach by reading that material.

Shannon Wilkinson is the founder and CEO of Reputation Communications. She is a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal’s “Crisis of the Week” column and is often interviewed in the media about reputation management issues and practices. She is a presenter at Coptics: Policing in the Digital Age, a consulting and workshop program for law enforcement professionals.

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with experts whose work relates to online reputation management.

 
 
Online reviews, , , , , ,

Today’s episode of the Today show on NBC featured commentary from Reputation Communications. Part of a segment on online travel reviews, the coverage reflects a growing concern among consumers regarding the credibility of such information. Our thought leadership was also highlighted in a recent USA Today article, Fake online reviews trip travelers.

 
 
Crisis Management, Reputation Case Study, , , , , , , , , ,

Not so long ago, Volkswagen claimed the top auto industry spot in Fortune’s annual World’s Most Admired Companies list.  The Economist highlighted the Germany automaker’s global ascent in an article titled “VW Conquers the World.”

Now a scandal has put Volkswagen’s reputation in freefall. It comes at a time when Germany is in the world’s eye – leading the EU toward resolution of many issues, most notably the migrant crisis. VW is Germany’s largest employer and as iconic as Starbucks or Ford is in the United States. As far as scandals go, this is a massive one. It has damaged the opinion that many of us have had that the brand means something special—an opinion that extends back to the Beetle.

General Motors covered up faulty ignition switches for years — and they resulted in several deaths as well as 30 million recalls. But GM is back and selling lots of cars. Can Volkswagon recover?

We spend a lot of time observing best and worst practices in reputation rebuilding at companies large and small. Here are our top tips for VW’s beleaguered leadership.

  • Follow Mary Barra’s lead. As CEO of General Motors, she has performed crisis management almost flawlessly. All CEOs can learn from her use of social media to communicate with consumers.
  • Take a page from Toyota. We’ve written extensively about why and how the top car company has adeptly rebounded from multiple crises.
  • Check out these apology playbooks from AOL, GM & Sony.

It’s worth taking a look at the tremendous shifts in reputation VW has experienced over the course of its 75-year history.

An Unlikely Origin

VW began as a state-supported operation in Nazi Germany. While Hitler heralded the Beetle as an affordable “people’s car” (in German, volkswagen), VW’s early years did not live up to that reputation. “Only 630 Beetles were made there during World War II—and distributed to the privileged,” according to Der Spiegel.

A Reputation Reborn

Demand for Beetles during the occupation kept VW alive following World War II, but there was little international interest. After looking at the company as a possible acquisition, the CEO of Ford, for instance, famously concluded that VW wasn’t “worth a damn.” But over the coming years Beetle’s popularity made it a symbol of West Germany’s “economic miracle,” and VW’s success was “one of postwar Europe’s most glittering economic achievements,” according to a Time magazine article from 1963. By that year it was the world’s third largest automaker, and less than a decade later the Beetle’s total production count eclipsed Henry Ford’s Model-T.

Transformation: from “Hitler’s car” to “Beetlemania”

Upon its initial introduction in the United States, VW’s reputation couldn’t escape the Nazi association. “I even tried calling the VW the ‘Victory Wagon’ to take the curse off it, but the press referred to it only as ‘Hitler’s car,’” said Dutch car dealer Ben Pon, who shipped the first Beetles stateside in the late 1940s. Soon, though, New York agency Doyle Dane Bernbach wiped away that stigma with a string of unforgettable advertising campaigns, including “Think Small,” Advertising Age’s top campaign of the century. By emphasizing VW’s impact on an owner’s reputation and image instead of the traditional touting of features, these campaigns were an innovative and influential development in the history of advertising.

Post-Beetle: less risk, but no more mania

When Beetlemania subsided, the void left by such a defining model threatened to undo VW’s reputational gains. Not wanting to repeat the same mistake, the company unveiled a more diverse series of models, including the Passat, Golf and Polo. VW acquired Audi in 1964, and those new models integrated the technology and luxury Audi was known for. They prevented VW’s image from flat-lining but ushered in an extended period of mixed results. Things began to look brighter by the turn of the new millennium, as Audi’s jump to the luxury class occupied by BMW and Mercedes-Benz gave VW’s reputation a boost in the same direction.

Poised for a boom

Reputation has played a major factor in VW’s more recent global endeavors. In many countries “it has been around long enough to be seen as a domestic firm, so protectionists usually leave it alone,” according to The Economist. Its longstanding reputation in China helped distinguish it from pack in the world’s largest auto market. “VW bet on China nearly 30 years ago,” The Economist noted. “A glut of cheap cars is hurting prices in China but VW’s premium models are doing well.”

Rebuilding its image will be crucial for VW’s future success. Only a few years ago, its crowdsourced “People’s Car Project” engaged China’s drivers, attracting 119,000 ideas and 33 million hits. Incorporating that kind of virtual strategy in the climb to regain its reputation might help VW recover…if it can.

 
 
Online reputation management, , , , , , ,
Reputation Reboot by Shannon Wilkinson

Our exclusive new guide to taking ownership of your online image is out. How to Look Better Online: Online Reputation Management for CEOs, Rising Stars, VIPs and Their Organizations was written by our founder, Shannon M. Wilkinson, in collaboration with our editing, content and design team.

How to Look Better Online draws upon our experiences improving and preventing the online reputation issues faced by a range of our clients. It is available as a downloadable eBook for all platforms. You can see a preview, learn more details and order a copy here.

 
 
Social Media, , , , , , , , ,
Wall Street Journal interview with Shannon Wilkinson

The Wall Street Journal has published an interview with Shannon Wilkinson, our founder and CEO. Here are highlights from the article, CEOs Face Reputation Pitfalls If They Avoid Social Media:

What are a few of the most common mistakes CEOs and top executives make that can lead to reputation damage to them and their organizations?

Ms. Wilkinson:  Many CEOs…they don’t own a lot of real estate in their name online, and they have not been proactive in creating a strategy to publish information about them on the Internet. When that happens the world creates your profile online, or Internet bots do. Whatever information third parties publish about you–whether credible or not, whether quality or not–will fill out the top pages of the Google search in your name and you have no control over that. The longer that stays the more difficult it is to replace it with more relevant  information.

Are these the same issues they were dealing with a few years ago? How has the reputation risk landscape changed?

Ms. Wilkinson: The reputation risk landscape has gone through three developments. The first, which CEOs noticed around 2005, was the first wave of proliferation of anonymous malicious commentary that appeared widely on the Internet and was often directed toward companies, toward CEOs. The second wave was the proliferation of consumer reviews online, particularly geared toward customer service and complaints. The third phase we’re in now is the lack of privacy online, the continual spills of confidential in-house memos and emails, and of course the hacking.

What are some best practices executives and organizations can take to make it less likely they will fall victim to reputation slip-ups?

Ms. Wilkinson: The first is to look at the company’s internal culture. A lot of negativity comes from employees so it’s a good time to look inside at the opportunities employees have, and to look at diversity and inclusion, particularly providing women with opportunities. This is really the hot seat CEOs face now. This is going to be an issue for every company—employees, consumers are looking at how equitable companies are at providing opportunities for women, minorities, the LGBT group.

What makes top executives susceptible to engaging on social media in a way that can cause them reputation headaches?

Ms. Wilkinson: Some lack an understanding of how many people use social media and how they use it. I think most CEOs don’t encounter issues because of what they say on social media, it’s what is said on social media in response to their actions, that is the bigger threat. They’re so scrutinized and it’s so easy for a comment to be taken out of context.

 
 
Social Media, , , , , ,

Recent revelations about the NSA’s social media mining and analytic system have attracted much controversy. Many people don’t realize that a growing number of private companies use many of the same methods and have similar capabilities.

Such companies sell information to clients ranging from law enforcement and security companies to human resources departments and corporate intelligence firms. So it is critical to give some thought to strategies for managing your social media and other online activity. That is, if you are concerned with that activity (and your contacts) being collected, analyzed and possibly provided in reports to current or prospective employers, clients, partners and others.

Online investigative firms offer services ranging from basic social media screening, identification and verification to more extensive analysis and investigation, encompassing public records reports, deep Internet searches, social network mapping, activity monitoring, and resume vetting. On a broader scale, data from social media accounts and other online sources are also frequently scraped by automated bots, then aggregated and published by websites such as Intelius.com and USSearch.com.

Protecting your privacy

One way to protect your personal information is to stay off of social media entirely, or to limit your presence to a single trusted platform like LinkedIn. You can minimize the information that data mining companies obtain, while gaining greater control over what you do and don’t want to make available online.

Such a simple solution will work for some, but if abstaining from social media isn’t a viable option, a deliberate and cautious approach to managing your online image is necessary. Develop an appropriate strategy for managing your presence across all the platforms that you use.

Given the “new generation of programs that ‘revolutionize’ data collection and analysis” that are described by the New York Times, it’s also important to take a close look at what you may be revealing on social media in less obvious ways, such as through your network of connections, location metadata, and anything else that could be combined with public records and other available information to glean details about you. These pieces of data may seem obscure or inconsequential on their own, but with the advanced capabilities of the NSA and many private intelligence firms, you may be sharing more than you ever intended.

 
 
Online reputation management, , , , ,

Today, Business Insurance published an article about how global expansion adds to companies’ reputational risks.

I was interviewed for the piece. An excerpt:

“While the speed at which information can travel through social media can enhance reputation risk, social media can be a valuable tool in managing reputation risks, said Shannon M. Wilkinson, CEO of Reputation Communications in New York. Social media audits can provide important information before a company enters a market, she said.

“Social media provides a barometer into all those kinds of things,” she said. “It can be done quickly. It can be done cheaply.”

Such social media research can provide information on perceptions of products, companies or marketing campaigns, as well as an opportunity to learn from competitors’ experiences, Ms. Wilkinson said.

“They can go to Twitter and they can see what their peer group’s doing,” she said. “It’s a very good way of observing best and worst practices.”

It also can provide information on whether signing a particular celebrity spokesperson might be a big reputation risk mistake.

“He might be a face for a different kind of product, but not in this area,” Ms. Wilkinson said. “All of this is researchable and it’s not so much about making a judgment; it’s about determining what is the most appropriate affiliation for your company or your product launch.”

A full copy of the article is available at Business Insurance.

 
 
Branding, Reputation Case Study, Social Media, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sallie Krawcheck is a top candidate to become the next head of the SEC, according to Dealbook, but it’s not just her record and resilience as a Wall Street executive that’s put her in the running.

Since she began tweeting last spring, Krawcheck has gained more than 11,000 followers. On LinkedIn she’s attracted an even larger audience—75,000 and counting. “She has drawn a significant following with her conversational style and posts on investment issues,” Dealbook says, referring to an earlier article in which Krawcheck called her move “part of a larger effort to style herself as an industry analyst” and “lend her Wall Street experience to the broader debate about the industry’s evolution.” Already among LinkedIn’s top “Thought Leaders” and Business Insider’s “101 Finance People You Have To Follow On Twitter,” she’s clearly had a great deal of success with her strategy.

Social Media Savvy

A big part of that success comes from Krawcheck’s deft use of social media to take ownership of her image and message. In the past, she would have had to rely on a public relations intermediary to arrange interviews and keep her name out there, as many prominent figures do. However, she has used social media to take more direct control of her voice and reach a larger audience at the same time. In a recent RIABiz.com article Dina Hampton examines how Krawcheck “used those months of technical unemployment to cultivate a distinct and intimate online voice that may, industry watchers say, deftly position her for her next move.” Speaking to Hampton, Gregory FCA Communications’ Joe Anthony adds that Krawcheck’s strategy has “broadened her footprint to where more people are recognizing her beyond the financial services space” and “gone from being seen as a sharp mind within wealth management/banking to a thought leader and business titan.”

While she may describe herself in her Twitter profile as a “current mom” and “crazed UNC basketball fan,” a closer look at Krawcheck’s online presence shows that her approach is far from amateur. In addition to regularly sharing useful links and poignant thoughts on both Twitter and LinkedIn, she has self-published popular posts like “Lessons Learned in Leading During a Crisis” and “What I Learned When I Got Fired (the First Time)” and penned op-eds for outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Politico.

Those posts have given her a chance to share her own perspective and narrative regarding her previous experience, while the op-eds appear to be setting the stage for her next move. “Lately Krawcheck has been peppering the media with her thoughts and strong recommendations about how to address, if not solve, the gigantic, chronic, almost genetic, ills of the global financial industry,” The Daily Beast’s Allan Dodds Frank wrote in October. “If she can continue her nonpartisan stance,” Frank observed, “she might be the ideal person to be in charge of consumer protection, be nominated to the Securities & Exchange Commission or to a Treasury Department job.”

Setting the Stage

Her undergraduate degree at the UNC School of Journalism has likely helped Krawcheck communicate effectively, but perhaps more important is how she has applied the same strategies that made her one of Wall Street’s top female executives to her social media endeavors. “The secrets of Krawcheck’s success, however, hinge on her social skills,” Heidi N. Moore wrote in 2009, adding that “she has built a reputation as Mrs. Clean” and combined “a warm interest in others’ feelings, an obsession with preparation” and with “frank talk and open ambition.”

Speculation about where she’ll end up next will surely continue, and there’s no guarantee that she’ll be tapped as the next SEC chair. But one thing is certain: as one of the first major names in the banking world to dive headfirst into social media, Sallie Krawcheck has reaped the vast potential of an open and savvy online strategy.