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Who You Are, Not What You Do
Synopsis:
Social media outreach can help you do way more than sell a product or propagate messaging...it can tell your customers who you are. So, how does that help your company through good times and bad? Author and
Weber-Shandwick Chief Reputation Officer, Leslie Gaines-Ross has some insight on just that.
Is your company concerned with corporate social responsibility and particularly how sustainability and green initiatives fit into that? Mary Clare Hunt has some data on why it should be top of any corporate communicators mind...and priority list.
Can you measure the value of creating positive reputation out in the social media world? Umbria CEO Janet Eden-Harris has some answers.
Finally, what's it like to be the human face of a technology company? Tara Anderson from Lijit knows, and she and Lijit are probably like most companies out there who learned a lot as they went along. What organizational values are you incorporating into your outreach, and what good does it
do you? Moderator Elana Centor will make sure you find out in this session.
Elana: How did you get involved in reputation management? How do you see the blogosphere changing reputation management?
Leslie: I've always been fascinated by reputation. It's all the same. There's no difference between what I do and what my company does in terms of the blogosphere. You're always at the mercy of whoever covered you, or the top-tier media, or agencies or whatever. In the blogosphere, you can create and monitor your own reputation. The biggest challenge is monitoring and making sure your reputation fits who you are as an individual and your market internally. Ex: Southwest. The company has such a great reputation, and then I'm hearing about them skirting safety regulations and flying planes with cracks in them. The second there is a disconnect in reputation, people are really angry. I try to help people realize it's got to be seamless.
Elana: With the new company, your personality becomes the company's, and vice versa. How did you do that?
Tara: When I started this company, I had very little experience with technology. I just jumped in with both feet. I decided to be very transparent. It's my own personal integrity that I'm dealing with. I represent my company and myself. I make jokes. I blog for Legit, as well, and I bring all of my personality to all of it. That's what our company is like. So far, it's been pretty successful. I'm still navigating it. A lot of my followers on Twitter are Legit users. I have to make sure I watch what I say as people see me as Legit.
Elana: Do you worry about representing core values?
Tara: Our company needed someone who wasn't afraid to go out and start conversations with strangers. I'm making it up as I'm going along. I have a very supportive team.
Elana: You work with a lot of companies interested in having a green reputation. What are the challenges?
Mary: You have to have truth in green advertising, or it will become prosecutable. The EPA has a bunch of guidelines. They've never done much with it before. Those rules are being tossed about in a greenwash fashion. Nobody knows how you can look progressive without violating green guidelines. You have to prove it. What you can say is that you use bamboo and let people come to their own conclusions. Be very specific on what you have or the energy that you're using or not using. Tell the truth. When you get to your products, you have to start proving it.
Elana: Talk about strategies for determining a company's reputation.
Janet: Bloggers post because they want people to hear about what you have to say. You represent the top-tier of bloggers because you are in a way professional bloggers. Some people go out to blog primarily to have a social experience. Those are the consumers that companies are passionate about trying to understand. Benefits to listening to bloggers: 1) reputation learning 2) outreach 3) learn about what they love about your product or your competitor's product, what they're about to buy, strategic input like that -- people don't care as much about specific
