Why your reputation matters

Reputation management is sometimes an overlooked part of PR for small business owners and creatives. This is often because people think about their reputations too late in the PR process, focusing on getting attention rather than maintaining their credibility and keeping attention rooted in the positive aspects of their brands. 

What is a reputation? A reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about a brand, person or organisation in business terms; it is how your consumers, audiences and stakeholders see you. 

Reputation management is the PR process of monitoring and evaluating the public perceptions of a personal or business brand, it is something we encourage our clients and potential clients to factor in when considering a full PR strategy for their brand.

In the digital era this process has become more significant particularly as conversations about brands take place online as well as offline.  Remember that a reputation can actively influence how your audience/consumer sees your business and/or personal brand.

Reputation management techniques can incorporate social listening via social media monitoring, consumer outreach, reviews and testimonials. As an individual your reputation relies heavily on your personal brand positioning and will focus on the conversations you have with your audience and the social media content that you share. For business, reputation management looks at responding to consumer messages effectively or being proactive with positive PR outreach activities and media relations campaigns.  When your organisation has a strong and positive reputation the ongoing benefits are numerous; brand loyalty, customer ambassadorship (when customers are happy they become your number one brand ambassadors), team pride (employees amplify the work you do with pride further solidifying your brand status) ultimately leading to increased growth and potentially increased revenue.  Bad reputations have a negative impact on customer retention and can damage sales however you can learn from a reputational crisis (as long as you are willing to change) and this can help to improve your processes and your brand as a whole. 

At the core of reputation management is trust. Consumers, clients, customers, audience, stakeholders have to trust you and how you build that trust is important in order to remain a significant to your target market, so reputation management is an ongoing process. Incorporating a strategy in order to improve and maintain a reputation that leads to loyalty and trust is crucial. With my PR strategy and personal branding programmes I help clients understand why their reputations matter and how to harness its full potential.