Your online reputation - important or not?

What is it to you if people talk about your site in the internet? Should you really care if they say negative or positive things about your brand? Should you even take the time to consider if what is in your site, the content, be as detailed for transparency or just a basic structure for background for the reader? Personally, I question that myself. I really don't understand why people take the time in front of a laptop or PC taking hours and asking the people around them "What do you think about this?". But then, it hit me, maybe I'm just stuck in the Stone Age era thinking about the whole idea in a 2D manner. Just like that line in transformers, there's more to it than meets the eye. Brand reputation is just as much important, or even more important, than being visible to the public. It actually goes hand in hand. Put it this way, your brand is visible to the public, they know it's there, they have seen the site and actually liked the display images, they just don't mind your brand- what then is your output? Nada. Zilch. Zero. How about looking at it in the other direction, you have all the brand reputation you can ever imagine, the big time of all the brands, and yet the public doesn't know you exist online, what now is to become of you? Maybe your only clientele would be the people who are stuck in the Stone Age era just like me. And thinking about it, business/ your brand should be visible and reputable in all areas, period.

It's scary to realize that anyone can just write about you online or post pictures about your company online any day of the week and there's a 50/50 chance its going to be something you like or, to put it simply, your worst nightmare. Aside from the, communication via word-of-mouth is influenced 53% of the time from work related purchases. And as far as monitoring is concerned, only 20% of established corporations have a formal process for monitoring what is written or posted about them. For those applying to companies, 78% of executive recruiters routinely use search engines to learn more about the candidates while 35% of them eliminate candidates based from what they have found. Basically, what ever information available in the internet could be useful or harmful depending on who is on the bar stool. What matters more is it becomes more "truthful" when it is posted by someone who shares the same or similar interest, same profession or holds similar political beliefs. It is obvious that when an opinion speaks to you in a manner that agrees with your stand, your bias suddenly appears and your behavior is now strongly influenced by that opinion. Which then again is a double-edged sword that could be good or bad for the company with the product.

Like what I said at the start, reputation and being visible goes hand-in-hand. A company cannot ignore the other or they will pay the consequences. As of today, what others only hear about can now be personally accessed through the net. And what is more visible is more vulnerable to criticism. Just like movie stars compared to an average Joe like you and me. They get the spotlight, yet they gain from it and suffer from it as their life is placed under a microscope and dissected. Now, in context of companies under the microscope and vulnerable to public criticism, the only way to avoid negative feedback is to "show what you are doing, reveal your processes, acknowledge your mistakes, and participate fully in conversation that concerns you." Of course those are not my words, it's through a reading, but it states exactly what should be done.

Social media is another field that calls for your attention. This involves blogs, photo sharing, video sharing and forums. Why do you need to pay attention to this? The answer is exactly the same as what was mentioned before, opinions that influence the behavior of the consumer. Your neighbor might be the most influential person in forums about your product and your clueless about it. Those rumors that you consider JUST rumors might just alter your course from success to failure, and it all begins from your favorite media tools and forums.

Your reputation is the key to your existence as a company, an asset as important to the company as to your other assets. Just like what Abraham Lincoln said- "Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.". Reputation is not about what the company thinks, but what others think about the company. If no one knows you exist, then you have no reputation. If you are not subject to criticism, just you wait. And if you are under criticism, find a solution and build from it.

For our datamin class under Mr. Ramon Duremdes Jr.
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