how to manage your online reputation

Claire Cooper, Bullseye

ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT

What will we be pondering today...?

• The evolution of digital.

• The changing face of recommendations and

expectations.

• Social media usage in crisis situations: exploring both

public and private sector examples.

• How you can proactively manage your reputation online.

To understand how to manage your reputation online you first need to understand how digital is evolving.

The new daily routine...

• Wake up and check email on iPhone or iPad

• During breakfast browse Facebook/ Twitter

• On the way to work you listen to a Podcast

• Check in at local coffee shop via Foursquare to maintain

Mayor status

• Scroll through aggregated news in RSS feeds

• Conduct Skype and IM conversations...and on it goes...

Source: @padday

The rules of engagement have changed

The web is dead. Long live the internet.

“Kiss your browser goodbye”

Bookmarklet

I digg you

Just Google it

Like

Tweet

Yahoo

Original image from www.isteconnects.org

You just unlocked the

“swarm” badge

You are now the Mayor of The

Australian Museum

Just checked in to Times Square

What you fear about social media

• “I don’t understand it.”

• “I don’t need it.”

• “I don’t have time.”

• “People will say negative things about my

company/ organisation if we engage.”

The reality of Social Media

• People are already talking about your brand or

organisation whether you have joined the

conversation or not.

• That message is being shared. Many times.

• People trust the recommendation of their peers.

90% of consumers trust peer recommendations (Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey July 2009)

Red Cross Report (USA) into social media usage in a disaster

• One in six (15%) have used social media to get

information about an emergency.

• About half of respondents would mention

emergencies on their social media channels.

• 50%+ would send a text message to an

available response agency if they needed help.

In an emergency, if 911 was busy who else would you try to reach and how?

Who?• Police- 39%• Fire Department- 19%• Family, friends or

neighbours- 16%• Hospital- 10%

• How?• Phone or mobile-

42%• Digital Media- 18%• Walk or drive- 16%• Text message- 4%

Red Cross Report (USA)

Social media version of the Giuliani model

• Here’s what we know AND how to share it with people you

know

• Tell us what you know and help us fill in the gaps about

what we don’t know

• Here’s what we’re doing AND what you’re doing

• Here’s what we want you to do AND how to do it

Source: Sandeep Varma, Office Of Emergency Services Commissioner

Social media and the Chilean Miners Crisis

Chilean Miners: Broke all online records

• 5th largest online & TV media event in history, just below

Obama inauguration

• 104,000 messages per hour via Twitter including top six

keywords related to the rescue

• People were using social media while watching TV

• Online news sites live-blogged for 36 hours

Source: Sandeep Varma, Office Of Emergency Services Commissioner

Recent disasters: BP oil rig explosion

Be prepared...

“… typically 5 to 7 responders per day were

focused on managing inquiries averaging nearly

1000 inquiries PER DAY. In some periods of

high activity as many as 7 inquiries per minute

were received.”

– Gerald Baron, Founder and Exec. VP, O’Briens Response Management. Unending Flow; Case Study on Communications in Gulf Oil Spill

Chose your spokesperson carefully

Search: BP Oil Spill on YouTube

The internet is the court of the public

• The “United Breaks Guitar” story is a classic example of being tried in the court of public opinion.

– Bands musical instruments badly damaged– Airline wouldn’t take responsibility – Created a series of musical parodies of their experience– Uploaded them to YouTube– The response surpassed expectation...

Bad news spreads like wildfire online

• The 1st video got 3 million views in first 10 days.

• Now the 12th most watched video in YouTube history.

• It hit no.1 on the iTunes Music Store.• The 3 videos combined now have

over 10.5 mil views- this doesn’t include the public response videos...

Video 1 Launches

Video 2 Launches

Video 3 Launches

Video 2 re-promoted on multiple online channels. More public response videos

Video 1 spurs numerous parodies and spoofs.

Lets map out what happened...

What about the popularity of Dave Carroll?

4,500 Followers on

Twitter

Twitter was the main channel for discussion

Only 9 tweets on the United Airlines Twitter

On Facebook 13 negative comments and the fan page is now “unofficial”

July 12th 2009 United Breaks Guitars. Ms Irlweg Responds 177,169 views (fake corporate response)

July 9th 2009 United Breaks Guitars. Inside response from United Airlines525,122 views (fake corporate response)

July 26th, 2009 United Breaks Guitars. Corporate Response Parody.54,793 views (fake corporate response)

August 21st, 2009 United Breaks Guitar. The Answer. 14,956 views. (Offers 10 solutions to United Airlines for dealing with the mess).

July 24th 2009 RE: United Breaks Guitars. 15,241 views. Word of Mouth company applauds the action taken by Sons of Maxwell.

Jan 27th, 2010 RE: United breaks guitars- inside response from United Airlines. 4,017 views. A Vietnam Vet says companies like United have changed and have no morals.

July 10, 2009. 645,274 views. Dave Carroll makes a statement to thank public for response and advise that United has made contract and offered compensation. He has suggested they donate to charity and communicate to all which charity they donated to. He also publicly apologised to Ms Irlweg for putting her in the spotlight.

July 10th 2009. Singers Sweet Revenge. 145,658 views.CBS interview Dave Carroll on live TV.

July 9th 2009 United Breaks Guitars- CNN Situation Room- Wolf Blitzer. 79,589 views. CNN runs story on Dave Carroll’s guitar situation.

July 9th 2009. United Breaks guitars song 2 Ms. Irlweg - Dave Carroll music - Reunion Blues Saves Them . 73,586 views. People through guitar off roof to see how it survives.

July 11th, 2009. United Breaks Guitars - Northwest Breaks Dulcimers (Song Only) . 24,195 views. Another joins the protest with a story of his own. His instrument broken by Northwest.

July 26th, 2009 United Breaks Guitars. Corporate Response Parody.54,793 views (fake corporate response)

July 10th, 2009 Taylor Guitars Responds to “United Breaks Guitars”. 495,144 views. Awesome response to sympathise with Dave and give tips and advice when travelling with instruments.

Public response videos over 2.5 mil views.. and counting...

How did this affect United Airlines?

• UA’s stock plunged 10%• Negative comments on Facebook led to it

becoming the “unofficial fan page”. • Lost opportunity to engage with the 9,000

fans.• Longevity of issue due to lack of response.• Affect of negativity on brand perception.

How could United Airlines have responded better?

• Nomination of a consistent spokesperson.

• Dissemination of press release on website.

• Better utilisation of social channels already

employed.

• Generation of a quirky response video.

Virgin Blue did well online but what about offline?

And what will Suncorp’s response be?

How can you be prepared so you don’t end up with egg on your face?

Set up a listening post

Draw insight from the data

Use a monitoring tool that provides visibility into social media: • Who's talking: gender, age and location• What they're saying: sentiment

analysis, and discussion clustering• How popular are they: ranking• Where they're talking: blogs, social

networks, microblogs...all of social media

View and analyse results

Analyse the result in detail

So who is s-dog?

Monitor s_dog ongoing and assign workflows to team members

Once you've highlighted relevant conversations/ influencers you can engage

or

I love comments

Reputation/ crisis social media strategies

• Have a “dark site” or app on hand to easily update and deploy in an

emergency.

• Three phases of reputation/ emergency management: preparedness,

response and recovery (remember Giuliani Model)

• Use a common language and channel for communication.

• Strategy first. Social ingredients next. Don’t act without a crisis

management plan in place.

• Proactively track your reputation using social media monitoring.

THANK YOU!E: claire.cooper@bullseye.com.au

T: @ccoops