This document discusses the reputation risks that companies face when using social media. It notes that while social media allows unprecedented ability to broadcast messages, it also allows anyone to broadcast their opinions. It identifies key components of reputation like credibility, trust, customer awareness, and governance. It provides examples where companies damaged their reputation through social media missteps like making promises they couldn't keep, paying for fake blog endorsements, tone-deaf tweets, and hijacked conversations. The document concludes that while not using social media is not an option, companies must plan carefully, have policies and training, start small and scale up slowly, and be prepared to respond to mistakes.

1. Reputation Risks and Social Media
Catherine Berthier
NJTC “Social Media and Digital Rights” Panel
January 25, 2012
Princeton, NJ

2. Amplifying the good and the bad
• Pros:
– Unprecedented ability to broadcast your message
– Opportunity to develop meaningful engagement with your stakeholders
– Proliferation of platforms provides new, creative ways to communicate
• Cons:
– Everyone has an opinion and the ability to broadcast it
– Snark rules and expectations can be difficult to meet
– Too many choices can dilute your brand, consume precious time and resources
In PR, control has always been an illusion.
What about CONTROL?

3. Some key components of your reputation, on- and offline
• Credibility
• Trust
• Capability
• Customer awareness/understanding
• Corporate governance/practices

4. examples

5. credibility
Oops,
we ran
out.
Result: people venting about feeling cheated on the
company’s Facebook page and in blogs, the opposite
of the desired effect.
Story: 1. Timothy’s coffee promised rewards for “liking”. 2.
Supplies ran out in 3 days. 3. Took 3 weeks to ‘clarify’ that this
was first come-first serve offer.

6. trust
Result: a company that was already suffering from multiple image problems
compounded the issue, cementing its reputation as an untrustworthy actor. Also earned
the dubious distinction of being included in Wikipedia’s “fake blog” entry.
story: 1. quirky down-home travel blog was actually paid for. 2. read like an
endorsement, which it was. 3. readers dug up the truth, story went viral, giving both Wal
Mart and agency a black eye.
This may not
be accurate

7. Customer intimacy
story:
1.Cisco tried
emulating Old
Spice ‘s buzzy
campaign.
2. YouTube
channel
received
dismal number
of views.
Result: the campaign was ridiculed and gained extensive negative exposure. It’s
unclear whether there was any real impact on sales or whether this was more of a blip.
Not quite the
same thing

8. leadership
story: 1.Shoe
designer Kenneth
Cole is well-known
for his politically
charged and
humorous ads. 2.
Last year he hit a
nerve with an ill-
received tweet
about the Arab
Spring 2. the tweet
was retweeted
extensively and
excoriated.
Result: the CEO
had to apologize
online himself and
the brand suffered
a change in status
from “fun and
provocative” to
“tone-deaf”.

9. And these examples don’t even bring up issues like
• “Conversation” being hijacked (this week’s #mcfail story)
• Human error and lack of judgment (Chrysler agency tweet about Detroit
drivers)
• Influencers using their clout against you (Jeff Jarvis and Dell)
• The potent mix of misbehavior + indiscretion (Pizza Hut “extra toppings”)
… and so on

10. So, can we just NOT do social media?
• Plan, plan, plan
• Think through policies and guidelines
• Provide ongoing training to execs and employees
• Benchmark and measure
• Start small and grow
• Mistakes will happen, have a plan to deal with them.
• Don’t forget to engage
That’s not really an option.
But you need to be smart about what you’re doing.

11. Thank you
• cgb@cberthier.com
• @cberthier
• 646.256.8502

12. sources
• http://www.liftoffproductions.com/be-careful-what-you-promise-when-using-
social-media/
• http://www.alimartell.com/index.php/2012/01/13/oh-timothys-coffees-of-the-
world/
• http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2006/
db20061009_579137.htm
• http://socialtimes.com/cisco-old-spice-campaign_b18558
• http://paidcontent.org/article/419-mcfail-mcdonalds-loses-control-of-
hashtag/