Laura Stocker from Tin Cans Unlimited and Natalia McDonagh from Cornelius Group presented "Reputation Management in the Chemical Distribution Industry" at the recent FECC Congress in Rome.

1. Reputation Management in the
Chemical Distribution Industry
Natalia McDonagh
Marketing Manager, Cornelius Group
Laura Stocker
President, Tin Cans Unlimited

2. • What is reputation management?
• Social media in corporate reputation
• Safeguard your company reputation online
• Getting started
• Reputation readiness
• Dealing with a crisis
• Wrap-up

6. Social Media in Corporate Reputation
The DARK SIDE : Not without risks
– Acts of misconduct
– Disclosure of confidential information
– Defamatory comments
– Harassment and bullying

7. Reputation is Perception

8. Rights to Privacy ?...

9. Rights of Privacy?...

10. Facebook posts:
‒ Comments about hating working at the company
‒ Referred to “JesusPhone”, complained having no signal
‒ Phone XXX application “f**ked up my time zone”
‒ No mention of company, but damage to XXX brand
‒ Dismissal – fair, breaking employers ‘core values’
Rights to Privacy?...

11. Social media “privacy”
 Employees argued Article 8 – comments made in private
should be protected
 Crisp v Apple Retail - comments only to his friends
 BUT: had no control over comments not be copied or
passed on
 Could not have reasonable expectations that comments
would remain private
 Article 8 Argument generally rejected

12. Bullying and Harassment on social media
(Cyber- bullying)
 Harassment conducted through social media channels
 Employers are liable for acts of harassment carried out
by employees “in the course of their employment”
 Problem for employers:
– Often takes place away from work
– Difficult to prevent
Defense when effective Bullying and Harassment Social
media policy in place

13. “Cyber-bullying” cont.
 Otomewo v Carphone Warehouse
− Employees took phone without permission, accessed
Facebook page, changed status
− “Finally come out the closet. I am gay and proud”
− Mr. O not gay and did not believe colleagues thought
he was, brought a claim for sexual orientation
− Employment Tribunal found – “harassment”
− Unwanted intrusion in private life
− Employer liable – actions done at work during
working hours and between members of staff

14. “Cyber-bullying” cont.
 Jones v Tower Boot Co – interpreted more broadly
 Takes place away from workplace
 Only defense – employers took all reasonable steps to
eliminate discrimination

15. Multiculturalism and Social media
When ignorance is not a defense
Jokes, political comments
Education- Tell, Tell, Tell

16. Disclosure of Confidential information
 What is confidential information / Trade secret? Court will
consider:
‒ Whether the employee ‘habitually handles’ confidential
information
‒ Can it be properly classified as a trade secret e.g. Coca-
Cola secret formula
‒ The extent to which information can be easily isolated
from other, non-confidential, information
‒ Whether the employer impressed on the employee the
confidentiality of the information

17. Confidence during vs after employment
 Faccenda Chicken –v- Fowler [1986]
The following were NOT trade secrets;
‒ Names and addresses of customers
‒ Daily routes taken for supplying customers
‒ The customer’s requirements
‒ The days and times of delivery
‒ Prices paid “Do not possess a ‘sufficiently high degree of
confidentiality’

18. Restrictive covenants
 Apply after employment has ended
4 Main Types of Restrictive Covenant:
 Non-Competition
 Non-Solicitation of Clients
 Non-Dealing with Clients
 Non-Poaching of Employees

19. What on earth has this got to do with
Social Media?
 Friends if on Facebook
 Followers if on Twitter
 Connections if on LinkedIn
 What is the point of Social Media in the workplace?
‒ To generate work from these people and therefore
cash for the employer.

20. What does the law say?
 Hays Recruitment –v- Ions [2008]
 Following handing in his resignation Mr Ions uploaded Hays
client database to his LinkedIn account to ‘connect’ with
them.
 Contacts would then ‘accept’ the connection which Ions used
in his new business
 When Ions updated his new employer all contacts received
notification of that fact
 Ions argued ‘no longer confidential’
 Court: possibly no longer confidential but if so due to Ions
behaviour so potential claim for
- breach of restrictive covenants
- breach of confidentiality

21. After an employment is terminated

22. Manage social media rigorously
Reputation is Perception
We recommend:
• Employers implement a Social Media Policy (CRUCIAL!)
to provide protection (with comprehensive restrictive
covenants and confidentiality clauses built in)
• Social media workshops for employees (prevention and
protection)

23. Corporate reputation management for a
chemical distributor: Join the Debate
When principal's actions influence a
distributor's brand

24. Safeguard Your Company Reputation
• Stakeholder management
• Don’t shut the door on the brewing storm

25. Getting Started
• Creating a benchmark
• Monitoring your reputation

26. Creating a Benchmark

28. Monitoring Your Reputation
• Tools for monitoring
– Hootsuite/Trackur/Marketing Cloud
– Google Alerts
– PR Scorecard
– Google audit/Google incognito

30. What we used to call your “elevator pitch”
is now your “Twittervator” pitch!

31. Reputation Readiness
Do you want to manage the
conversation or react to the
conversation?

32. Earned Media
• Public relations
– Regularly crafted news releases
– Ongoing positive relationships with the media
– Presentation and participation

33. Where is your center
of influence?

34. Shared Media
• Social marketing
– Thoughtful / well conceived, strategically
based profiles on major platforms
• Managed and ACTIVE
– Blogging

41. Shared Media
• Comment marketing
– Wikipedia
• Transparency

44. Paid Media
• Advertising
– Positive branding
• Search engine optimization
– Most transactions now begin with Google
– Consider Google page 1 as your business card

45. Dealing with a Crisis
• Know your weaknesses
– Prepare in advance for possible scenarios
• Identify your detractors – and monitor
them
• The worst has happened – now what?

46. Dealing with a Crisis
• Prepare a response
• Stay transparent
• Engage your networks and your brand
ambassadors
• Measurement and follow up

51. Ethics
• Reputation management agencies – mostly
bad news
• Extortionists exist
• Practice white hat tactics

52. Wrap Up
• Stay ahead of the curve
– The 80/10/10 rule
• 80% of your effort on content you own
• 10% of your effort on content you create
• 10% of your effort on content you influence

53. Be Prepared
• Building a solid reputation both on and
offline is ongoing
• Personal and company reputations are
intertwined

54. Questions?
Laura Stocker
www.tincansunlimited.com
Facebook.com/tinscans
Twitter.com/tincansllc
Natalia McDonagh
www.cornelius.co.uk
Twitter.com/corneliusgroup
LinkedIn: Cornelius Group