The “Good” – proactively managing your reputation with sincerity, clarity and transparency
Thanks to the good folks over at Outspoken Media for their post relating the NBC-Conan-Leno debacle to online reputation management. Read the full post here, but to summarize, Conan won the reputation battle by taking his clear, honest message straight to the audience while Leno kept quiet so no one had any idea about his role/motivations and therefore everyone assumed the worst which was that he was screwing Conan over to get his old time slot back. Outspoken summarizes the 5 key steps that Conan took to protect or even build his reputation:
- Control the message by explaining, in simple and honest terms, exactly what happened/ is happening.
- Don’t get emotional or look for sympathy. Just state the facts.
- Admit any wrongdoing, if applicable.
- Show grace and humor.
- Offer a resolution or plan of attack for the future to calm fears.
These are terrific lessons for any business handling their own reputation, be it a crisis situation or just responding to negative reviews online.
Now that Conan has some time on his hands maybe he should be Tiger Wood’s personal Reputation Management advisor 😉