Regardless of one’s personal political views, there is no denying the fact that the recent presidential election was a highly charged event, in its entirety, for every single American citizen. And while the outcome of the election may have generated every possible emotion in the population from elation to hope to confusion to anger to despair, it is a cinch to assume that most everyone in the population would agree entirely on the point that neither candidate had what one would consider to be a really good reputation. In fact, in the aftermath of the election, many are trying to evaluate just where the candidates may have messed up–and a lot of the focus is on points that affected their reputation. Unfortunately, this may have significantly hurt both of them–albeit in different ways–and opened our eyes even more to the importance of reputation management.
Just as can occur for presidential candidates, a company’s digital footprint has the potential to come back and haunt them in the future, damaging or even destroying their reputation. Threats to one’s reputation can include poor customer reviews, negative stories about the company, legal problems, and more. If not appropriately, honestly and rapidly addressed and handled, the company can suffer the consequences of these things. As damaging as bad publicity can be, it does not have to destroy or even significantly harm a business. By promoting a lot of positive content regarding the business, receiving an abundance of customer reviews and addressing any product or service issues, or complaints, openly and professionally, one can successfully maintain their online reputation.
As has been proven by Trump’s derogatory and inflammatory remarks and Clinton’s dishonesty regarding her email scandals, poor reputation management at any time can continue to cause problems long into the future, and therefore should be avoided and prevented against at all costs.