Have you got a reputation?

More to the point, is it the reputation you want? No. Oh dear. You shrug, sit back and do nothing, tightly crossing your fingers, saying a little prayer and hoping for a miracle. Unfortunately miracles don’t happen while you wait. 

What you can do is start working more proactively to manage and shape your reputation through your communications internal and with the outside world.

It’s easy for businesses to get pigeon-holed based on their origins and history. But where you’ve come from and what you did to get there, are often very different from where you want to be and what you want to do in the future. Times change, ambitions grow. And to achieve these goals you sometimes need to leave an old reputation behind and build a new one.

So, is it time to ask?

• What is your reputation?
• What are you known for doing?
• What do you want to be known for?
• What does your PR and marketing currently say about you?
• What are others saying about you?

When you understand this you can proactively start to shape your business personality and build a reputation that fits your future.

A legitimate business tool or a passing trend?

It’s hard to escape it. Conversations and the press are liberally scattered with references to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogging. Everyone has a view on it and more and more people are dabbling in it. Some commentators are even arguing it could transform business interaction, providing a new way to promote businesses and keep in touch with clients. And more and more businesses are signing up. Let’s face it, we’re in a recession and any free form of marketing is worth considering.

But is the business legitimacy of social media limited to the digital and creative industries or can all businesses benefit? A thought-provoking presentation by Kirsty Farrelly of The Open Book Agency convinced me social media is worth serious business consideration. By having a professional social media strategy (e.g. a carefully defined market to target regular insightful updates) and tools in place to measure its effectiveness (e.g. Google Analytics) social media can offer a unique and cost-effective way to spread PR messages, start conversations with market press, build a reputation as an esteemed commentator on a topic and initiate relationships with potential clients and new recruits.

However, it remains a relatively new phenomena that still has stronger links with the celebrity world than professional marketing at the moment. This is where the challenge for marketers lies. In all but the most progressive of corporate firms, I can imagine requesting work time to dedicate to updating social media will prompt raised eyebrows from an organisation’s leadership. Convincing sceptics that social media has a real business value is still hard at the moment. The tag “social” media and playful terminology (such as tweeting) don't exactly help the selling of these potentially useful marketing tools as serious profile raising, reputation enhancing methods.

So the question is, is social media worth the effort? And with the longevity of these sites still uncertain, are companies that don’t sign up really missing out or is social media simply an over-hyped passing trend?

Keeping it real

I like to think of myself as an optimist; the type of girl whose wine glass is always half full. But I also believe there is a time and a place for honesty. Even if it presents a less than appealing reality that I would rather fling off my stilettos and run away from than face head on. It's all a matter of balance and having a solid connection with the real world. In the corporate world it could be called emotional intelligence - something that is instinctive in all great internal communicators.

I am a great believer in the power of internal communications - employee engagement is so important in driving forward a united, motivated workforce. But it's not easy. Especially at the moment. Honest communication with staff is a lot more scary when things aren’t going well. The sound of lively chatter and champagne corks popping to celebrate a new deal have in the last year gradually been replaced with miserable silence. The carefully thought out newsletters, intranets and forums that thrived in the good times are now a chore as you scramble around to find any good news stories to cover up the grim reality of the recession.

The question I pose is: Should we be trying to fool our employees by providing communications that offer them nothing more than rose-tinted glasses?

Not in my opinion, although others may disagree. Burying our heads in the sand and trying to pretend the good times never ended isn't going to engage disgruntled employees. But it may just insult them. As companies face unachievable bonus targets, pay freezes, redundancies and reshuffles, staff are left unsettled and disillusioned.

But they’re not delusional. Morale won’t suddenly rise from the deepest of ditches and reach an all time high just because a communication goes out about a new contract and inviting them to a cake sale. No matter how yummy the baked produce is.

Employees will, however, want to know the true situation, understand the impact on them and the role they can play in recovery. Internal communications, therefore, need to be balanced to be meaningful and honest in order to motivate the support of employees. Otherwise all the effort to create glowing intranet stories and amusing newsletter features risks being dismissed as leadership propaganda.

I'm not trying to spread doom and gloom, but we shouldn't be too scared to cover the difficult subjects too. They are after all, the ones that will dominate water cooler gossiping and feed a potentially morale murdering rumour mill if allowed to fester.