Where did Toyota go wrong? Well, producing flawed cars to begin with was a bad start. But, as the following article points out, it was their response to the issues (or the lack of a response) that really injured them.

There is every reason to believe Toyota will fix its technical and management problems. The question is whether, panicking in the very un-Japanese glare of the American media and political spotlight, it will dig a deeper hole by losing the air of trust and reputation for competence among customers it has spent so long building up. That would be bad for Toyota and for America.

If Toyota wants to rebuild trust with consumers, and its reputation, it will have to do two things. 1.) Put out safer vehicles. 2.) Launch a comprehensive online reputation campaign.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.toyota02mar02,0,6420503.story

Students are showing an increasing amount of concern about what their online reputations reflect about them. After school they have to go into the real world and interview for jobs, which is no easy thing in a competitive time like this. Students need to be ever-mindful of how professional their facebook is going to look when they are looking for jobs.

Some students worried about how their online presence will be perceived by a potential employer are taking the extraordinary security step of changing their names on the social network Facebook.

In this down economy, with heavy competition for jobs, Maryland students and new graduates are joining an emerging national trend of modifying account names to elude snooping recruiters.

It is good that students are starting to realize this, because businessmen have long used Google to identify less-than-professional applicants. If students have done irreparable damage to their reputations, they might want to consider a search reputation management campaign.

http://somd.com/news/headlines/2010/11328.shtml

I have seen many explanations of why personal reputation management is needed, but the article linked below is one of the most creative and demonstrative. The real life examples of Toyota and Tiger Woods are impressive, but they lack the impact of a more personal example like the one below.

When it comes to social media, your husband is what you’d call a classic oversharer. He tweets the details of a disastrous dinner you made and posts less-than-flattering vacation pictures of you on Facebook. In your estimation, he has no sense of boundaries. His view is that this newfound form self-expression is all in good fun.

The story, and the solution of the author, goes on at the link. It’s a very useful story–and hopefully one with which you have no personal experience.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jan/30/spouse-is-being-a-little-too-open-with-his-tweets/

Sonoma Valley seems to  be ahead of its peers in understanding the value of web reputation management. They are bringing two workshops to the Valley concerning online marketing strategies.

These three-hour workshops are provided through the Redwood Empire Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Instructor Janet Wentworth is an SBDC business advisor and technology consultant, with expertise in branding, product marketing, internet marketing, product introductions and partner relationships. In addition to a degree from the UC Davis, she holds a master certificate in internet marketing from USF and is a certified guerrilla marketing coach.

The article I’ll paste below is more of a event-notice than a proper article,  but it is indicative of how small businesses all over the world are learning about the importance of their image online.

http://www.sonomanews.com/articles/2010/02/15/news/doc4b79d8a30f37d731410415.txt

The article linked below is actually from a Middle Eastern news source. It seems as if international reputation management has that name for a reason. The author urges businessesmen that read the column to utilize international reputation management services to their benefit.

A strong corporate reputation generates confidence, in the present as well as in the future. It generates a feeling that the corporation is in the hands of safe and responsible leaders. And that is what matters.

The author is obviously right. Reputation matters, that is why companies spend billions on advertising each year. However, online reputation is becoming increasingly important relative to all other ways of creating or maintaining the company’s reputation.

http://www.ameinfo.com/56895.html

Google is constantly making changes that effect the reputation management services industry. This keeps professionals in that industry on their toes as well as refines and reforms the ways in which Google’s system for searching. However, these changes often make it easier for misanthropes, disgruntled employees, and underhanded competitors to damage your reputation. Google’s latest change has been to compile reviews about businesses from all over the Internet, including newspapers and blog posts. This will decentralize the reviewing process for Google, commentator Mike Blumenthal gives his analysis at the link below.

“By expanding the sites from which reviews are gathered and expanding the pools of reviews, Google will be able to aggregate this sort of information about many more places. It could very well portend a shift in the review landscape, moving power way from centralized review sites towards active and aggressive hyperlocal sites,” Blumenthal concludes.

The reputation management industry experiences shifts in the search formula and review process constantly, but this could be a dramatic change to how reputations are maintained online.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Google-Now-Includes-Place-Pages-Reviews-from-Non-Traditional-Sources-132411.shtml

Virtually everyone can agree that Tiger Woods was wrong in what he did, and wrong in how he handled the entire accident/affair ordeal. Certainly there has been a news-storm surrounding the events that has done irreparable damage to both his social reputation and his internet reputation. The article linked below posts some numbers about search results and news stories–but the fact is that his search results, which were sparkly-clean before, now look awful and reflect a major mistake. This is the perfect example of someone who will eventually be in need of online reputation management–once he has apologized for his actions and gotten back to the daily golf grind. His search results will still reflect his negative actions, but they shouldn’t have to after he has apologized.

http://www.themeasurementstandard.com/issues/11-1-09/repsaved11-1-09.asp

There is a lot of content on the Internet that is laughable, that is fun, that is silly. Like all pranks, though, there is a point at which it stops being funny and becomes quite serious. This is true online too. When pranksters decide to take aim at companies and individual’s reputations, by gaming search engines, it is much more serious. A man or woman’s reputation is something that they must live with, whether it has been acquired fairly or unfairly, through lies or truth.

Companies can lose hundreds or thousands of possible clients from vicious lies spread on the web that find their way into search results. This can directly counteract the hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars that these companies spend on advertising to attract additional clients.

The only way to defend against this sort of anonymous online slander is to hire an online reputation management firm. ReputationHawk.com is the website of a company that helps to repair the injured reputations of individuals and companies. They do this by de-emphasizing the negative comments and replacing those links with more positive articles or blog postings.

Everything that I have read about this company says that they are very successful at what they do. Customer reviews, interviews, blog posts—all have sung the praises of Reputation Hawk. The Chicago Tribune, NewsWeek, Businessweek, and Time have all featured the innovative company in profiles of the industry or direct interviews.

All of the suggestions in the article linked below are great–and they work well. However, most search engine reputation management firms are capable of doing far more than any individual can by himself. Furthermore, since this is what they do for a living, they can devote far more time to it. They are also likely to have developed proven strategies to help push down negative websites.
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2007/10/google-reputation-management.html

Is it alright to bury consumer reports that might help a consumer to avoid giving money to a business that will not deliver a product as promised? Internet defamation has become a serious problem online, but is it ethical? The answer that I would give is quite simple: Every company has a right to respond to critics and publicize themselves in a way that is positive.
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/09/most-savvy-cons.html