Toyota recall- the cost of being unprepared in reputation management

Toyota recall issues are far from over as reports of snags and problems still trickle in. When the US government sought a staggering $16,375,000 as penalty from Toyota for its delayed response in notifying the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regarding the defective
accelerator pedals, the world class car maker chose to pay up readily. Was it in a way admitting its mistakes?.

As Chris Woodyard of USA TODAY wrote in "Toyota PR blitz plays catch-up after storm of problems," apologizing to customers "may be whistling in the wind as more reports of problem vehicles surface."

Did Toyota for a while misread the whole issue as an engineering problem rather than a reputation management problem, or is that a tried and tested crisis management was not place? It is too late now to analyze the probable causes for the debacle and now what Toyota should be doing is to formulate plans and policies to restore public trust and to protect its brand image as one of the favorite family cars yet again.

The public apology by the company president, Akio Toyoda, and the setting up of a task force headed by he himself has gone a long way in instilling confidence in the minds of millions of Toyota car owners. It succeeded in sending out message loud and clear that the company is is finally responding to the true nature of the problem. Toyota sat on the issue for pretty long and that cost it dearly. The problem snowballed into a full blown controversy because the company didn't try to rebuild the trust first as it was busy fixing the technical snags.

The recall without a full fledged reputation-management campaign to fall back on, proved ineffective in stalling the angry backlash and the plummeting share value of Toyota in the car market. Probably if a reputation management plan had come soon after the recall and the redress of the designs flaws, it would have landed Toyota on a safer ground!

Brand Reputation and its importance in your business

How essential is brand reputation for your business is one of the key question for all business concerns. Brand is something which remains one of the most essential part of all businesses, whether its about a small company or big, brand is the face of your company. If you lose your brand value u lose everything. Brand can make or break your company, so then the question arises how can u protect your brand.

First of all we have to understand and analyze that how vulnerable the brand is and where do the credibility of your brand stands in the market. With the mounting competition in the market its really important to shield the brand's reputation before its too late. Any negative comment or bad press can push down your brand's reputation. Here comes the need for a reputation management system which will safeguard your brand from being flayed by any bad press.

Brand reputation management is a perfect solution to keep your brand always in the good books, it also keeps track on the status of your brand online, helping you to keep a watch on what is being said or written about your brand online. It even helps to repair your lost brand value with the effective tools of brand reputation management. So play safe and keep your brand's reputation positive with a well structured brand reputation management.

Reputation Management -lend an ear to what the world talks about you

Reputation management is all about using the tools and platforms to control and manage the public views about you , your company or your services. More than just a communication or a technology issue it is a multi faceted approach in stalling online slanders and to retain your brand. Posting a few blogs or press releases alone wont help you to come out of the rut you have landed into! Only a smart blend of the most effective ORM tools that will help you to repair and manage the public image about your company.

So, ultimately it’s important for all businesses to perceive what other people are saying, tag along the customer trends, analyse the competition in the market before coming up with a most appropriate plan to even off the damages caused by bad press and negative publicity. Make sure that all the company information such as directory listings, is accurate and updated. Though large companies might have a team of communications specialists to do this monitoring, small- to medium-size businesses either end up spending a lot of their quality time in monitoring online comments, or ignore it altogether, which could be even worse.

However, ORM is not a complex crisis management tool, which needs to be considered only in the event of a catastrophe; on the other hand it is an ongoing process, which becomes part of any corporate administration policy. A few simple steps would make sure that you are always prepared for the worst.

Make sure to update all your online listings to keep in touch with your customers. A phone number that fails to connect or a website URL that shows errors are the last things you expect. Engage, communicate and converse with your customers through online communities in case of any crisis. Keeping them in the dark by remaining mute might damage your repute very badly. Never ignore the customer feedbacks as these can greatly help in your decision making and planning.

If by any chance a negative review does pop up, waste no time; set out on a vigorous reputation management by SEO and SEM techniques to make sure that the customers are guided to the positive content. Remember, according to a research study, 35% of small businesses gained new customers from positive reviews while a staggering 84% of consumers decide what to buy and where based on customer reviews!

Essential strategies for online reputation- SEO and link building

One of the most important factors of modern day optimization is link building. Fortunately link building will allow one to manage their online reputation and so it is important to know the various link strategies. While many of the individuals, who have only a vague idea about SEO, are aware of the fact that mass link purchasing figures is an example of ill-advised activity, performed by ineffective and unethical link building services, it shows that knowledge about the case seems to be a bit sketchy in certain cases. Although it is important to know that what seems to work for one site may not be effective for another.

A common conception, quality counts more than quantity helps in linking with the keywords used in the content. It is of greater importance that an association with a good and high ranking site is advantageous than an irrelevant site. However many of the clients seems to get the help of SEO consultants, a very sensible division of labour, but a bit more interest should be taken in the different categories of links which will have a diverse effect.

Keywords is one of the crucial steps in link building and so gain a clear advantage by the many type of links which is very helpful in aiming higher ranking of site in the search engine results, thereby increasing the reputation of your company. Widely used reputation management tools like blogs, press materials, Twitter and Facebook are important to generate links to the appropriate websites.

How vigilant you are for your online reputation

What is the biggest blunders people do when its about their reputation? You might be having a big business, may be having a big work force, might be making huge profits. But have you ever thought about your online reputation? If not, then you are really missing out of something quite essential, being vigilant about your online reputation is something most important.

Its really a smart thing to keep an eye on what is being said or written about you online, any negative review or comment can jolt your reputation badly. So one has to be vigilant to all these comments which can either make or break your online reputation. Remember folks your online reputation is very much important for you and any threat to it can bring down your brand value with fall in business.

So, don't risk your online reputation, be smart and vigilant and enjoy a positive online reputation. There are so many tools to make sure your online reputation is safe without any threat. So, its time to reduce the vulnerability of your online reputation with the effective tools of reputation management. Being pro-active is one of the most essential and necessary aspects for holding a positive online reputation.

Whether its your company reputation, brand value or individual reputation, reputation management will be something you will need always. So power yourselves with the dynamics of reputation management system and enjoy a positive reputation.