Heads above water

The importance of communications is playing an increasing role in strategic reputation management
 

 
External to the studies, news and headlines, what are the other ways in which you gauge the reputation of a company? How do you get an impression of their perceived reputation?
After consulting on reputation for over 20 years, I have a historical view of companies. I can see the progression and compare reputations now to what it was 5 or 10 years ago. Listening to word-of-mouth and just keeping my ears open play a critical role in forming company impressions. And, of course, you can find out just about anything you want on the internet today. There are so many ways to get information that describes and critiques corporate behaviour. Someone said that Google isn’t really a search engine but a “reputation management system.” I agree. If you’ve never heard of a company, you just Google it and form impressions from the first two pages. 

Leslie Gaines-Ross

Chief reputation strategist at Weber Shandwick, Leslie Gaines-Ross is the architect of award-winning research into CEO and corporate reputation, CEO transitions, corporate rankings, online reputation, executive visibility, thought leadership, and reputation sustainability and recovery. Leslie is the author of two books, CEO Capital: A Guide to Building CEO Reputation and Company Success and Corporate Reputation: 12 Steps to Safeguarding and Recovering Reputation. Follow Leslie on her blog or on Twitter at @ReputationRx or @social4CEOs.