The following article is located at:
http://
Reputation Management
Results-Driven Approaches to Gaining a Powerful Reputation
Paul Rand, Ketchum partner and creator of Ketchum's Influencer Relationship ManagementSM program, on the power of influencers on corporate reputation
Definition: INFLUENCER — an individual or group that can directly affect a buyer's or decisionmaker's perceptions and behaviors.
The Ketchum partner and creator of Ketchum's Influencer Relationship ManagementSM (IRM) program, says influencers are becoming a much more significant part of all of our businesses and, fortunately, there's something we can do about it.
With so many things competing for our time and grabbing our attention, identifying key influencers — the "iceberg's tip" of 100 to 200 influencers whose opinions shape those of everyone else — becomes vitally important when your corporate reputation is at stake. And after identifying the elite influencers, you should begin a dialogue with them and manage those relationships. Ketchum's IRM program also involves a Web portal to help clients manage that relationship.
For a cereal manufacturer that wanted to get its messages across about healthy eating, Ketchum identified the key messages the company wanted its audiences to focus on and then identified the 16 people who are actively shaping today's debate over dieting and carbohydrates.
An effective IRM plan also includes a broad portfolio of approaches to communicate with influencers — including conferences, briefings, Webinars, dinners, a road show to meet many of them, and recognition awards to acknowledge formally influencers' contributions.
Necole Merritt, vice president of corporate communications at BellSouth Corp., on creating a corporate reputation strategy that improves over time
BellSouth Corp.'s vice president of corporate communications discussed the role that communications played in dealing with three race-based discrimination lawsuits at a company which since 1983 has strategically built a business of inclusion.
Necole's team employed an integrated communications approach and developed a proactive and reactive communications plan aligned with the company's business objectives. Among other things, the communications effort defined inclusion, held 60 town hall meetings over a year-long period, reached 10,000 people face to face, measured the communications effectiveness of internal diversity strategies, took an employee attitude study and touched all employees with one of a variety of vehicles.
The company's chief diversity officer, a charismatic, passionate and engaging executive, gave several media interviews to tell the company's story, which generated dozens of media placements.
As a result of the communications effort, BellSouth maintained credibility and its position as a diversity leader and the lawsuits had minimal impact to the company's overall reputation.
Linda Smith-Zorn, senior director of corporate communications at ARINC, on growing your reputation with strategic communication
The senior director of corporate communications at ARINC explored how her little-known 75-year-old company went about becoming better known. ARINC is a leader in aviation communications as well as transportation communications for four other major industries, but few people really knew much about it. To continue its strong growth, it had to become better known. Linda's challenge: "We had to break down walls to come up with a statement about what we do that each employee could articulate."
Externally, customers knew ARINC's strong reputation but didn't know the breadth of the company. And ARINC wanted its competitors to know it does more than air-to-ground communications.
Linda and her staff interviewed employees at all levels to find out what they do. What they found out forged the company's tagline: "You won't believe what we can do."
She then created an integrated advertising campaign that focused on incredibly complex engineering feats and made them understandable so that people captured what ARINC really does.
On the same day that the company introduced its television advertising campaign, it also launched a new Web site and kicked-off a media outreach program. Linda also measured what the company did to see what impact it had. Surveys were taken, Web traffic measured and new business tabulated. Virgin Atlantic Airways, which had rejected doing business initially with a company it considered stodgy, decided to partner with it after noticing the new ad campaign and PR strategy.
The results: Web visits grew to 1.3 million in 2003 from 783,606 in 2001, and media mentions soared to 1,060 from 96 with appearances in The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, NBC and Tech TV. Media reporters now come to the company for help with stories. Linda's new challenge? ARINC's chairman wants her to double those numbers this year.
Her bottom-line counsel for growing your reputation with strategic communications:
- Communicate with employees that their involvement is crucial
- Determine where you stand out
- Determine who needs to hear your message
- Determine the most expedient way to make it all happen
- Don't be shy