Opinion: Online Reputation Management  by Grant Common  Editor  Published April - May 2007  Grant has 30 years direct experience in public relations and  communication in Australia and New Zealand - as well as directing and managing programs in the UK and USA. He has consulted to Governments, publicly listed companies, industry bodies, marketing organisations, multinationals and not-for-profit organisations. He is Managing Director of Sydney-based Network PR and as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (having completed the Company Directors Diploma examination) he is also one of the few PR practitioners to have the perspective of the company director. Are you ready for this new pr battlefield?  Over recent years organisations have had to dramatically lift their communication preparedness. It started when mainstream media began to be more openly inquisitive, questioning and aggressive. Corporations and their brands were increasingly put in the spotlight. Executives found it necessary to equip themselves to front the media.  It often evolved into a set-piece scenario, perhaps best typified by the image of a company executive being grilled on television by the likes of the late Richard Carleton. In 2007 the game is still on. But the stage has changed - and so too have the characters and participants. Previously a corporation or brand’s reputation was assessed by media coverage. While journalists were often perceived to be following an ‘agenda’ there were opportunities for dialogue. The communications redress was to seek balance - and if possible to get retraction. And failing this there was the hope that over time the unfavourable newspaper article or television program would fade in the memory of the public. Today the new battleground is online. It is a smorgasbord of many different communication devices. There are no rules or conventions and few ethics. There are no geographic boundaries. Rumours abound and they can spread like a bush fire through the whole online community. It’s often difficult to confront the perpetrators face-to-face and put forward a defence. More importantly in many instances what is said subsequently appears on communications channels such as search engines (eg Google) and is destined to be there for ever. Globally organisations are struggling to cope with this new environment. The big multinationals -Coca Cola, Nike and others - constantly face rumours and/or open attack online.  Marketers face constant attacks on their brand (click here to see an example of how Greenpeace is attacking Apple). In this environment the role of the communicator becomes vital. At a strategic level the communicator has to convince the CEO that managing reputation online is crucial. At a tactical level the communicator needs to understand and utilise all the online tools that are available (and that calls for a very different skill set to what the traditional corporate communication advisor/public relations manager is likely to have.) Wired magazine, regarded by many as key predictor of trends, has already identified online reputation management as one of its top trends for 2007.  Read ‘The See-Through CEO’ which examines why and how organisations need to be gearing themselves to cope with this new phenomenon.  In this issue of PR Influences our articles on Reputation and Green Marketing should complement the article from Wired.  In the next issue of PR Influences (due out in mid June), we will examine in more detail the strategies and tactics organisations should be using to protect and enhance themselves in today’s online world.

PR Influences: published by Network PR discusses online reputation management, online pr, public relations, branding, image and online crisis management, Search engine optimisation.