Businesses need to be more proactive when it comes
tomanaging their reputation
online, as criminals findnew ways to attackthem, says analyst
Gartner.
Gartner predicts that by the end of 2010, criminals will
routinely use the internet to extort funds from organisations,
threatening to damage their corporate reputation by ensuring that
routine online search requests will return negative or even
libellous results.
"If your business depends on a positive internet reputation,
then you have little choice than to explicitly manage that
reputation online," said Jay Heiser, an analyst at Gartner.
He said, "The internet is like a bad-news Petri dish - negative
information multiplies and spreads with frightening speed and
becomes virtually impossible to erase."
Despite a plethora of ways to assess and help manage reputations
- such as PR agencies, competitive analysis companies and content
analytics tools - a comprehensive "scan and alert" mechanism for
the internet does not yet exist, said the analyst.
"Reputational persistence is a unique internet phenomenon that
traditional reputation specialists have never had to deal with,"
said Heiser. "The fact is, the only way to counteract persistent
negative information is to overcome it with a greater weight of
positive information. This means getting to grips with internet
reputation management," he said.
Gartner says firms can proactively manage their reputations
online by:
- Understanding the role that reputation plays in social and
commercial relationships
- Working with PR and marketing to create your organisation's
reputation management strategy
- Educating your employees ability to assess reputation Look for
new business opportunities in reputation enhancement