How to Manage Digital Reputation in the Digital Age?

Reputation is power. Due to rapid advances in digital technology, everyone nowadays can access huge troves of information about the company or the person. In the digital age of Reputation Economy, reputation is equally powerful for business, professionals and private individuals. In business, up to 75% of a company’s value in the market is its reputation; in the personal life, the figure for reputation may be closer to 100%. (Fertik at el, 2015) As Web 2.0 thinker Clay Shirky puts it: The conventional wisdom is that a satisfied customer will tell one person and an unhappy person will tell 10. (practicalmarketing.co.za, 2015) The rule also applies to the individual.

Business Implication

According to Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson, reputation is permanent and ubiquitous. To protect the brand of corporation or the individual, we must always assume everything that been done electronically is being recorded and stored forever.

In 2007, German fashion brand Philipp Plein produced T-shirts printed with “F***K YOU CHINA” in German. (dw.com, 2015) At that time Philipp Plein has not yet entered China, so it did not bring much attention in the country. However in 2015, when Philipp Plein plans to expand its business in China, it is found the brand is under fire due to its racist history 8 years ago. Although the designer Philipp Plein tried to explain that the T-shirt was made to protest against China's counterfeit products, with a touch of humor, the move has lost many Chinese consumers’ trust and preference. (Globaltimes.com, 2015)The T-shirts were only made with 100 items. Yet its influence magnifies and remains permanently. In the social media or other digital channels, Philipp Plein brand will be always associated with “China Insult Incident”.

How to reverse the situation for the brand? First, never do anything that can make the brand vulnerable. Nowadays anything can be archived cheaply and permanently. Therefore it makes the brand more difficult to recover the reputation damage caused. Second, associate the brand with more positive information. This does not only involve SEO and inviting KOL speaking highly of the brand in the social media. The brand needs to go extra miles and offer more concrete deeds to overshadow the negative influence. For example, Microsoft was ranked highest among the world’s Top 100 companies’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) perceptions issued by Reputation Institute. This is remarkable achievement for Microsoft given in the past the company is referred as “the evil empire”.For years Microsoft had a very difficult time shedding its reputation as a greedy, monopolistic corporate behemoth. Both the U.S. Department of Justice and European Commission found the company in violation of antitrust laws in the late 1990s and early 2000s. While litigation ghosts may not have necessarily been forgotten, Microsoft has obviously made tremendous strides in improving its reputation. (livebetxtermagazine.com, 2013)

Opportunities for Individuals

For individuals, the implication of reputation has covered all aspects of life and work. In the digital age, everything you do is stored by the computer which thinks of your trace on the internet as a series of numbers, including every post you made and every photo you upload etc. Based on the accumulated numbers, the computer can parse all data of your digital footprints and calculate whether a certain number is higher than others. This leads to what Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson called DAMM—Decisions Almost Made by Machine. It means the computer is charged with making decision based on its algorithm and scores individuals based on the aggregated digital footprints. (Fertik at el, 2015)

This opens up a world of opportunity for individuals to create and expand their own reputation for life and career boost (or damage).

In digital age, individuals’ reputation precedes themselves, with their footprints spreading all over the internet, such as Weibo, Wechat as well as Linkedin etc. From pessimistic perspective, the private information is subject to divulgence. However, we can also leverage it and manage to beget more favorable digital reputation.

Take job hunting for example. Conventionally when we write the resume, action verb needs to be used as much as possible (“Led the team to conduct research for new product …”.). However, for resume in the reputation economy, enough key words about your function, role or technology term need to be adopted more often so that computer algorithm can pick it up. (“Led the marketing team to conduct qualitative research for new product with digital application…”.).By the same token, make sure the resume is depicted in quantified ways so that the system can locate the right keywords.

With the right resume, how can you attract the attention of the right-fit company that adopts DAMM? Based on the recommendation from Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson, following approaches can be used:

First, become a broadcaster. Get your content out and into the hands of reputation engines that crawl the internet all the time. It is not a suggestion for posting something on Weibo every hour. It is about making smart comments, sharing insightful articles, engaging with others in the field. This demonstrates that you are professional and keen on the trends in your specialized area. In fact, in the digital age, everyone has the chance to become key opinion leaders. For example, in China, influencers in TMT field has formed alliance group named WeMedia. The members of WeMedia are either freelancer journalist or just broadcaster who has been in the industry and keep updating and woo certain followers. (Wemedia.cn, 2015)

Second, hang your digital shingle. Establish your refreshable digital presence across all your online properties. Not everything you posted needs to be work of art, especially when the computer algorithm cannot tell much difference. Make sure the content of yours is regularly updated in the digital space.

Third, make sure your action and words are consistent through online and offline or in the past and now so as to create a positive cycle of reinforcement. Any inconsistence may cause damage to your digital reputation. In June 2015, Chinese car rental company Shenzhou, the Chinese equivalent of Uber, launched a campaign in social media starring several celebrities, which mocked Uber and denouncing it as unsafe. (thatsmas.com, 2015) One of the celebrities is Gong Wenxiang, a key opinion leader in e-commerce field. However, it is found that Gong Wenxiang posted a Weibo message in Jan this year and spoke nicely of Uber experience. It even received a Thank You feedback from General Manager of Uber Shanghai. With such inconsistence, Gong Wenxiang is under fire by many people on the internet for being dishonest.

In addition to occupation, managing your digital reputation can help improve your daily life. For example, Alipay’s Ant Financial Services Group has established China’s first credit agency, called Sesame Credit, to use a system based on online and offline data to generate individual credit scores for consumers and small business owners. (chinainternetwatch.com, 2015) Sesame users who have scores of 750 or more are able to apply for a Luxembourg visa. Singapore became the first destination for the service last year. More popular regions for Chinese tourists will be on the service list as well, including the UK etc. (wantchinatimes.com, 2015) Details of how to enhance the Sesame Credit scores have not been disclosed yet.

However we can create as many smoke screens as it can to help enhance the Sesame scores. You can shop all the times with Alipay, the Chinese equivalent of Paypal, online and offline and pay it back in time (if credit card is used). Also you can create lots of positive content about yourself, publish it widely and repeat it so that these profiles have enough information that computer can connect together. If you are concerned with health and health is one of the issues that decide your scores, you can buy Fitbit or any other wearable device that tracks how you move and upload it. Then you can attach Fitbit to your dogs or young kids so that the data recorded is showed quite positively. Make sure that the data is publicly linked to other social media site to help reputation algorithms get the hint.

With constant and stead accumulated data, you can build the reputation that you are a very good customer. Maybe that brings preferential treatment in your life.

In fact, many companies have begun to gather the information of people online to use it as a basis for scoring. A Shanghai-based startup rolled out an app called “Paymax” aiming to provide micro loan service that specifically targeted at the country’s working class. “Each user will generate 5000 to 10,000 data points, among which more than half are user behaviors related. These are generated via GPS location, sensors and gyroscopes in the phone. We also collect data from users’ social networks, in additional to traditional personal credit history. All the collected data contributes to the final score to determine the likelihood of fraud and users’ creditworthiness,” the founder of Paymax said. (technode.com, 2015)

Fallibility of Reputation Economy

For business or individuals, the glitch in the computer algorithm or the acquisition of misinformation can lead to the chaos, especially when the digital footprints are lasting and permanent. (Fertik at el, 2015)

When misinterpretation or error occurs, the company or individual is subject to the reinforcing cycles which worsen the situation. For example, based on previous disgruntled posts in social media, the person A is considered as being grumpy. (Maybe A is not that negative person in the real life; he just has the habit of sharing on the internet) This may shake the confidence of potential recruiter who using the computer algorithm to locate the talent. Without making great leap in career, the lender may offer higher annual interest rate for A’s application of loan or may reject it in the worst case.

To avoid this situation, we can monitor the individual or business’s search result regularly for error. For individual, setting up the search in Google Alerts can help doing the job on the house. Once you found it in time, you can explore the resources to fix it before it causes large damage.

As Daniel Burrus said, in a world of technology-driven exponential change, the prize doesn’t go to those who react to change the quickest; the prize goes to those who use Hard Trends to see change coming and get out ahead of it. (linkedin.com, 2015) In the digital age, everything about you has been digitalized. Instead of trying to avoid it, you can embrace it to the fullest and manage it to your benefit.

Reference:

Michael Fertik, David C. Thompson. (2015) The Reputation Economy: How to optimize your digital footprint in a world where your reputation is your most valuable asset. 1stedn. Crown Business, pp. 9-120

practicalmarketing.co.za (2015) The Reputation Economy. Available athttp://practicalmarketing.co.za/the_reputation_economy_.html (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

livebettermagazine.com (2015) The Reputation Economy: Creating a Sustainable Business Strategy. Available at http://livebettermagazine.com/article/the-reputation-economy-creating-a-sustainable-business-strategy/ (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

dw.com (2015) German Provokes Chinese With T-Shirt to Fight Plagiarism. Available at http://www.dw.com/en/german-provokes-chinese-with-t-shirt-to-fight-plagiarism/a-2728248 (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

globaltimes.cn (2015) A lesson for brand Philipp Plein eight years later. Available at http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/928344.shtm (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

Wemedia.cn (2015) WeMedia. Available at http://www.wemedia.cn (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

Thatsmags.com (2015) Anti Uber Ad Campaign by Chinese Rival Backfires Spectacularly. Available at http://www.online.thatsmags.com/post/anti-uber-ad-campaign-by-chinese-rival-backfires-spectacularly-1. (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

chinainternetwatch.com (2015) Alipay Launched China’s First Credit Agency. Available at http://www.chinainternetwatch.com/12125/alipay-sesame-credit/. (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

wantchinatimes.com (2015) Sesame Credit Launches Credit-based visa application service with Alitrip. Available at www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?id=20150606000138&cid=1202. (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

Technode.com (2015) Micro-Loan Service Paymax Judges Your Credit Rating From Your Typos. Available at http://technode.com/2015/06/08/micro-loan-service-paymax-helps-chinese-blue-collars-buy-highend-electronics. (Accessed: 26 June 2015)

linkedin.com (2015) The Reputation Economy: Are You Ready? Available athttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/reputation-economy-you-ready-daniel-burrus. (Accessed: 26 June 2015)