It frustrates me that organisations still seem to think they can manage their reputations by controlling what information is spread about them.
This is simply not possible anymore, and attempting it just makes you seem heavy-handed and out of touch. Far better to listen to what other people are saying about you and engage when appropriate.
The US Air Force produced a useful guide to blog assessment which susequently found its way onto the internet. It’s good, but I wanted something more generic, in plainer English, and more suitable for UK Third Sector organisations.
So I’ve had a crack at making my own version, which you can download here. It’s released under a Creative Commons licence so you can re-hash it providing you don’t do so for commercial gain.
Download my flowchart for managing online reputations (pdf).
Have you found this flowchart helpful? If so, I’d love to hear how. Either leave a comment below or use this form.
Update: 26 February 2012
I have made a minor tweak to the pdf. I have changed the heading of the first ‘yes’ thread, making its relationship to the subsequent choices a bit clearer.
Thanks for making this guide. You make clear sense out of what can seem a daunting task.
I think the note on ‘don’t rush’ before you respond is definitely important. It can be tempting to try and resolve a discussion or answer a question quickly without taking the time to consider the motives behind a comment first. Good tip.
Do you have suggestions on the listening tools or techniques available to first discover mentions of your organisation?
Gavin Wray
Thanks Gavin. As much as I’d love to claim that I came up with all those tips, they were essentially in the original document.
I think quite a lot has been written about listening, so I’ll see if I can pull some of it together. For my own part I use Twitter Search, Google Alerts and Addictomatic, but I don’t have a particular strategy. I should though, so I’ll look into it a bit more.
Michael
I love this. It would have been a really useful handout in my last job.
editorialgirl
Thanks for the links Michael. Addictomatic is a new one for me; I’ll give it a whirl.
I’ve been monitoring Twitter Search and have RSS feeds set up with Google Alerts. Felt that this was a little ad hoc and that others might be doing something more formal.
Gavin Wray
This is remarkably helpful, thank you – it’s something I’ve tussled with for a while and this seems clear and cogent.
Helga
That is a really useful piece of graphic design, thank you for the share.
John Fox
Pingback: ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA: ‘Yes, but what happens if people shout at us?’ « The Dan Slee Blog
Pingback: Recommended Reading | I Am Pete Ashton
Thanks for making this flow chart available. I like to use it as a hand out for some of my employees – also thanks for making it a CC license
Hans Luz
You’re welcome. Good to hear it’s useful
Michael
Typo!
Need a Respnse
An excellent tip sheet non the less. I’ll be pointing people to it
Mike Rawlins
Balls :-/ I’ll fix that; thanks Mike.
Michael
Forgot to say that’s fixed now (I did it a couple of weeks ago).
Michael