Who Controls Your Company’s Reputation?

So, who controls your company’s reputation? Is it your sales guys? Your public relations department? Your government relations team? Your CEO?

The answer is yes to all of these of course.

But who is the most influential person, on an ongoing, daily basis?

I would suggest your CEO is the most powerful influence during his or her speeches and interviews. But that’s not usually a daily interaction with a large group of people.

Your sales guys are also key individuals, interacting on a regular basis with their customer list. And these are important people to interact with, as they drive income for your company.

Your public relations department is also very important, especially on the rare occasion that a publication with a large audience calls for a comment or a pitch you’ve been working on for months comes to fruition.

And your government relations team is hugely important, especially if your business has to interact with government officials in order to secure the rights to do business.

But the answer to the question, in a rapidly changing world of social media, might be one person, or it might be a group of people.

The most influential person or people when it comes to your company’s reputation on a daily basis is/are….

Any of your employees who are on social media, whether as part of their job or in their personal lives!

Where else can you get an audience of, in some cases, thousands, all day, every day. And an audience that “knows” the messenger. An audience that has the potential to be impacted by the messenger. An audience who just might listen to your employee when they answer a question about where they work, and what kind of company they work for.

Some food for thought, for sure.

Oh, and one last thing. If you have a corporate social media presence, who runs that for you? Is it someone right out of college or high school? Or the son of one of your team who learned this stuff in high school?

Then consider this. Reporters, investors, critics, customers, officials, competitors, employees, and more are most likely following your company’s social media activity. On a daily basis. All day.

Maybe, just maybe, in a world where the public face of a company is their online presence, the people on social media are the most influential people in your company.

So, who controls your company’s reputation?