In the world of business, your personal and brand reputation are more important than you might imagine. While your products or services may be selling like hot cakes, as the expression goes, there may come a time when your reputation can bring your house of cards tumbling down. It may seem like yet another cliché, but success really can be as flimsy as a house of cards where an ill wind can bring you from the heights of your industry to unimaginable losses. Sometimes, those losses you experience are not rooted in fact but in just one comment or review that can quickly go viral.
Repairing an Undeserved Reputation
As was the case with Ty Cobb, probably the most controversial player to ever grace the pro fields, he often got the reputation for being a mean spirited person who had sharpened his cleats just to injure opposing players. These kinds of things hindered the fact that he had amazing career stats and really wasn’t as he was reported to be. Can you imagine if those kinds of statements had been made in the world of social media?
Accusing him of that would go viral literally overnight but at least today, Ty would have professional reputation repair marketing services to overcome the negative press. In fact, Ty Cobb was remembered by his family and friends as being an extremely generous man who gave to many charities and causes simply out of the goodness of his heart. Those comments never made it to the news, so Cobb is still thought of as one of the meanest players ever.
The News Is Never Good
Have you ever wondered why all the leading newspapers only print bad news? Front page articles are all about crooked politicians, serial murderers and horrendous acts of nature like hurricanes that bring houses and businesses to the ground, literally. There’s just something about human nature that thrives on bad news. Perhaps it’s a way of measuring our good fortune against all the tragedies out there.
However, the fact still remains that no one makes a fuss over the poor widow who shared from her poverty to help a child in need of new school shoes or the professional player who sponsored poor children in the hood. You might find those kinds of stories on the editorial page, but they’d never make front page news. This is another major reason why reputation repair is so important.
A New Generation of Consumers
Today’s consumers want to have trust and respect for the brands they deal with. Unfortunately, all it takes is one negative Tweet or Facebook post and overnight a brand can be ruined. No one questions the validity of the statements being made on social media, they just take them at face value. Reputation repair can offer the truth and so much more. Marketing pros will take the real facts and highlight them to offset what was posted. It only takes one disgruntled customer to fabricate details of a transaction to set the ball rolling.
With this new generation of consumers who value a brand’s reputation as highly as their products or services, reputation repair can counteract all the negativity, setting new levels of growth in motion. Sometimes you can’t stop negative comments, but reputation repair can set the record straight. Sadly, for Ty Cobb, this was never an option in his lifetime.
