Friday, June 29, 2007

Reputica Launches

A new company Reputica has launched a brand new online system that it says will revolutionise reputation management. In their words;

"A new 360 degree reputation management company launches today with the promise to be the answer to managing corporate and individual reputation within the world of citizen journalism. The brainchild of Paul Alexander and Andrew Jordan, Reputica trawls the full spectrum of traditional and new media, including blogs and chat rooms, to produce a unique dashboard of reputation scores known as ReputicaRating™, in real time. In addition, the service can predict where and when news stories are likely to go across the internet, enabling clients
to proactively manage breaking news.

The Reputica service, available on a yearly subscription, is aimed at ‘anyone who values their reputation and who wants to proactively improve their profile’. In particular, CEOs, high net worth individuals and PR companies are first in line for attention. “With more and more corporate and personal scandals filling the news every day, companies, CEOs and public figures need to safeguard their reputations now more than ever,” says Andrew Jordan. “Long before you see it in the traditional print media, bad news about you, your company or your products can be winging its way through the ether, transferred by anyone with a computer and modem. Blogs, chat rooms, word of mouth are fast becoming just as influential – and faster moving – as traditional print and TV media. Within days, the impact of this could potentially cost companies millions in lost revenue, and studies have shown that on average it takes over 3.5 years
for companies or individuals to recover from such reputational damage.”

“The ReputicaRating™ is just the beginning,” says Jordan. “The key to our service is in using our unique software to predict how information will disseminate across various media platforms. In other words, if a negative blog comes out one day, we can predict – based on complex analytical algorithms – where that story is likely to go next, and when. We can then advise our clients on the most effective pre-emptive steps to take. Reputica turns Reputation Management from being reactive to being proactive, a far more effective strategy.” The management are hoping that ReputicaRating™ will fast become the currency for reputation scoring. "

It is early days to see if they can become the de-facto standard with such a broad range of intangible online media coverage, but we will be watching them closely.

For those in the lime light every day, polititions, celebrities, and CEOs of large multinational companies there seems to be a sense of ego that could fuel interest in the service. For the rest of us I am not so sure? It certainly highlights the need to protect and research your online profile, and take corrective action where necessary. As for subscribing to a service to get a reputation score? That may be a step to far.

Make sure you follow our advice, hints and tips and do not post anything that you would not want published in your local paper. You are then one step further to protecting your personal online brand.

Practice our hints and tips for using Google to search for references to you in it's database and you will be able to take action if something is posted that would impact your repuation negatively.