Jason Butcher

Reputation management

Reputation management is the process of tracking an entity’s actions and other entities’ opinions about those actions; reporting on those actions and opinions; and reacting to that report creating a feedback loop. All entities involved are generally people, but that need not always be the case. Other examples of entities include animals, businesses, or even locations or materials. The tracking and reporting may range from word-of-mouth to statistical analysis of thousands of data points.
Reputation management has come into wide use with the advent of widespread computing. Reputation management systems use various predefined criteria for processing complex data to report reputation. However, these systems only facilitate and automate the process of determining trustworthiness. This process is central to all kinds of human interaction, including interpersonal relationships, international diplomacy, stock markets, communication through marketing and public relations and sports.
Reputation management is not a new concept since everyone from Fortune 500 companies to plumbers to the gas station on the corner relies on their reputation to protect and enhance their livelihood. Reputations sway public opinion, positively or negatively affect careers, and have a tangible impact on the success of any enterprise whether it’s been around for three months or three decades.
Many of the same strategies which are effective for Internet marketing can be applied to online reputation management and our firm has the expertise and experience to move negative information off the first page of search engine results and make it difficult to find online.
The classic example of reputation management is the small town. Population is small and interactions between members frequent; most interactions are face-to-face and positively identified that is, there is no question who said or did what. Reputation accrues not only throughout one’s lifetime, but is passed down to one’s offspring; one’s individual reputation depends both on one’s own actions and one’s inherited reputation.
There are generally few formal mechanisms to manage this implicit reputation. Implicit Reputation is the accumulated reputation one gets in a small town from previous actions. The town diner and barber shop serve as forums for exchange of gossip, in which community members’ reputations are discussed (implicit reputation), often in frank terms. Outstanding members may receive small, symbolic awards or titles, but these are mere confirmations of general knowledge.
There is exceedingly little deviation from community norms in a small town. This may be seen as either good or bad; there is little crime, but also little room for dissent or change. The small-town model scales poorly; it depends on each member having enough experience of a large number of other members, and this is only possible up to a point.