I know, I know–if you’re as tired as I am of hearing about Toyota, then this article is not welcome. But this article is one of few that I have seen that concentrates only on Toyota’s reputation, the damage it has suffered, or how it can get back to being well-regarded by the general public.

Toyota’s bungled global recalls has badly damaged its brand image, but while the carmaker faces its biggest-ever crisis, analysts and experts say its reputation is by no means beyond repair.

The Japanese giant, the world’s biggest automaker, has been almost constantly in the spotlight since January over a rash of defects that have prompted the recall of more than eight million vehicles worldwide.

The analysts are right–given time and work, virtually any reputation can be repaired (Jeffrey Dahmer excepted).An Internet reputation is important to maintain.

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/toyota-can-restore-reputation-experts-say-20100301-pbsk.html

Search results change each time Google reconfigures the formula by which they compile and rank webpages. Most recently, Google has indexed Facebook fan pages and they are now searchable to some degree or another. The extent to which the search results have changed won’t be apparent for a while, but expect changes.

Google on Wednesday began indexing Facebook Fan page status updates in real-time search results. The announcement, made through a tweet on Twitter, fulfills the promise the search engine made Dec. 7 at the Computer History Museum.

We don’t yet know if this means that facebook statuses will show up in live searches, but we do know that there has been a change as it regards Facebook and Google. Reputation management firms will have their work cut out for them.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=123214

The top ten business tips from Simply Business are very forward looking–a good deal of them involve online goals and strategies. They give a number of good tips which could help a company to avoid Internet libel. They have this same sort of article this week:

Every week we select 10 articles we think are worth reading at the end of your work-week. Start your weekend now – have a look at these articles selected by our Simply Business knowledge team.

They suggest that everyone company take its brand into their hands, instead of letting consumers or detractors control the battle of branding. This is as true as any word that was ever written about online reputation management.

http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2010/02/2010-02-19-top-10-business-advice-articles-of-the-week0/

Surprise surprise, this article points out what we all knew already–but the numbers are a bit surprising. Employers, when you interview with them, are using social networking sites, like Facebook or Myspace, to find out more about you. We’ve all known this, but the number of employers who are using social networking sites is shocking!

At the end of the day, it’s all about perception. Probably 70% of the human resource professionals who I consider my colleagues have actually incorporated online screening as a part of their recruitment process

That is an imposing number of HR professionals who might find the pictures of you shirtless, drinking, or what have you. This is nothing a little personal reputation management can’t fix.

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story/Employers-Say-They-Check-Your-Facebook/S1TCS40HuEeb6o0jIPzjzA.cspx

The article linked below tries to identify the top ten trends online that are going to become bigger over the next year. An angry ex-employee or stupid mistake can ruin the reputation of a company quite quickly. This is why Internet reputation management made the top ten list so easily.

Last year, Domino’s Pizza landed itself into trouble when two employees posted a video of themselves handling food unhygienically on the internet. Cotton On experienced backlash on Facebook when it continued to sell baby clothes with slogans such as “They Shake Me”.

Griffin says businesses can avoid such catastrophes by carefully monitoring who is talking about their brand, and being ready to address any situation as quickly as it appeared.

With examples like this becoming increasingly commonplace, Internet reputation management will only gain popularity in the coming years.

http://www.smartcompany.com.au/internet/20100202-online-trends/2.html

A bad reputation is easy to earn on the Internet, as many people know. It can be earned for legitimate reasons–bad service or fault products. But it can also be earned for ridiculous reasons to–an angry former employee wants to express his frustration, an unreasonable customer wants to vent, etc. Google, the leading search engine by far, is changing the formula by which it collects reviews.

“Google Maps is now using the new capability of sentiment analysis to better understand content and add ‘reviews’ from non traditional sources like newspaper articles and single blog entries that appear across the internet,” he says. “This new capability will dramatically increase the reach of hyperlocal blogs, change how businesses manage the review process and could, over the long haul, change how and where reviews are generated and aggregated.”

More on the newest developments below. These changes could have serious repercussions for the reputations of companies who depend upon the Internet for new customers (like–all of them). There may be a rising need for corporate reputation management.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/18/google-makes-it-harder-to-hide-from-a-bad-reputation

The story linked below cites some excellent, and massive, numbers about online reputation management as it regards Tiger Woods’ little accident. His current predicament has completely ruined whatever good reputation he had. Of course, with mistresses numbering in the double digits, and new ones revealing themselves each day, it should come as no surprise. Each day the tv and newspapers are filled with new, and old, stories about Tiger Woods that are, how should I say it, less than flattering.

So the question on Tiger’s agent’s mind, I bet, is–can this be fixed through PR? Well, the short answer is that most of the damage has already been done. But further damage can be stopped by getting some positive publicity, putting an end to the new stories coming out each day, and engaging in an extensive brand reputation management campaign.

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/091216-194758

Imagine a place where you can insult or verbally assault anyone and suffer no repercussions. Imagine a land where you can spread lies about people or companies, just because, and get away with it. Imagine what would happen to the competitiveness of the free market in a place lacking such basic integrity.

Do you have a picture of that place? It’s called the Internet, and we all use it daily. It is a wonderful resource for communicating, learning, networking, and even business—but it has it’s problems with integrity, that much is obvious. The anonymity of the Internet guarantees that under-handed competitors or disgruntled employees can spread lies and misinformation about companies and never have to suffer the consequences—they won’t even have to accept responsibility.

Luckily, there are a number of companies that are offering a defense against this verbal aggression. The leading company is called ReputationHawk.com. It has been featured on The Early Show, in TIME magazine, and in the Chicago Tribune. They are well-known for producing results in a money-saving, and timely, manner. This is the key to success with a problem like this, where thousands of potential clients per day might be scared off by the negative search results.

ReputationHAWK excels by replacing negative content with positive publicity. They are able to do this because they know how to manipulate search engines and positively publicize their clients. It is only fair that individuals and companies should be able to publicize themselves in the fact of slanderous articles and blog comments from anonymous malcontents.

One thing I like about this article is that it emphasizes the overly negative atmosphere that the Internet can sometimes have. If a product were capable of healing everyone with throat cancer–you’d get some loony on a forum complaining that it couldn’t heal a sinus infection too. All it takes to ruin a company’s online reputation is one malcontent at a computer.
http://www.visibilitymagazine.com/location3-media/tarla-cummings/online-reputation-management

This article raises the question–how do we know that international reputation companies will use their skills? The answer is that we don’t. Some companies will, some companies won’t. Like in every other industry, and like every other PR firm, the companies will differ in their outlooks of what clients deserve protection from public opinion, and which don’t.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/109612/page/1