Reputation Management Requires Engagement and Personality

You could swim in a sea of buzz words that get passed around the marketing world these days.  These buzz words have become so prevalent that we’re now creating anti-buzz word lists just to please with people to put them down.  Businesses often rely on these buzz words for the purposes of reputation management in hopes that they will impress the prospect or customer and glean just a little more loyalty.

• Authentic
• Genuine
• Transparent
• Engaging

Sound familiar?  More than likely because everyone is talking about making sure you hit those points to resonate with your target audience (buzz word central today).  Take away the marketing angle on any of it and what does it come down to?

Personality.

It takes real personality for good reputation management but it also takes an ability to get along with a variety of personalities while also appealing to them.  Blogging is a prime location where many companies get their reputation management all wrong.  It hits some companies hard when customers or prospects come looking for more information and find that content is boring, academic or even didactic in tone.

It’s only made worse when your content grows to be long-winded.  That doesn’t sponsor engagement – that makes your ideal customer snore.  They get a very skewed opinion of you and your company and they’re not likely to come seeking information again.  Even worse, they’ll remember that experience when they think about your brand, products, etc.  This could be marketing and reputation management suicide if you’re trying to appeal to an upbeat, social audience ripe with personality (younger generation for example).

Authenticity in Reputation Management

Your personality is the visible aspect of your character as it impresses others and in terms of your company it’s the distinctive character that makes the brand socially attractive.  Your reputation management is all about authentic personality.

Marketing used to be done on a very personal level and it was often handled by sales teams – whether indoors or field sales reps.  These folks were all about personality because they knew that personality is the foundation of trust and credibility.  Unfortunately the selling styles of past days was more about blowing smoke than actually being authentic.  That doesn’t fly anymore – you have to be authentic.. genuine…

There’s those words again…

Solidify Your Reputation Management with Personality

Always remember that you have as much control over your reputation management as customers and other business owners do.  It’s your personality that will greatly affect how your brand and reputation grows and it matters little whether you’re involved in B2B, B2C, government or one of many non-profit organizations.  You still need to connect with people in order to start new relationships, grow existing ones, and cultivate trust.

What personality traits do you think are the most important for your own marketing and reputation management?