Reputation Management.
For your People. Your Planet. Your Profit. Your Purpose.
We have reached our final destination: Reputation Management.
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Welcome back to the People, Planet, Profit and Purpose Blog everyone.
I have pulled together this little consortium of naughty perspectives, theoretical guidance and practical tools in the world of communications, partnerships and purpose as enablers for you to break your and your organisations' silos.
We have explored what silos actually are and how they hinder us in advancing a sustainable and profitable future.
We have banged our heads against the wall because of the conservation conundrum.
We have communicated (and danced) like nobody is watching.
We have looked into the purpose of purpose and how to communicate about it.
Why did we do all of this you ask? Here is why.
Because we live in an unprecedentedly awesome time for reputation management being more than just a tool for risk mitigation. It's a tool for business development. People care. Which means governments care. Which means businesses caring is no longer about evading the impacts of new regulation. Well, not only. It is about celebrating the fact that your consumers and regulators have an appetite to work with you to make the world a better place. Hashtag “true CSR”.
And here we are. This is what I do. This is my expertise, my ambition and my promise when I speak of reputation management and apply it to clients. To me it means:
Expanding the relevance of the communications and public affairs functions and becoming smarter and more innovative in how we wield them. Let's look beyond just doing the post on social, or hosting/attending the summit. Let's see what these activities can do for us. Whom do they invite? Who reacts to them, and how? What is the strategic relevance of the respondents? What do we do with this engagement? Let's follow the story.
Breaking silos. All too often we are content with the already converted singing our praises. And we sing their praises back at them. Which is important, we must always keep our allies tight. But where the real action takes place is in the moments of friction, the moments of disagreement, the moments when we can swing an opposer into an ally by signalling sameness of language and purpose. So let's make friends in unlikely places.
Telling stories that ring true because they are true. Narrative building starts on the inside of an organisation. If believability is a concern of yours, let's first look at what your current profile can lend itself to. Are your employees on-board? Do you have external parties willing to vouch for you? Does your current profile match your goal space and the topics that move society at present? Super, let's go shout it from the rooftops. It doesn't? Well...call me.
Let's go get it,
Tom Zamzow