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he first chapter of the third season of the series Black Mirror, titled Nosedive, presented a society in which people rated others and were, in turn, constantly rated in all their social interactions. Quite real science fiction. In airport services, shopping centers, after paying at the checkout of department stores or being attended by a teleoperator, buying a product in an e-commerce, we are asked to rate the attention received. Social networks are full of opinions about brands and professionals. Who doesn't look for opinions online before hiring any service or buying any product?
Managing reputation today is more important than ever. The professor of Corporate Communication at the Open University of Catalonia, Ferran Lalueza, defines reputation as "the way an organization is collectively perceived based on the actions it has carried out over time." The prominence that reputation takes in the digital age derives, according to Lalueza, from the fact that "this perception is based on the information we accumulate about said organization, and the digital environment has exponentially increased the volume of information we can access." In this sense, he points out three key factors: "The first is that audiences are increasingly critical and demanding, so that ─as users, as consumers, as voters, as shareholders, etc.─ they tend to penalize socially irresponsible behaviors and even those that are simply perceived as politically incorrect. The second is that we live in an increasingly transparent world where almost everything ends up being known: if we cannot hide bad practices, it becomes more necessary than ever to manage the way these are perceived. And the third is that mass and global communication has ceased to be the monopoly of a few, which means that any individual can become a potential threat to the reputation of an organization or a personality, even the most powerful ones."
First, things must be done well, and also that the public perceives and values it. When communication is not adequately managed, an authentic "nosedive" in reputation can be caused.NOSE-DIVE FOR A TWEETTo manage reputation, transparency and trust go hand in hand. In the new interconnected and digitized scenario, communication has become a priority area for any company or professional. First, things must be done well, and also that the public perceives and values it. When communication is not properly managed, a real "nosedive" in reputation can occur. A single tweet can jeopardize anyone's good name and even cause a company's stock to plummet.
Lalueza, author of the didactic novel The show must go on (Editorial UOC), dedicated to crisis communication management, points out two additional factors that exacerbate this type of situation in the digital age: "on the one hand, because it is no longer possible to have absolute control over the information circulating about us and, on the other, because the gap between what companies and institutions end up providing us and the expectations we have about it continues to grow."
To learn more: Coll, P; Micó, J.Ll. Marketing and communication in the new economy. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.