By now you’re probably already bored of the photos capturing eight-gold-medal-winning Olympian Michael Phelps smoking from some sort of odd looking cannibus contraption (but I decided to post it anyway). While the story may already be fading in our two-second-attention-span memories, a little search engine called Google never forgets. And now, nearly a week after the story broke, a search for “Michael Phelps” yields front page results littered with links to photos and news of the event. Many individuals and companies try every trick in the book, over the course of months and years, to get their name to the first page of a Google search. But Phelps’ “regrettable” behavior took over years of positive results in about the time it takes to fill those gigantic lungs of his.
As Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.” Phelps is just the latest victim of the perils of online reputation. The issue is gaining prominence as people and the companies they work for adopt social media identities at lightning speed. And while the best way to maintain a stellar online rep is to not do anything stupid in the first place, it is vitally important to take steps to protect it in the event of a lapse in judgment.
This week, my employer Weber Shandwick released the findings of a survey of more than 700 senior executives in 62 countries. Called Risky Business: Reputations Online™, the research addresses the issue of vulnerable company reputations and provides insight into the resources executives rely upon to assess company reputations, the threat of employee cyber-sabotage, and most importantly, the best measures for protecting a company’s reputation from errors of Phelpsian proportions.
The research is a fascinating window into the minds of corporate executives, with take-aways that are relevant to individuals as well. If only it had come out a week earlier, perhaps Phelps would’ve thought twice before he inhaled.