Everyone roundly agrees that Tiger Woods messed up–that subject is not up for debate. A common discussion going around right now, though, is how much damage he has done to his reputation. His endorsement deals have been pulled, he’s stopped golfing, and the only thing he is in the news for is his marital infidelity–so I’d say the damage is significant.

Since 1984, Kathleen Hessert has run Charlotte-based Sports Media Challenge. A major part of her operation is crisis management.

“Over the years, crisis management has probably been 40 percent of our business, and at times it is 110 percent,” she said.

Hessert isn’t working for Tiger Woods, but has definite opinions on what he has and has not done.

“The lack of answering questions speaks volumes about where he is and about his psyche right now,” Hessert said.

Damage control is a huge deal in this case, just as reputation management services is when someone is slandered online.

http://www.wcnc.com/sports/Charlotte-Expert-In-Reputation-Management-Weighs-In-On-Tigers-Statement-84797162.html

Slowly each industry is realizing that corporate reputation management reaches them too. No industry is immune from its reach, because in every industry there is some degree of competition. This means image and reputation are important to every single business in every single industry. Eventually, every industry is touched.

“I had a good reputation before all this started,” Dallas plastic surgeon Dr. Jack Gunter told the magazine, explaining that he is the subject of the Website nosejobgonebad.com. “The person who started that Website never filed a malpractice suit because he knew it wasn’t malpractice; it was a complication,” the doctor said. But since the angry patient chose to post video and photos of his complications, the implication is that Dr. Gunter botched the surgery.

The medical industry is now in the process of understanding how detrimental online defamation can be to doctors and medical firms.

http://www.theplasticsurgerychannel.com/breaking-news/plastic-surgeons-fear-bad-online-buzz.html

Social Media has been used by individuals on the Internet in these last couple of years to connect with each other. Businesses, meanwhile, have used social media too. The ramifications have been, unexpected, to say the least. Businesses have not been able to use social media to sell, as they expected, but to brand themselves.

It is a more direct form of marketing. Again, this point was made to manage the expectations of those who use social media marketing. If they expect the results to be similar to PPC performance based online advertising, they will be disappointed. Social media is not PPC, it is about relationship building, reputation management, and sharing of ideas and knowledge. Relationships, two-way communications channels, and reputation management are becoming more and more important in the business world today. Therefore the importance of building relationships is paramount.

The rest of the article is well-worth reading, but the point is that social media has been incredibly important.With the rise of social media, reputation management has increased in importance also.

http://technorati.com/business/article/some-common-concerns-about-social-media2/

Microsoft has apparently been conducting polls concerning how often employers look to search engines or social networking profiles for information on their prospective employees. The numbers are shocking, too, it appears that far more employers use this method to research their candidates than is traditionally recognized. It makes sense, why wouldn’t you Google your prospective employees? If you find a picture of them acting inappropriately through a simply search, it is likely their behavior does not fit in with what you expect of them as an employer.

The survey was conducted in the U.S., the U.K., Germany, and France. Outside the U.S., the impact of online information on hiring appears to be less significant. In the U.K., 41% of responding recruiters and HR professionals said they’d rejected candidates following the discovery of negative online information. In Germany and France, the rates were 16% and 14% respectively.

One reason for the disparity may be that 75% of recruiters and HR personnel in the U.S. report that their companies have formal policies requiring them to research job applicants online. In the U.K., only 48% of recruiting and HR respondents said their companies had policies of this sort. And in Germany and France, that number is 21%.

If these numbers seem high, then it should serve as a warning to be careful about social networking. Or, if the damage has been done, to utilize web reputation management.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222600171