Over recent years, every time I speak or conduct seminar sessions I usually focus in on the new rules of reputation management, to brief companies and execs about how to prepare and manage reputations in an increasingly judgemental media landscape. Melbourne’s Age paper today has a piece by Angela Rozas on how ‘hate’ is big on the interWeb and how caustic (often unqualified/unjustified) comments can reach thousands/millions online, and prejudice your corporate or personal reputation. Prompted by Angela, I typed ‘hate that company’ into Google, and Metlife, Hewlett Packard, Grossinger Autoplex, Safeco and Novell all popped up in the first ten finds. In 2005, Forbes magazine listed the top corporate hate sites with Paypal, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, United Airlines and UPS all featuring in their top 10, adding yet another dynamic (and battleground) for the modern PR counsel and reputation manager.
