Online reputation Management: a wakeup call for African Brands
Yinka olaito, a passionate Brand-PR, Social Media expert, Trainer and Speaker. He is the CCO of Michael sage consulting, Lagos Nigeria.
Online reputation management is no longer optional in today’s techy- savvy world. Only those who live in the world of illusion will consider it an addendum. But the present general attitude of most African brands is still lukewarm.
Many still believe online reputation management is not important or ripe in Africa for now. According to this cult of brand custodians, there are no strong online African influencers that can cause enough damage. When i hear this I just laugh at the level of ignorance display by these brand custodians. This misconception had made many brands across Africa not to have strategy to curb or manage online crisis. But this is a continent where the number of internet is growing at the fastest phase.
About a year and half ago, I was listening to a television interview with chief James Ibori-a former prominent governor in Nigeria who was rumored to have had several accusations of mismanagement of public fund. This ex-Governor was asked if he was not bothered about his name search huge negative Google result since he claimed ‘he was innocent’ of charges against him. His response then still shocked me till date. The governor-Chief James Ibori, response was ‘I am not bothered about Google as anyone could post anything online’. I was thinking he could do something about this if he knew the gravity of Google result on any brand. The rest is story today and this said governor had faced trial in Dubai and currently faces trial in United Kingdom.
Some few months ago too, a business mogul has an online reputation damage whose conglomerate image could be affected as a result. As a professional, I was contacted by the conglomerate’s external consultant. We did put necessary strategy in place and I am so glad they did implement a major strategy we suggested. But then my point was should we always wait till it happens? I do know many brands today use Radian6. But is this all that is in online corporate, brand reputation management? I mean listening or monitoring. Why do brands here have plan and huge budget for offline reputation and crisis management but do not have strategy and budget for online reputation management in this age and time?
The challenge with online crisis is its viral nature. In twenty-four hours, the damage may spread across the world. As we know, issue relating to corporate reputation has accounted for the bankruptcy of many front-line American brands. If African brands continue to maintain carefree attitude to online reputation management, a major online crisis to one organization will expose unpreparedness of all. Africa now has people with skills that can help. The challenge is: do our brands still feel online reputation matter? Well the two cases above are eye-opener and not isolated cases as some may want us to believe.
I think it is high time African brands understand online reputation crisis posit more danger when it happens than the offline crisis. How many front-line African businesses, brands can boast they understand intricacies of online crisis? What percentage of these brands has strategy in place and that they have ready made professionals with well rounded strategy who understand the terrain and can act as soon as any damage happens? Having Radian is just the beginning of this and it is at the foundational level of online reputation and crisis management. Do you have relevant case study and you are willing to share? Please use the comment section to enrich the dialogue.
This article was originally posted on Nigeria Business Communities
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