The 8 best quotes on the online reputation of brands and companies

Quotes on online reputation and brand image are effective ways to raise awareness and educate executives, companies, and employees. Because the sheer variety of information about the young online reputation market doesn’t make things any clearer.

In this context, quotes on online reputation are often worth more than a long speech: through their striking nature, and through the experience and viewpoint expressed by their author, they can help companies or brands find solutions to manage their online reputation while avoiding certain pitfalls.

Once better mastered, factors such as the importance of Google’s first page or social media will allow the image perceived by your prospects and consumers to align with the image you want to project. This will help you better manage your online reputation.

Here is a selection of the eight best quotes on the online reputation of brands and companies.

1. Quote on online reputation: “Your brand is not what you say it is, but what Google says it is.” (Chris Anderson).

“Your brand is not what you say it is, but what Google says it is.” A successful journalist and author, Chris Anderson is one of the most listened-to voices in the United States on the ongoing digital revolution. This former editor-in-chief of Wired, a magazine about the impact of technology on culture, the economy, and politics, explains here the importance of Google for brands and companies.

Because in 2014, the figures speak for themselves: 91% of French people use Google as their search engine, and 46% of Google searches are made to find information about a product or service(2). With Google, hypothetically thousands or millions of internet users can search for results about your company.

Given the importance of Google, it is therefore advisable to diagnose the positive, neutral, and negative results about your company on this first page, in order to assess and improve your company’s page.[one]

2. Quote on internet reputation: “The best place to hide a body is the second page of Google!” (SEO specialists’ proverb).

“The best place to hide a body is the second page of Google!”. This proverb among SEO specialists, a community that works with search engines on a daily basis, shows how significant the risk of negative results on Google’s first page can be.

Because when internet users browse the first page of results, most of them stop at the first page(2).

So, for a company, having content that pushes negative links down to the second page is a good strategy for managing its online reputation.

3. Quote on online reputation: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it” (Warren Buffet).

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”. Warren Buffett is one of those rare billionaires the general public finds likeable. While his knack for a good turn of phrase found fertile ground in the world of finance, Warren Buffet’s quote also applies to bad buzz on the internet.

Because, with Google, if a result has strong authority, it will settle onto the first page.

So, bad buzz can set the web ablaze and generate significant collateral damage for a long time if an appropriate response is not implemented. For example, by listening to internet users’ concerns and adapting.

4. E-commerce quote: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room…” (Jeff Bezos).

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room…”. This quote from Jeff Bezos, the head of the famous e-commerce site Amazon, illustrates the importance of external reviews in shaping online reputation.

Social media, articles, reviews, press releases, testimonials… These accumulations of links on Google’s first page are convincing in the eyes of internet users, and they build your company’s reputation.

To avoid being subjected to this, it is advisable to adopt a communication approach that highlights positive results on the first page, such as press releases, your Google My Business page or social media posts.

5. Quote on reputation: “Our reputation is more important than the last 100 million dollars.” (Rupert Murdoch).

“Our reputation is more important than the last 100 million dollars.” Owner of some of the most widely read news outlets in the world, including The Times and The Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch illustrates here, in an admittedly provocative way, the financial importance of online reputation for a company or a brand.

Indeed, on the internet, a bad online reputation can, in just a few hours, wipe out the annual revenue of an e-commerce site, for example — like that large retail group boycotted in England by a collective on the basis of social and fiscal demands, which saw its revenue deteriorate because of this affair.

For Alix Lassaigne of Performics (1), one solution to avoid this is to build close ties with the consumer. “The company must listen, engage, disseminate, and measure in order to create and co-create content.” The challenge lies notably in the brand’s presence and image on Google’s first page

6. Quote on online reputation: “MySpace is the bar, Facebook is the barbecue at the back of the garden, and LinkedIn is the office”(Reid Hoffman).

“MySpace is the bar, Facebook is the barbecue at the back of the garden, and LinkedIn is the office”. Co-founder of LinkedIn and a keen observer of social media, Reid Hoffman expresses here their usefulness in managing a company’s online reputation.

While Facebook is primarily used to exchange personal information, and MySpace to “show how cool your clothes and the music you listen to are” (in Reid Hoffman’s words), LinkedIn or Viadeo can be of great service at a professional level — to a construction company, for example, by being positioned on them.

With the advent of Web 2.0, using social media has indeed become essential to managing your brand’s online presence, or that of its products. Social media is thus an opportunity to share a company’s culture or values. Consumers, for example, are willing to stay loyal to a brand if it offers even more effective customer service, notably through social media. Positioning yourself well on it will help you better manage your online reputation.

7. Quote on internet reputation: “If there is something about you that no one should know, perhaps you shouldn’t be talking about it in the most visible place” (Eric Schmidt).

“If there is something about you that no one should know, perhaps you shouldn’t be talking about it in the most visible place”. Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google from 2001 to 2010, expresses a simple idea here.

While the digital footprints we post (blogs, photos, videos, tweets, posts, forums, article comments…) on the internet and social media can be beneficial, they can also, one day or another, work against us, with sometimes dramatic effects on our private or professional life. Because not all networks are as private as we think. Information published on Facebook or Twitter can thus end up on a website.

To avoid this, it is first necessary to think about what information to share across your various social media profiles. Then, it is advisable not to post any “unfortunate” photos, taken for example during private parties. It is also important not to make comments that could backfire on you… Alongside Google’s first page and social media, monitoring work is also important to properly manage your online reputation.

8. Quote on online reputation: “As an executive who is inevitably more or less exposed, it is impossible to hide”(Cédric Manara).

“As an executive who is inevitably more or less exposed, it is impossible to hide”. Cédric Manara is a specialist in legal issues related to the internet and intellectual property. Here he addresses the problem of executives’ privacy.

With its big eyes and big ears, the web can easily retain the writings, actions, and words… of executives of very small businesses, SMEs, and even large companies. The consequences can be harmful for the executive, both in their private life and for their company.

To counter this, it is advisable to first set up a monitoring system, in order to anticipate reputation risks and to be able to react appropriately to ensure a good brand image.

Quotes on brand image: understanding the stakes better

These quotes show how important it is for companies to have a good brand image and effective communication with their prospects and customers. Overlooking Google’s first page, communicating poorly on social media, not following up on customer reviews: all of these are actions that don’t allow you to manage your online reputation.

To avoid this, the quotes from famous, contemporary figures are useful: knowing how to listen to internet users’ concerns, adapting your online communication to the platform, monitoring the results about your company on your Google first page, creating content intelligently, knowing how to use social media, regularly using monitoring tools… These quotes will help you better manage your online reputation.

Notes:

1. A. Babkine, M. Hamdi, N. Moumen (2011). Bien gérer sa réputation sur internet. Dunod.

2. http://goo.gl/We3k3O