After hitting rock bottom during the height of greed, bailouts, and the economic crisis in 2008, the American public’s perceptions of the reputation of corporate America seem to be bouncing back. This, according to the findings of the 2009 Harris Interactive RQ Study, which measures the reputations of the 60 Most Visible Companies in the U.S.
Have we had enough of social media yet? Apparently not, as more and more companies and their senior managements embrace applications such as Twitter as a way to communicate with various constituencies and promote their companies and products. And, it doesn’t look like it is going to end any time soon.
The Internet remains a vast untamed frontier where anyone with access to a computer can comment on just about anything. Information, once released, can’t be taken back and can remain online forever. Erroneous information can become “institutionalized” and accepted as truth, propagated throughout the blogosphere and find its way into the mainstream media. Corporate reputations can be destroyed in a matter of minutes.
The media devoted a significant amount of coverage to the bonuses being paid by Goldman Sachs in the run-up to the release of the firm’s earnings. Among the legions covering the story was CNBC’s Charlie Gasparino who discussed the PR dilemma the company faced. In the wake of his story, I was asked to comment (everybody else was probably off that day). My remarks can be found here.
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Much of what IROs and their outside advisors do takes place in the trenches
in the battle for investor attention. In addition to verbal jousting with inquisitive
analysts, we see investor issues firsthand and often serve as the first line
of defense for most companies. We believe that it is a good practice
to keep the company’s board of directors in the loop on the progress of the
investor relations program as well as draw their attention to critical issues
that may emerge. After all, they represent the public and should be good
stewards of the company’s resources and its corporate reputation.
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