When you offer a service or sell a product, either people are talking about you, or no-one is. If they’re talking about your brand, it may be positive or it may be negative. If no-one’s talking about you, perhaps they should be.

There are many examples where a brand’s reputation has been massively damaged, simply because a negative mention of a brand snowballed and was not spotted in time.

One such example is when a blogger from America bought a computer from the large computer manufacturer Dell in 2005 and paid for a four year home service support plan. Soon after, when the machine needed seeing to, Dell told him to return the computer, which left him without the machine for 10 days. When he wrote a short blog post about the poor service, it generated over 200 comments within a few days. This then resulted in 10 follow up posts and over 2500 comments that sparked so much opinion that it led to the phrase “Dell Hell” becoming a household term. Imagine is this post had been spotted in time – perhaps the massive damage that the brand received could have been limited.

Following an internal training session on Brand Identity Tracking run by our Head of Online Marketing, Drew Davies, I thought I’d write and share a few notes about how to discover what people are saying about a particular brand, how that can be tracked over time, and how the information can be used to improve brand identity.

Why Do Companies Choose To Track Their Brands?

Companies generally want their brand tracked for predominantly one of four reasons:

1. New product / service: The company is launching a new product in the marketplace and wants to see the attention the brand will be getting online over time.
2. Bad reviews: A brand has been getting bad reviews on the web, and the company would like to see the extent of that damage done to the brand.
3. Good reviews: The brand is already receiving positive reviews on the web, and the company would like to see what is being said and use it to create more products and engage with the happy consumers.
4. No reviews: The brand has been around for a while, but the company feels that nobody’s talking about it, and so that company wants to see where their competitors are being talked about and work out how to enter those forums.

How To Benchmark Your Online Reputation

We use a three step process here at Chameleon Net to benchmark the online reputation of our clients’ brands:

Step #1: GATHER – scouting the web for mentions of specific keywords relating to the brand in question, and recording how positive or negative the conversations are about the brand. Keywords here would include variations of the brand name, categories, and competitor brand names where appropriate.
Step #2: ANALYSE – working out what the comments mean according to pre-defined metrics, and benchmarking this information over time and against competitors.
Step #3: ENGAGE – making amends where there are grievances about the brand, and reinforcing positive comments about the brand on behalf of the client.

Tracking Your Online Brand Identity – For Free!

There are already a number of free tools that companies can use to find out what people are saying about their brand online. Tools offered by Google include:

• Google Search: visit http://www.google.co.uk, type in the name of the brand into the search box, and see a list of the websites that mention your brand.
• Google Blog Search: visit http://blogsearch.google.com, type in the name of the brand in the search box, and see a list of the blogs that mention your brand, along with the date of when it was mentioned.
• Google Alerts: visit http://www.google.com/alerts and sign up for alerts that will notify you by email about the latest web and news pages that mention your brand.

Limitations of using these free tools for tracking your online brand identity

If you have a good internal team who have plenty of time on their hands, information on conversations about the brand can be gathered fairly simply using the free tools listed above.

However, although the tools are good for finding the raw data, that’s where it stops. The next step is to analyse the gathered data with metrics to make sense of it, which requires a natural human touch.

Recently we tracked the brand identity of one of our clients in the not-for-profit sector who wanted to see how they are perceived online. We benchmarked our findings over time, and against similar charities in the sector.

Engaging: handling negative comments

So what happens if you discover negatives comments about your brand? What can you do to recover from an online reputation crisis?

The article at http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/five-steps-for-recovering-from-an-online-reputation-crisis.html suggests the following steps:

1. Respond from the top
2. Admit your mistakes and apologise
3. Host the conversation
4. Seek resolution
5. Turn detractors into evangelists

To recover from even the severest of mistakes, base your crisis communication on sincerity, transparency, and consistency.

Engaging: encouraging more positive comments

Suppose you find positive mentions of your brand at the websites and blogs that you find, how do you leverage that?

Simply go to those websites and say “thank you” in the comments section. Then suggest other innovative ways that your product or service can be used.

Engaging: starting a conversation

Sometimes, you’ll look around the web and find that no-one’s talking about your brand. What can you do there to create positive exposure?

Well first highlight where you want to be mentioned, and then build an innovative ePR campaign to get more people talking about your brand.

Chameleon Net ran an ePR campaign to launch ‘The Survival Kit’ – a cookware kit developed in a collaboration between Jamie Oliver and Tefal. Get in touch with us to request our ePR case studies.

Is ‘Online Reputation Management’ ethical?

Some may refer to this process as controlling their message, while others may look upon it as ‘gaming the system’. What do you think? Is online reputation management ethical?

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Source: Chameleon Net blog article: How to Manage Your Online Reputation by Suraj Shah

On the day of my birthday earlier this month, I had the opportunity to have lunch with Peter Thornton who previously worked in his family business (Thorntons Plc) for 30 years, eventually retiring at the age of 54 as Chairman.  Prior to meeting him, I sent him an email saying…

My grandfather ran a utensils retail business with his brothers when in Mombasa (Kenya), and my father ran a menswear retail business with his brothers in London (UK), and I would love to launch a business several years down the road with my own brother.  There’s something very magical about family businesses, and naturally I’m sure they have their own challenges and a unique dynamic (!)

When you have a moment, it would be wonderful to hear what your top three tips for running a family business would be.

Peter then sent me a very thoughtful response to my request.

I thought what he shared would be valuable for my friends who are reading this blog, so asked if he would be happy for me to publish it and if he would give a little more information about himself, his background and his services, in case any of my friends would get value from having a longer conversation with him or engaging his services.  You’ll find some gems very much applicable to marriage too I’m sure…

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Here’s what Peter wrote…

My Top Three Tips for Running a Family Business - before ever starting!

Relationships & Roles

Your suggestion is that this is with your brother only.  Naturally this is far more simple than if there are more relatives involved.  However there is a need for various roles to be covered in the initial team, for more on that see below.

The most successful operations are run by emotionally mature people working in equal partnership.  By ‘equal partnership’ I do not mean that every decision however small or large has to be always taken by all partners mutually but there will be specific areas where each individual has primary responsibility and within which, to understood limits, they can make their own decisions without reference to the other partners.

This paragraph has certain built-in requirements which need to be understood in advance:
‘Emotionally mature people’ - this is of paramount importance, whether in business or in marriage!  The totally emotionally mature person hardly exists most people are immature in some way.  Going into business with your brother has advantages and disadvantages; on the positive side you know him extremely well already, on the negative side you automatically and permanently have an emotional relationship with him.

You need to understand each other’s state of maturity, do you both feel yourselves to be totally independent, adult individuals? have you progressed beyond the childish relationship?  Do you behave like two adults to each other? does either of you have a serious emotional problem, such as the need to be always dominant, or the need to always be right?  Do you entirely trust each other in terms of honesty, intentions and communication in individual, team and family relationships?

A major contributor towards ‘progressing beyond the childish relationship’ will have been to work completely independently of each other in separate organisations doing separate things for a period of time prior working together.  This will establish the individual’s independence, abilities, self-confidence and usable experience to bring to the business relationship.

‘Specific areas where each individual has primary responsibility’ - to run any organisation it is necessary to have specialists in several different roles.  Mike Southern in his Beermat set of books defines them extremely well as: Sales Cornerstone, Technical Cornerstone and Finance Cornerstone.  One or more of these will be the Entrepreneur, most likely the Technical Cornerstone.  The Entrepreneur is essential of course.  The operation can manage without the Finance Cornerstone at least initially because this can be delegated to somebody else part-time.  You therefore need to be certain about each other’s strengths, one needs to be fully capable of being the Sales Cornerstone and the other capable of being the Technical Cornerstone.

The individual running each of these areas will of course have primary responsibility and decision-making powers in those areas.  The overall corporate governance will probably be shared equally between the two of you initially that it will eventually become necessary to decide that one individual will make the final decision in corporate matters having fully sounded out the other’s opinion.  In other words this person will become the CEO.  Whatever happens this role must not be decided on the family hierarchy basis but only on the basis of ability as must every other role.

Future Family Governance Systems.

You need to be fully in agreement in advance of starting the business what your objectives are.  Do you intend always to run this between the two of you and eventually to sell it without involving any more family members or do you intend it to become a family institution for the long-term?

If it is the former it is essential that you do not ever bring in, at a later stage, any other family members because if you do so you will immediately turn it into the latter.

If it is to be the latter then you need to agree with your brother in advance the principle of and some outline rules for the following:

• The Governance Structure for Business and Family.
• CEO Succession
• Agreeing Vision and Strategy
• Rules for Entry of new family members
• Future Share Ownership
• etc.

—

As requested, a few paragraphs about Peter himself…

I started work in the family firm of Thorntons Plc (manufacturing retail confectionery business) at the age of 10 working during the holidays until I was old enough to start full-time. I became a director of the company when I was 29 and retired when I was 54 in 1989 as Chairman.

This gave me much valuable experience as a director of a family company where at one time there were six members of the family all working together.  Since that time I have studied the theory and practice of family business thoroughly preparing myself for working with family businesses.

Conflict can become very serious and destructive within a family business and it needs an outsider to relieve it.  I offer my services for this purpose and also for prescribing the stages that follow resolution of the conflict so that systems and procedures can be set up to avoid these problems occurring again in the future.

Please contact me at: peter@thornton-asc.co.uk or by telephone: 01395-548199 or Mobile 07836-212713. www.thornton-asc.co.uk

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Hope you found the above words by Peter useful.  Are you running your own family business at the moment?  What are the highs and lows?  What tips would you offer?  Would these tips translate well into the world of marriage too?

If you are using a version of Microsoft Outlook which is older than Outlook 2007, then you can download a file which updates all public holiday information in your calendar, giving you details of public holidays through till 2012.

Visit the information page at http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/missinghol.htm and download and install the file which resides at http://www.outlook-tips.net/files/OUTLOOK2012.HOL if you are running Outlook 2002/2003.

I now have an up-to-date Outlook file which gives me the heads up on all public holidays right through to 2012.

Diwali’s here. Makes you think of light. Inner light, shining bright.

Needed to buy some lightbulbs recently - special ones that you can’t get in your local supermarket.

Scoured the web - came across yourwelcome.co.uk

Highly recommend these guys for all your lightbulb purchases. Here’s why:

Reason #1: speed of delivery

Reason #2: quality of light bulbs at a great price

Reason #3: their caring courtesy email below:

—

Dear Mr Shah,

Thanks for your recent order which you should now have received.

I just wanted to follow up and make sure that your recent order has been received and everything is in order.

We do try and offer a high level of customer service but we are only human and do occasionally make mistakes - if we do then I want to know about it, both to put it right and to try and stop it happening again.

If you do have any comments or feedback then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me - support@yourwelcome.co.uk

To view our whole range visit www.yourwelcome.co.uk

Thanks once again for your business.

Kind regards.

Richard Cockayne

—

How about that for after sales care?

I like these guys - gonna keep going back to them for all my light bulb needs.

Turns out they also do air conditioning systems. Yes, winter’s kicking in now, but when the summer comes, the way climate change is happening, it’s gonna be scorching in London.

Where do you source YOUR inner light from?

A Buddhist monk walks up to a burrito stand and asks…

“Make me one with everything”

The vendor says, “That’ll be £2.50 please”.

The Buddhist hands him a ten pound note, and asks for his change, to which the vendor replies:

“My dear sir, change must come from within!”

—

There’s something about a burrito that gives it a buzz - check out www.buzzburrito.com/masterclass to find out what the big deal is about the burrito this weekend.

Are you like how I’ve been first thing in the morning?  Before even having breakfast, do you just jump out of bed and load up your computer to check your email?  You think that in those few hours between when you closed your computer before you went to sleep, and when you turn on your computer in the morning when you wake up that there will be something SO IMPORTANT that it becomes your priority of the day?  Get real!

How about if you get to the office - what’s the first thing you do?  Load up your computer, check your telephone voicemails, and trawl through your emails?  What, like there’s something SO CRITICAL that you just HAVE to read it right away?  Get real!

If there’s something so dramatically urgent, the right person will find a way to track you down.

Check out this brilliant video where Gregory Mantell interviews Julie Morgenstern who suggests spending the first hour of your workday email-free.

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A brilliant supporting article on this topic can be found at Geek to Live.com

What is your Most Important Task (MIT) of the day, and how wonderful would it feel if you got it completed before you peeked at even one email?

Inspired by the layout of Monopoly, this Jain twist to the game gives all teams the chance to shine out with their knowledge and understanding of Jain Dharma, in a typically warm, supportive, and light-hearted Young Jains setting.

Facilitated by the creator of Jainopoly, Deepa M Shah used quizzes and party games to elicit the qualities required to playfully embrace the often challenging life we come across in our every waking moment.

My personal favourite game involved coming into a circle, catching a tennis ball from someone, and then whilst throwing it to someone else, shouting out a Jain word or phrase. Then, remembering who you threw the ball to, the next time a ball would come your way, throwing it to that same person, shouting out the same phrase as last time.

For me this really helped me build focus, awareness, attentiveness, vigilance, and persistence to keep going, even in moments when the ball dropped. Repeating that one phrase helped keep the main thing the main thing.

The lesson was: if the ball drops, and you go to pick it up, don’t forget to stay alert for the next ball coming your way, otherwise it’ll hit you on the head! It may be better to let the ball roll away rather than get knocked out by trying to do it all. Alternatively, let all the tennis balls come to you, pick up the one you dropped, and with all the tennis balls in your hand, continue the game by releasing each ball out to the group one at a time.

Recently I have found myself following my usual habit pattern of taking on loads of projects, and can sense myself collapsing soon by trying to meet all these expectations I’ve been overloading myself with. I have one of two options to relieve this pressure:

1. Release some of the projects into the world so that other people receive the opportunity to take them on, whilst I can focus on the projects that I need to be working on the most.
2. Continue to oversee all the projects, focusing only on what I’m uniquely qualified to do, and then delegate all the other tasks and sections of each project to other talented individuals who generate much greater value than what I could do on my own.

I do like the sound of the second option, and it gives me the opportunity to be involved in projects that really mean a lot to me, whilst offering the chance for others to get involved. As it is, I love collaborating with other creative individuals, so what a great way to stop hoarding and continue GIVING!

If you’re reading this and fancy working with me on one of the projects I’m currently immersed in, get in touch, and I’ll fill you in on what you can get involved with. It’ll be interesting to explore the special talents you can bring to the mix.

In Steve Pavlina’s most recent post about The Dark Side of Financial Abundance, he highlights the practical implications of going from making a little amount of money to making loads of money.

Steve writes about:

• how financial abundance affects your accounting and tax situation
• what financial mistakes can cost you (and how it’s all relative)
• how people will treat you differently
• how you’ll feel pressured to develop better money management skills
• how, by facing up to the dark side of financial abundance, you’ll become less fearful, more flexible, more responsible, more organised, and more confident.

In his closing paragraph, Steve states “To attract more abundance, you must create more value for others, which requires that you recognize, accept, and embrace your own value.”

This to me is probably the most important statement that I’ve needed to read in recent times. I’ve known that attracting more abundance involves creating more value for others. Little did I realise that to create more value for others, you must certainly recognise, accept and embrace your own value. Afterall, how else will you keep serving others consistently in the best possible way?

Earlier today I received an email from a friend who shared with me his strategic plan for 2007. He’ll comment here if he’d like to make himself known. His objective is “To directly impact the lives of a million people by November 2007″. He’ll know he has achieved this by having sales of £1 Million + through all his various websites and projects. How powerful that he recognises not only how much he’ll have received in sales this year, but also that he’ll have made a positive impact on the lives of a million people. He has a strong belief in himself of how he’ll be able to recognise, accept and embrace his own value so that he can directly and positively impact millions of others.

So on MY path to financial abundance, how am I recognising, accepting and embracing my own value?

What I’ve recognised is that I directly add most value when I’m sitting face-to-face with an individual, over a cup of coffee, discovering what their raw, unique talent is, and co-creating a strategic approach for how they can tap into their existing resources to serve more people, to serve their people better, and to make loads of money to keep on serving.
I have proof (!) Here’s what guitarist Tim Stone has to say about a recent effortless session I had with him:

“I recently signed up to a 3 month package with Kavit Haria, a musician’s coach who helps you focus and market yourself and your music. (Incidentally, I’ve been round a block or two and am not convinced easily! ). Anyway, part of that package is an hour’s consultation with Sol Shah to develop what they call the marketing funnel, which I had recently. Sol is a very warm guy and the hour turned into quite a few more! He’s dead easy to get along with and I learned a lot. The funnel seems to be about recognising what resources you do actually have and how to order and maximise them. I came away from the meeting with quite an update on what I have to offer and how to go about it. Sol listened closely and his feedback allowed me to see some very positive steps that were probably staring me in the face, but that I was missing. I also saw that a lot of stuff I already have nailed is a lot more useful to my marketing plan than I had previously thought. Wicked.”

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Tim Stone on the Bedford Bandstand

So I’ve recognised where I add most value to others, and I am able to accept and embrace it by continuing to consult talented individuals, effortlessly over a coffee (or herbal tea), whilst exploring opportunities for serving more people at any given time, either in person, or via the web. As you’re reading this right now, how would YOU like me to serve you and more people through the work we’d do together?

It’s not often that you get the chance to sit face-to-face with yourself, taking yourself beyond reflection (the past), holding yourself back from anticipation (the future), and sitting tight with the present moment, right here, right now, nowhere to turn, nowhere to hide.

How fortunate to have had the opportunity on Tuesday 12th December 2006, to be immersed in 5.5 hours of dialogue with Darren Taylor, double bassist for Courtney Pine’s touring band, out to transform the lives of this generation’s youth, giving them an abundance of chances to develop themselves through music and do the right thing for themselves, and the communities they live within.

Darren ‘Monty’ Taylor
Double Bass Player
Courtney Pine’s Touring Band

» Continue reading “On The Reload With Bassist Darren Taylor”

I was round at Arvind Devalia’s home in St. John’s Wood for lunch this afternoon - we talked about the projects he’s currently working on, the way he can serve more people as an internet social entrepreneur, and about how he can make his great book available for people to buy as gifts for Christmas and the New Year…

Arvind Devalia
Get The Life You Love And Live It

Sol Shah Getting A Copy Of
Arvind Devalia’s Book
From Under Arvind’s Bed

» Continue reading “Get The Life You Love And Live It”