Reputation management in a connected world

Your reputation, personal or organizational, is ever evolving. One day you are on top of the world and can do no wrong and the next a crisis hits. 

In business, it’s usually wise to protect your assets before calamity strikes. And brand image is one of your most valuable assets. Reputation protection looks at the entire search landscape for your brand name, industry, CEO, and your competitors. This offensive approach offers a detailed picture of where you stand compared to others (Sickler, 2022). 

Actors cultivate their personal and professional brands in a variety of ways. If we look at Johnny Depp and his recent court battles with his ex-wife Amber Heard you can see how reputations are impacted. 

Depp sued Heard for $50 million while she countersued for $100 million. One of his former agents that testified said this, “Christian Carino, another former talent agent of Depp's, to give an impression of Depp's reputation in Hollywood circles. Carino, who once represented both Depp and Heard, testified that he believes Depp's reputation remains intact as "one of the finest actors of his generation" but that Heard's accusations directly resulted in him losing professional opportunities. 

"My opinion is that Amber's accusations would have had the most dramatic impact on his off-screen reputation," he told the court, noting that he's "not talking about any one specific accusation." He went on to allege that Depp was not invited to return for Pirates 6 due to Heard's accusations, saying he came to this conclusion after numerous conversations with colleagues and studio execs, including Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer behind the Pirates franchise (Miller, 2022). 

Johnny Depp won the court case but his reputation and his personal life was exposed to the world. During this time his team was working to counter negative press while attempting to repair his reputation. 

While Johnny Depp’s personal reputation has taken a hit it is no different than a company who is charged with a variety of accusations such as hostile work environment, sexual harassment, poor training, lackluster products, or other things that diminish the current company reputation. 

Looking at the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise you can have the best actors and the best script but if the company that owns the franchise is having reputation issues that can turn off movie goers which greatly impacts the overall how successful the movie is. 

In 2022 and continuing into 2023 The Walt Disney Company’s reputation continues to plummet for a variety of reasons but many point to the company of being “woke”. The Walt Disney Company fell 28 spots on the Axios Harris Poll 100 this year, according to The Washington Times. The poll ranks the “most visible brands in America” by using a survey with questions about trust, ethics, growth, products/service citizenship, vision, and culture (Owens, 2022). 

Between Disney’s stance on Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill and their former Disney CEO, Bob Chapek’s fight with Florida’s elected officials put Disney on everyone’s radar. 

Moving forward, Chapek shared that Disney will immediately be “increasing our support for advocacy groups to combat similar legislation in other states.” 

This is in alignment with his statements during Disney’s 2022 Annual Meeting of Shareholders just a few days ago where he pledged a $5 million donation to the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTQ+ organizations. Though, the Human Rights Campaign has since issued a response refusing the money calling for “meaningful action” from the company (Saxton, 2022). 

These decisions ultimately led to Florida to dissolves Disney’s self-governance that go into effect in June 1, 2023. The Reedy Creek Improvement District has been in place since 1967 and has served Disney well. 

While Reedy Creek really only applies to those in Florida Disney is a global company that continues to provide entertainment that continues to draw controversy. 

A reboot of the Disney show "The Proud Family" is receiving backlash over a rap in a recent episode of the cartoon featuring kids debating about slavery and reparations, arguing that America "owes" Black Americans because America "still has not atoned for" its systemic prejudice, racism and White supremacy (Tietz, 2023). 

During its Q1 2023 earnings report, Disney confirmed that Disney Plus lost subscribers for the first time in its history. Between October and December 2022, the streaming platform's global user base shrunk by 2.4 million (Power, 2023). 

All of these issues are contributing to Disney failing to do what businesses do and that is to make money.

The Walt Disney Co. paid a heavy price for their foray into woke politics as they lost $123 billion of their market value as stocks dropped 44.58% from the beginning to the end of 2022. 

The company opened the year at $156.76 per share. After a year of battling Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, pushing woke content in their blockbuster movies, and replacing their controversial CEO with his predecessor, Disney closed the year at $86.88 (Moye, 2023). 

An article written by a former employee in 2021 seems like a different Disney than what is portrayed in today’s news. According to Devan Leos, “During my time with Disney, I was able to see the inner workings and truly awe-inspiring levels of serious care put into all the divisions of Disney. The brand does not play games. Disney's team constantly monitors the media, social media, online forums and any source of information regarding their brand (emails, comments, letters.) They figure out what issues people might have before people even have them. Disney's employees (including talent) are thoroughly screened and monitored. Talent is given strict instructions regarding their online presence, as well as other employees. 

Disney will weather the storm of the controversies due to its nearly 100 years of entertainment. While entertainment is different now than it was in 1923 Disney cared about all of its customers. When you wade into politics and push agendas you will always lose customers. 

Resources: 

Leos, D. (2021). 4 Powerful Brand Secrets I Learned Working With Disney. https://www.entrepreneur.com/growing-a-business/4-powerful-brand-secrets-i-learned-working-with-disney/370275 

Miller, M. (2022). Johnny Depp's former agents clash on whether his Hollywood downfall predates Amber Heard. https://ew.com/movies/johnny-depps-former-agents-clash-hollywood-downfall-amber-heard/

Moye, L. (2023). Walt Disney lost $123 billion while pushing woke politics. https://fism.tv/walt-disney-lost-123-billion-while-pushing-woke-politics-in-2022/ 2022 

Owens, M. (2022). Disney’s Reputation Seems to Have Taken a Big Hit, According to New Poll. https://allears.net/2022/05/25/disneys-reputation-seems-to-have-taken-a-big-hit-according-to-new-poll/

Power, T. (2023). Disney Plus loses its magic touch as millions cancel their subscriptions. https://www.techradar.com/news/disney-plus-loses-its-magic-touch-as-millions-cancel-their-subscriptions 

Saxton, J. (2022). NEWS: Disney CEO Bob Chapek Apologizes for Response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. https://allears.net/2022/03/11/news-disney-ceo-bob-chapek-apologizes-for-response-to-floridas-dont-say-gay-bill/ 

Sickler, J. (2022). Reputation Protection: How to Protect Your Reputation Online. https://www.reputationmanagement.com/blog/reputation-protection/ 

Tietz, K. (2023). Disney slammed for 'anti-White propaganda' in new 'The Proud Family' reboot. https://www.foxnews.com/media/disney-slammed-anti-white-propaganda-proud-family-reboot

Social Media and Politics

As of 2022, the United States has the third-largest social media audience worldwide, after China and India. It is home to over 302 million social media users at a social networking penetration rate of 90 percent (Statista, 2022). 

The 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout of the 21st century, with 66.8% of citizens 18 years and older voting in the election, according to new voting and registration tables released today by the U.S. Census Bureau (Census.gov, 2021). 

U.S. citizens are casting their votes for candidates that speak to the causes they are interested in and how they communicate to them.

If you look at the current President and Vice President of the United States many would say they are not great orators or communicators. That’s the beauty of social media. Carefully crafted messages are able to reach millions without speaking a word. Strategic communication teams filled with writers, influencers, social media experts and political masterminds develop polished products that shield from mistakes. 

They were both recently in front of the media to talk about unidentified flying objects to include a Chinese spy balloon. 

After delivering his first public remarks on the flying objects shot down by the U.S. military in recent weeks, President Joe Biden refused to answer any questions, saying reporters "can come to my office and ask that question when we have more polite people." "Give me a break man," Biden on Thursday told reporters who were yelling questions after the president concluded his comments (Wilson, 2023). 

Vice President Kamala Harris had a one on one interview with MSNBC. Twitter users mocked Vice President Kamala Harris for another meandering, wordy answer that ended with her claiming that the Chinese spy balloon that the U.S. shot down in its airspace was "not helpful" for U.S.-China relations (Hays, 2023). 

Those that don’t agree with the President and his way of leading American grab onto these engagements and highlight them on social media as a way to inform or disrespect depending on the narratives and political leanings. 

Some of these people amplifying this information have financial motivations more than anything. Political advertising spending in the United States is expected to amount to over 9.6 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 (Statista, 2023). 

Social media giants along with traditional media see politics and political advertising as a never ending money generator. But when they pick and choose what money to take and what to allow on their platforms it can get a bit tricky and amp up the talks of changes to Section 230. 

Politicians as a whole are generally not trusted by the public. 

When Trump ran for president in 2016 it wasn’t the first time he ran for president as he also ran for president in 2000 but people were tired of the revolving door of politicians saying the same thing and getting the same results. Trump was an outsider to the political circles but he still had to work within the political system that was created in a way that one person cannot be the be all end all. He was soon seen as the face of the Republican party. 

There have been multiple lawsuits against Facebook and Twitter but they have been protected as they state they only host information and do not publish. The banning of elected government officials based off social media posts may show that they censor at the source. By banning or shadow banning accounts the account owners cannot communicate with their audience or followers. 

When President Trump was kicked off of multiple social media sites along with others of his staff a large portion of the American public that are Republicans or Trump supporters lost access to information he had posted over the years. 

The Twitter files have exposed that social media companies are working with different government agencies to publicize certain information, ban other information and monitoring Americans social media accounts. 

According to Fujiwara, Muller, & Schwartz, “We document that political content on Twitter has a pro-Democratic slant. We classify the slant of tweets based on two complementary approaches: one based on the network users follow and one using the text of tweets in a machine learning approach in the spirit of Gentzkow and Shapiro (2010). 

We apply these methods to the over 460 million tweets mentioning the presidential candidates in the 2012, 2016, and 2020 elections. We find that the number and attention (proxied by “likes”) of tweets mentioning Trump was substantially larger than that of those mentioning Clinton and Joe Biden. 

Moreover, tweets about Trump in 2016 and 2020 70% more likely to have Democratic rather than Republican slant. Overall, our results are consistent with Twitter and its relatively pro-Democratic content persuading voters with moderate views to not vote for Trump without inducing a more general negative effect on Republicans. 

As politicians play dirty the increase in misinformation and fake news continues to permeate social media fees. 

Fake news and misinformation has undeniably been on the rise in recent years. But our susceptibility to it is, in part, actually a symptom of a lack of critical thinking skills suitable for the digital age, argues Helen Lee Bouygues, who launched her organization, Reboot Foundation, to tackle that exact problem (Sonnemaker, 2020). 

I remember during the weeks ramping up to election day I would get texts, emails and see many ads on my social media accounts attempting to inform and sway me towards certain politicians. I would do my research on new candidates and incumbents. Those that had slick websites and social media presence made it easy to see where they stood on issues. But it takes some thinking on the voters part to dig past the top layer of information and see what else may be hidden or something that contradicts what they are portraying. 

Social media is easy to front-load information to millions of users. With political advertising it can be a challenge to engage with those that are just turned off to politics. But those turned off to politics may still want to vote for someone that aligns to their values even if when they are elected they don’t follow through or even change priorities based on politics. 

References 

https://www.statista.com/topics/3196/social-media-usage-in-the-united-states/

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2021/2020-presidential-election-voting-and-registration-tables-now-available.html 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/harris-mocked-new-word-salad-saying-spy-balloon-not-helpful-u-s-china-relations-master-words 

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-shuts-down-questions-on-spy-balloon-scolds-journalists-to-be-more-polite/ 

https://www.statista.com/topics/4942/political-advertising-in-the-us/#topicOverview

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-internet-social-media-fuel-polarization-america-facebook-twitter-youtube-2020-12 https://www.princeton.edu/~fujiwara/papers/SocialMediaAndElections.pdf

Storytelling regardless of education, training or platform

Citizen journalism has grown as inexpensive technology and social media has allowed nearly anyone to capture or tell a story to the world. 

Every day you can read local, national and international news produced by professional journalists employed by professional news agencies. 

I can read the local daily news clips and get a good sense of what is happening but is that all that is happening. 

I find stories on social media or YouTube that I may see a few days later in the higher level news or it may never make it at all. It may be a story that the pros don’t feel is important enough to the readers or it is purposely underreported. Additionally, it may be that the story is never published by traditional media due to censorship. 

An article by Walker (2020) highlights the importance of citizens in capturing news but also documenting daily life interactions that sometimes are deadly. The (traditional) journalists were split amongst their thoughts about citizen journalists. One journalist called citizen journalists “an asset” that help to keep “everybody on their A-game.” Another said, “I think it is incredibly helpful to have citizen journalists. I really do. I think the more cameras, the better.” 

Those that document government officials in the course of their duties may face a variety of issues. I have seen many videos where police officers have arrested citizen journalists for a variety of charges that sometimes are validated by courts. 

In Arizona, the state passed a law in 2022 that makes it a crime, punishable by up to a month in jail, for people to record videos within eight feet of police activity. Specifically, it prohibits people from recording police if they are within eight feet of an area where the person “knows or should reasonably know” law enforcement activity is happening. (Tewari, 2022). 

This controversial law was challenged and a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction. 

While the law looked like it was aimed at the public recording police interactions it affects all citizens, citizen journalists and professional journalists. 

Reporters and photographers said this law will make it nearly impossible to do their job, especially at massive events like protests. The outlets that sued include Phoenix Newspapers Inc., parent of The Arizona Republic; Gray Television; Scripps Media; KPNX-TV; Fox Television Stations; NBCUniversal Media (NBC News’ parent company); the Arizona Broadcasters Association; States Newsroom; Arizona Newspapers Association; and the National Press Photographers Association. (NBCnews.com, 2022). 

Attempting to institute laws that stifle free press at the source goes directly against the First Amendment of the Constitution. 

Social media in America has certain protections under 47 U.S.C. § 230. "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." (47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)). 

Section 230 embodies that principle that we should all be responsible for our own actions and statements online, but generally not those of others. The law prevents most civil suits against users or services that are based on what others say. (Mullin, McSherry & Mackey, n.d.). 

Currently, congressional hearings are taking place with former Twitter executives about Twitter account banning, banning stories, and the overall targeting of certain users. 

Twitter as a whole claims they are removing misinformation but others see the need to have varying viewpoints presented to the users who get information from social media. Those reading these stories can make up their own mind on what they want to believe. 

From the Twitter help center: In the face of misleading information, we aim to create a better informed world so people can engage in healthy public conversation. We work to mitigate detected threats and also empower customers with credible context on important issues. 

To help enable free expression and conversations, we only intervene if content breaks our rules, which you can learn about below. Otherwise, we lean on providing you with additional context. 

If social media is the digital town square then everyone should be able to talk. While many of us have our own political leanings and ideas of how government should run we should all agree that everyone is afforded the same rights guaranteed by the Constitution. 

The hearing held by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability detailed how Twitter worked closely with the federal government to actively monitor and censor Americans online. Under the leadership of former Twitter employees Vijaya Gadde, James Baker, and Yoel Roth, Twitter coordinated extensively with the FBI to disproportionately target Republican leaders, conservative activists, and certain media outlets. In October 2020, Twitter censored the New York Post’s story about the Biden family’s business schemes based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, despite the article not violating any Twitter policies. (Oversight.house.gov, 2023. 

Social media, instant feedback, 24/7 news cycle, citizen journalism, cameras everywhere. 

Traditional news has a core tenet to tell stories but now news has shifted to the audience being in control of what they consume. 

Americans' confidence in the media has been anemic for nearly two decades, and Gallup's latest findings further document that distrust. The current level of public trust in the media's full, fair and accurate reporting of the news is the second lowest on record. (Brenan, 2022). 

The lack of trust in the media has been key to alternative media sprouting up. One alternative to legacy media has been The Daily Wire that boast more than 1 million subscribers. 

References: 

Brenan, M. (2022, November 17). Americans' Trust in media remains near record low. Gallup.com. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://news.gallup.com/poll/403166/americans-trust-media-remains-near-record-low.aspx 

Mullin, J., McSherry, C., & Mackey, A. (n.d.). Section 230. Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230 

NBCUniversal News Group. (2022, September 10). Federal judge blocks Arizona law limiting filming of police. NBCNews.com. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-judge-blocks-arizona-law-limiting-filming-police-rcna47148 

Tewari, S. (2022, November 18). Arizona's new law banning people from recording police violates Our First Amendment Rights: News & Commentary. American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.aclu.org/news/free-speech/arizonas-new-law-banning-people-from-recording-police-violates-our-first-amendment-rights 

The cover up: Big tech, the Swamp, and mainstream media coordinated to censor Americans' free speech . United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. (2023, February 9). Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://oversight.house.gov/release/the-cover-up-big-tech-the-swamp-and-mainstream-media-coordinated-to-censor-americans-free-speech-%EF%BF%BC/ 

Walker, D. (2020) How citizen journalists, cell phones and technology shape coverage of police shootings - College of Information and Communications | University of South Carolina. (n.d.). Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/journalism_and_mass_communications/news/2020/citizen_journalists_cell_phones_shape_coverage.php#.Y-kII-zMIUo

Social Media: Blurred Lines of Reality

Today I post about social media and today the news highlights that today Mark Zuckerberg launches “The Facebook”. Zuckerberg’s path to Facebook started in 2003 with an online program called Facemash, of which he was primary developer. The concept revolved around the notion that students could judge the attractiveness of fellow college students who were using the program, according to Britannica (Kasko, 2023). 

The site was considered initially successful — with 450 students joining right off the bat. Today, 20 years later, Facebook has 2.93 billion monthly active users. 

I have used social media for a long time. Some social media platforms were niche similar to how Facebook started out. HOTorNOT was a social media platform that allowed users to upload images and let others rate them. While many people may not even know of this site, it is a critical part of how social media platforms are developed today. 

That type of “gamified” digital conversation, grounded in reward point systems and scores, remains a foundation for most social online interaction. We still express our opinions by giving each other’s pictures and thoughts a collective numerical value, whether through likes on Instagram (released a full decade after HOTorNOT) or retweets on Twitter (which was initially hosted for free on HOTorNOT’s server in its earliest iterations from 2006 to 2007) (Joho, 2020). 

HOTorNOT allowed people to connect similar to online dating without the fees but that soon changed as social media saw the value of engaging with their users on the various platforms. 

2003 was an important year for all of us if we knew it or not. The Facebook was launched and the king of social media from 2005 to 2008 was allowing anyone signing up to have an instant friendship with Tom. MySpace Tom is the co-founder Tom Anderson. Like MySpace many people don’t think of Tom but he greatly benefited from social media like many of the tech CEOs that sit on the list of billionaires. MySpace was sold for a measly $580 million in 2005. That is a lot of money but nothing compared to the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk. 

So why do I mention two platforms that many people never used or even heard of? Social media platforms today don’t look like the platforms we used even a decade ago. We are more interconnected if we want to be or not. Your online activity is known by nearly anyone that does a little digging. 

Today, when someone applies for a job, a school or runs for a government position the internet sleuths start digging into social media. If you watch congressional nomination hearings you can hear panel members grilling nominees on social media posts. Many times it’s the tweets that come back to haunt people. 

In 2017, Shedrick “Shed” McCall had a YouTube channel where he posted about his life experiences with some instances of foul language. One video where he talked about trespassing led to his future school, Old Dominion University revoked his scholarship to play on their football team where he was committed for six months. 

McCall wants to educate young athletes about the powerful effect of social media.“For my young kids out there just please… just please understand, just watch what you put on social media, just watch what you post,” he said. McCall won’t be defined by this mistake. After losing his scholarship to ODU, he received an opportunity to play for Norfolk State, where he represents one of the most talented recruits the school has had in recent years (Toler, 2017). 

McCall’s mistake was a life lesson for him and hopefully he continues to use that lesson today. 

Athletes in all sports are under a microscope and those that know how to use social media well (or have a good social media team) can make millions off of current sponsors and connect with future sponsorship opportunities. 

How many ads have you seen with Shaquille O’Neal talking about pizza, cruises, car insurance or printer ink. While Shaq retired from basketball years ago his persona still draws big bucks from huge companies. 

I use social media very infrequent and it is usually Facebook and YouTube. I rarely post anything and only direct message a few friends. I use Facebook to join car groups to look for car parts, wheels or whole cars. I keep up with the Air Force and the Army but most of the stuff I see posted is informational yet lacks substance. I would rather go to news sites and see what is going on locally and nationally. 

Am I worried about a future employer looking me up online and checking on me. Not at all. I use social media responsibly. I don’t put my life story online and I don’t make TikTok videos that can come back to haunt me. Additionally, I value privacy and lock my accounts down as much as possible. I’m friends with people I know in real life. I know companies and social media organizations have tons of information about me. I also know that I don’t use social media at work as effectively as those that are on 24/7. I like to disconnect from work when the day is over. Personal time and personal activities that I enjoy are more precious to me than looking at the positive or negative posts/news that runs the 24/7 social media cycle. 

This week’s readings looked at social media with some broad focus areas. Twitter was one piece of the reading and the articles provided some interesting data points. Twitter had 450 million daily users at the end of 2022. Those that vowed to leave the platform due to the purchase by Elon Musk seemed to be blowing a lot of hot air. The advertisers that left may have not come back but the social media giant is too important to advertisers and its daily users. One change to Twitter is the reversal on the ban of political ads. While Twitter and other social media platforms have taken heat for the amount of misinformation or disinformation that is posted to the sites. According to Twitter, "We believe that cause-based advertising can facilitate public conversation around important topics," the social media company tweeted. Cause-based ads that will be allowed on Twitter include ads that educate or raise awareness of issues such as voter registration, climate change or government programs like the Census, said Ella Irwin, Twitter's head of trust and safety, in an email (Dang, 2023). 

References: 

Dang, S. (2023, January 4). Elon Musk’s Twitter lifts ban on political ads. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/twitter-expand-permitted-political-advertising-2023-01-03/ 

Joho, J. (2020, September 27). HOTorNOT: The forgotten website that shaped the internet. Mashable. https://mashable.com/feature/hotornot-history-20-year-anniversary 

Kasko, B. (2023, February 4). On this day in history, Feb. 4, 2004, Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launches “The Facebook.” Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/this-day-history-feb-4-2004-harvard-student-mark-zuckerberg-launches-the-facebook 

Toler, A. (2017). Social media cost this star athlete his Division I scholarship—now he’s trying to educate others. https://blogs.usafootball.com/blog/3962/social-media-cost-this-star-athlete-his-division-i-scholarship-now-he-s-trying-to-educate-others