I see an article on AdAge called What to do when your sponsorhsip goes bad. There is all sort’s of advice on how to protect your brand and avoid mistakes. There is even advice on an exit strategy. Well here’s a newflash when you are dealing with human beings there is always a risk, always a risk that they might turn out to be human. Tiger Woods is fighting an addiction and he has had the guts and courage to stand up in front of the world and admit it. For anybody who has dealt with addiction either themselves or a watched a loved one they will know how hard that was. They will know how hard it is to admit it to anybody let alone to the world. Sexual addiction is no different to any other addiction is is a disease which is categorized by a mental obsession and the phenomena of craving, just like cocaine, alchohol, food, shopping etc. It is progressive and fatal. Does anybody in their right mind think Tiger Woods would have done what he did and wreck his life and his families if he had control over it. I just wish the media would respect what he and his family are going through and leave him alone. My hope is that he finds a path to a healthy recovery and re- build his shattered life with his beautiful family then return to thrill the world with his brillant golfing again .
Last year I had the pleasure of conducting a Webinar for the New Life Event weekend of training run by Shawna Fennell. The feedback I got from Small Business and attendees was incredible and they were so greatful to have the opportunity to have access to such high quality training. Shawna does an amazing job putting this event on twice a year and manges to present a speaker line up which matches any of the big shows which costs thousands of dollars to attend. Why do I do it? To give back to an industry that has been very good to me. I hear from small business regularly how hard it it to manage their online marketing. Hiring an agency is often out of the question for many of these companies and individuals. Online marketing is critical to any business today and this free (yes free) event is an excellent place to go for training that goes way past the basics.
It is a mystery, as to why the American public forgives some things and not other things, when it comes to celebrities. For anyone who takes the time to “Youtube”, the band Queen is not only searched many times a day, but when one watches those videos, they see that audiences are huge. Freddy Mercury led what some may term, a controversial lifestyle, in a time and an age when so many people may have considered him to be just too controversial. I simply loved the band and I loved Freddy Mercury. As a musician and a showman he was the best. He became one of the most respected performers of all time. My all time favorite although I loved all Queens music was Bohemiam Rhapsody and I remember as a starry eyed teenager I learned all the words and imagined that one day I would meet Freddy and he would know who I was! Living in a remote town in the West of Ireland the only reputation I knew about was his reputation as master showman and talented musician. Now, anything controversial is put online, and those same celebrities the masses would have admired, are put to the stakes so to speak.
The lives of celebrities are picked apart and spread across the Internet, as if they are not human, and as if they never inspired, us, or me or you. This happened recently with Leif Garrett. The former teen idol and singer from the 1970′s and 80′s now wakes up to news stories, and stories that are blogged about and gossiped about online. This is when online reputation management is required. Actually, if one is anticipating a career in the public eye, online reputation management is something to consider from the get go.
Good online reputation management ompanies monitor negative press, now in the form of personal blogs and even social sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. They look for cases of misuse, of cases wherein a brand name, be that of a product or a person such as a celebrity, a political figure, or the president of a company, is being targeted with bad press, and they resolve those issues quickly and comprehensively. They work to ensure that the negative press will not come up in searches online, and when their services are used as preemptive measure, they ensure that the negative never reaches the top of a search on one’s name or one’s company. In this day and age, anyone planning to deal with the public in anyway, will do oneself a great service to look into the field, and to hire a reputable and experienced reputation management team.
