Thursday, October 16, 2008

Job Vent Sites – How to Manage Your Image Online

As organizations negotiate the tricky path to successful internet branding, they could find their reputations challenged from an unexpected source. A growing cottage industry is developing online to give former and current employees or organizations a place to gripe about their employers. While the emergence of these sites is still relatively new, you need to be aware of who is out there, communicating without your knowledge.

Whether it’s through sites such as Job Jabber, TeCross, JobVent or countless others, anonymous workers can log in and rank your business on a variety of metrics. Built up work frustrations can spawn toxic postings tearing down your image in an easily accessible, searchable database.

What can you do?

The most important thing is not to lose your cool. It’s a natural desire to respond immediately to any criticism, acting out of a defensive posture. But a reactionary approach to these sites could actually harm your image more than the original complaint. If you or someone from your organization show up to respond to every posting, readers will see it for what it is – the corporate line.

It is always important to pick and choose your battles, to make the most of honest criticism and to fight unfair complaints. Regular monitoring of these sites can alert you to disgruntled current and former employees, but they can also alert you to issues employees may not feel are not being adequately addressed.

Top employers hear what their employees tell them and the rest of the world online. Responsive employers listen, learn and grow. We’ll help you put together an effective strategy to counter complaints that affect your brand and image and to fairly address concerns. Let our years of communication success help you manage your message.

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Almost Ready To Go Live

Our new corporate website is getting closer every day to completion and launch, and I have to say we're pretty excited about the new look, the new functionality and the new content.

Kudos to the Designers who have really taken our site in a fresh new way.

There'll be more changes coming soon.

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