Re-Launching the Schmidt Brand

So, if you are someone like me who does not have cable you may have seen the show 'New Girl'. It is one of my favorite shows to re-watch multiple times because it never stops being funny. If you have seen it then you know exactly what my title is referring to from New Girl. If you have not seen it I will give a short explanation: the character Schmidt grows through a rough break-up and during this a woman breaks his... man parts, we will say. When he can take the cast off he wants to "re-launch" his personal brand to "danger". He is a marketing professional, so he holds a launch party with different elements of "danger".

From that we are going to roll right into how branding of a blog and online reputations can make or break a company. Another real-world example of how important online reputations can be is the current climate of YouTube beauty gurus. There is a vlogger named Jeffree Star who in the past was a musician and in present day runs a very successful indie makeup brand. Like what has happened to many politicians and A-list celebrities of late, someone went deep into the internet of the past to find a video of him shouting racial slurs at a woman (who I will point out was Caucasian like Jeffree). Other YouTube beauty gurus slammed him, and his reputation was severely damaged for quite a long time. Jeffree Star has a YouTube channel with 10 million subscribers, so a negative online reputation could kill the sales of his makeup line. Now, a few months later, he has released multiple videos explaining the person he was all those years ago and his personal “inner demons”. But, those same beauty gurus who thrashed him verbally and disowned him as a friend and colleague have now been exposed of their own past mistakes, demeaning posts, and things completely contradicting their outbursts about Jeffree Star. While Star has redeemed himself in recent months with his videos about his upbringing, mental illness, and transformation into a better person, his colleague’s reputations are now being slandered online. Their brands are suffering, sales are dipping, and vlogs losing subscribers every day due to their hypocrisy. While these vloggers, known as Manny MUA, Gabriel Zamora, Laura Lee, and Nikita Dragun, may not be household names that does not mean negative online reputations will not damage their companies and careers. If anything, it makes it a much bigger blow because their businesses are small, and their outreach limited to a certain audience. If the beauty vlogging audience of YouTube turns against them for good, then their careers and future ventures become nonexistent.

So why did I go through that whole situation that, let’s be honest, does not affect most people reading this blog post? I feel that the situation in that “YouTube beauty guru” group shows how truly detrimental a negative online reputation can be for anyone. An article from Business Insider has a great section that I believe really explains why a brand is important:

               “However, your resume and activities are NOT the sum total of your personal brand - anymore than your resume and hobbies are the sum total of who you ARE.

Your values, personal qualities and nature - including the way you naturally think and act distinguish you. You might be hard-working, stylish, easy-going, analytical, poised, creative, intuitive or a combination of five hundred and fifty five traits researchers believe describe every person on the planet.”

Reputation and branding are things that someone must create and put forward – they are not just there to happen on their own. This is true of all companies big or small, they all must create their image and put it forward for the public to see.

While blogging and vlogging have one crucial element of difference, one is video, and one is not, many companies take advantage of both outlets. A Forbes article makes the statement that “You should never underestimate the cost of a poor reputation”. Any social media outlet with the brand of a company attached to it has to constantly be aware of upholding that brand and protecting the reputation of the company. The Internet can become a viral firestorm very quickly behind and perceived injustice or inappropriate comment. Companies are becoming more and more concerned about what people are saying about them online – and that should include what their employees are publishing via company accounts. If an employee mentions something in a blog post that is contrasting with the ethics and mission of the company people may become confused or angry. At this point most people will either comment on the blog post itself or take to Twitter or Facebook to voice their dislike or anger. When consumers take to social media to voice a complaint the issue can grow very quickly. One tweet might be re-tweeted by someone important or famous and then their entire audience is seeing the problem that company created. Sometimes you will see celebrities themselves slamming companies online. I have seen multiple different actors and actresses voice their frustration with companies on their social media. A few that stick out are posts where the celebrity was mistreated by an airline. Celebrities are constantly traveling so I am sure they come to expect a level of competence from airlines. But, if that expectation is not met they might take to their social media to voice that complaint. Then, BAM, that airline is experiencing damage to their reputation both online and in person.
But let’s get back to a company employee accidentally hurting the online reputation of an organization. The world is fueled by the internet in our country these days. The internet is where most people get their news, gossip, weather, stock information, and whatever else you can Google. Once an online reputation becomes tarnished their will be evidence of it on the internet no matter how hard a company may try to delete or cover-up the damage. When someone searches for that company online that damage may be the first thing that they see. A potential customer or patron sees that negative post that an employee of the company put on their official social media and they might completely skip over that company and take their money elsewhere. Online reputations can make or break a business, whether it is a multi-million-dollar organization or an indie brand that is trying to grow, it will still do damage. Often that damage is not only evident on the internet for the rest of time, but people will continue talking about it. This continued conversation could create more problems when the company tries to control the “fire” because someone may not like the response given about the initial problem post. If that happens, then the process continues on and on until eventually (who knows how long later) they become old news. Reputation is important in all realms of business but with the growth and dependence our culture has on the internet, you cannot scrub a damaged reputation clean.