A study by Echo Research suggests that corporate reputation can contribute as much as 30% of shareholder value. Let’s think about that again – a public company’s reputation can be responsible for almost 1/3 of shareholder value. Anyway you cut it, that’s a massive figure. If you doubt the figures, just look what happened to BP’s shareprice in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and even though the company survived, it has still not recovered from the huge decrease in value.
Effective corporate reputation management is comprised of many elements, one of the most important of which is stakeholder communications. Stakeholders come in many forms: investors, regulators, customers, legislators and of course the Media. Regardless of size, it is vital that public companies build and maintain good relationships with each group because left alone, stakeholders can and will receive information from many sources some of which may be less than reliable or include deliberate misinformation.
Consistency, understanding and preparation are three of the watchwords that public companies should hold dear:
Consistency of message – it is vital that the same key messages are communicated across the board. With such a large audience and so many channels available, your company must talk with a unified voice.
While your message must be consistent, you also need to understand your audiences in terms of what information they need to know and how they prefer to receive and engage with it. Press releases, briefings, statements, pod casts, tweets, blog posts… understand your audiences and channels.
Ensure your spokespeople are prepared so that they can and will be able to respond correctly, consistently and in a timely manner to enquiries from any stakeholders and you can reach out quickly to intercept any issues.
Managing your stakeholder relationships will help to build and protect your corporate reputation, directly benefiting your company at multiple levels.