Your Online Reputation Matters

• Nearly all executives surveyed - 98% - "use" the Internet to evaluate company reputation. However, less than 6 in 10 (57%) find the Internet "useful" for making final reputation judgments.


• Fewer than 4 in 10 global executives (38%) report doing an online search of their own names during the 30-day period prior to their survey participation.


• A full 100% of CEOs and chairpersons frequently think about their company's reputation. However, they perceive a lower threat level to their company's reputation than executives outside the corner office (56% vs. 67%, respectively). CEOs and chairpersons are most concerned about the online risk of a dissatisfied critic or customer campaigning against their company while non-CEOs/chairs are most concerned about confidential information leaking to the Internet.

• "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes" (quote commonly attributed to Mark Twain). According to The New York Times (October 13, 2008), today the saying might read as: "False reports manage to gain great credibility across the globe while the truth is still logging on." Examples of the speed of online information negatively impacting company reputation (or "reputational short-selling," coined in The New York Times article) include:

• Apple stock fell as much as 5% after a CNN-sponsored citizen-journalism site, ireport.com, published a false item from a user reporting that CEO Steve Jobs has been rushed to a hospital.
• Apple stock experienced a $4.50-per-share drop and a $4 billion loss in market capitalization in just 6 minutes when the popular blog Engadget published a leaked, but fake, internal email from Apple Inc. that claimed the release of the iPhone and the company's Leopard server project would be delayed.
• United Airlines parent, UAL, lost more than $1 billion in market capitalization when traders treated an outdated bankruptcy announcement as a new development.

• 35% of hiring managers use Google Search to do online background checks on job candidates.


• 16 million Americans consider the Internet a crucial tool in making investment and business decisions.


• 47% of Internet users have searched online for information about themselves or their companies, yet just 3% of that same group monitor their online reputation with any regularity or careful thought.