The Inside Track – The Insurance Institute's Member Blog

Words Hurt: Your Reputation In A Digital World

Written by The Insurance Institute | 13/05/19 09:30

Reputation constitutes the biggest risk in the insurance world (AON, Global Management Survey). Your reputation is something which is extremely important, but also, in an ever changing digital environment, it is increasingly difficult to protect.

Thanks to the internet and social media, our reputations are subject to huge risk now more than ever before. We spoke to Nicola Byrne (CEO, Cloud 90) to discuss the risks our reputations face in this new digital era. She shared some of her thoughts on this, shedding light on what to do to protect your reputation.

Words hurt

More often now than ever, individuals can share thoughts, information and often untrue comments instantly. While the ability to discuss opinions with thousands of people in seconds is both liberating and efficient, the sharing of untrue or incorrect information can be hugely damming to individuals and businesses.

So, what does Nicola have to say? Well firstly, she stressed the importance of reading in real time. Staying on top of what's being said about you or your business will enable you to have a level of control on the impact that information may have. Additionally, classifying and categorising the data as you go will help you stay alerted to the potential risks as they occur.

Read more on social media reputation management from Brand Yourself.

       
'We now live in a world where reputations can be destroyed in a single online post'

Nicola also highlighted that context is king and algorithms alone cannot ascertain risk. Therefore, individuals and businesses need to keep a close eye on comments, mentions and conversations, particularly on social media.

                                 
                                 'Words hurt. But your brand no longer needs to suffer.'

They say all publicity is good publicity. But unfortunately, today's technological world means that we need to pay closer attention to the words being used with regard to our reputation. But in saying this, technology shouldn't scare you. In fact, increasing your engagement with digital monitoring will only help you to keeping some control over the conversation.

'Products and services like Risk-Eye can help. Using a combination of technology and risk analysts, we detect, identify and assess whether comments are harmless or imminent attacks.'

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If you enjoyed this blog, try some of our other posts from this series:

Reputation Management

Personal Branding