Traditional return on investment (ROI) metrics are no longer sufficient on their own to determine your company’s success. 

Evaluating whether your value proposition, capabilities, and portfolio of products and services will create shareholder value requires laser focus on how well you’re meeting higher expectations around the customer experience.

Take responsibility for your reputation, before your reputation takes over you.

Or in modern parlez, 'your brand is what others perceive it to be'.

One of my favourite Christmas films is the classic 'A Wonderful Life', for me and my family it's a perennial film to watch, and a great lesson about life. 

Without spoiling it for you, there's one part of the film that leads our hero into some pretty disastrous thinking, this is created by rumours that have been spread about the 'financial' health of his bank, those rumours then started a 'run' on the bank with potentially immense consequences. 

Social media is here, it's not going away and today over 60% of the global population are active on various social networking platforms.

The basis of these platforms are borne out of mans (and women's) inherent desire to be the social animals that makes us who we are, ever since we were cave dwellers sitting around the camp fire sharing stories about new hunting methods, new hunting grounds, places to go to, and scary things to stay away from.  

With the growth of of those communities came rumour, and false news, some harmless gossip, some designed to create confusion, mistrust, and undermine a person, or countries reputation.

Today we have access to so much more information, as such we no longer have to rely on what the company and brand are telling us about them we can look to gain more 'experiential proof' from our peers, business associates, including friends and family.

This has been created by  a revolution in technology that has created the devices and interfaces that allow people to interact with companies anywhere and anytime, and has enabled customers to influence a global audience with their comments or “likes.”

It's called 'Social Networking', and it's very much like the sort of stuff our earlier ancestors did.

Today's consumer doesn't have to read or watch your intrusive adverts, maybe it's time to better understand how they're going about their own research on you, your employees, and your company long before they have even thought about talking to you, and all those interactions will showcase how they and others have 'experienced' what it is you think you do.  

So, when a brand gets hacked, sometimes, based upon our perceived view of that brands reputation we get drawn into the click bait that hackers are looking for. 

Social media if used within the right context, framework, mindset and skills can unleash a 'Superpower' so strong it can help to reduce the impact of some bot or hacker using your brand (reputation) for evil.