The Components of Reputation: Evaluation of Communication Professional’s Online Reputation Approaches

Abstract

Reputation management, which is the most important intangible asset of companies, which is formed in the perception and action of the stakeholders of institutions and brands in six dimensions, brings difficulties such as speed and control of information when it is managed on digital platforms, and it is a communication practice that improves the research reflex in the field of public relations and provides positive gains when managed by the right strategies. Within this perspective, the aim of this study is to reveal how communications specialists evaluates the reputation components when it is the topic online reputation management and to understand how online platforms transforms their reputation management practices. On the way of these aims, it is connected and in-depth interviewed with 12 communications specialists who are among the members of İletişim Danışmanlığı Şirketleri Derneği (İDA) ve Türkiye Halkla İlişkiler Derneği (TÜHİD) by applying purposive sampling technique. The data that obtained by these interviews, narratively analyzed and given by based on the reputation quetients which is gained by Gardberg and Fombrun. According to research findings, while crisis communication, agenda setting during the uncontrollable information stand out as difficulties in the field of online reputation, it has been understood that this new phenomena strengthens the reflexes of research, which is the first step and measurement, which is the last step of public relations with the technological advantages brought by this new field. The study contributes to the studies that conducted on the topic by the frame of online communications practices in Turkey.