When it comes to businesses, reputation management is crucial. Reputation management is the process of monitoring a company or individual’s reputation and responding to the negative feedback in a timely fashion while highlighting your good qualities.

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“I was making sure everyone knew Crabtree was a mediocre receiver.”

This was the most talked about occurence after the NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. The quote was made by Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman about 49ers wide receiver Michael Crabtree during an interview with Fox’s Erin Andrews. Right after this quote was made, the internet took notice. Aside from Seahawks fans, most of the Twitterverse was deriding Sherman for showing a lack of class and sportsmanship.

So how does this pertain to reputation management?

Today, Richard Sherman is going through all of the steps of proper reputation management. This morning, Richard Sherman wrote a blog post for Sports Illustrated’s Monday Morning Quarterback to combat the “villain” reputation he’s been given and explain his actions last night. He is currently trending on Twitter, but the stigma towards him is now a little more forgiving.

“I ran over to Crabtree to shake his hand but he ignored me. I patted him, stuck out my hand and said, “Good game, good game.” That’s when he shoved my face, and that’s when I went off,” said Sherman in the blog post.

This quote is an attempt by Sherman to respond to the negative press by showing his side of the story. The rest of his post follows suit and further explains his actions and how he was not the instigator, but merely reacting to Crabtree’s unsportsmanlike behavior. The choice on whether to believe it is up to the reader, but it brings up an interesting point: Richard Sherman seems to be focused on managing his own reputation and doing it quite well.

Last night, the feeling across social media was that Sherman was at fault and should have shown better discretion in the interview. Today, however, many of the Tweets and news articles are referencing and linking to Sherman’s blog post. For Sherman, getting his side of the story out was his goal, and it seems to be working.

Sherman’s reputation was never lower than last night, but his swift response has seemed to change some minds. This in and of itself is a perfect example of successful reputation management.

There will always be some people that either love or hate your brand. However, when your company goes through a PR nightmare, like Richard Sherman, the overall feeling about your company can take a nose dive. If you do not know the proper steps to take, this can easily lead to loss of sales, brand loyalty, or consumer trust in your brand. By properly managing your reputation, you and your company can work to gain all of these back.

Here at Digital Firefly Marketing, we help companies manage their reputations much like Richard Sherman did his own. Our goal is to respond to any negative feedback quickly and highlight the positive aspects of your company. Similarly, Sherman’s rep took a huge hit, but he quickly and proactively addressed the negative press while highlighting his lesser known positive qualities. This exact same process goes into managing a company’s reputation.