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The following is an excerpt from a paper entitled “Reputation Management, Measurement and Monitoring.” It was written as part of the PR program at Ryerson University. If you would like to read the rest of it, you can find it here. Please feel free to comment and discuss below.

Consistency

Once is an aberration, twice is a reputation. If an organization or public relations practitioner wishes to build and maintain a positive reputation, consistency is essential. Building and managing a reputation is a long term process. As mentioned before, reputation is the sum of all conversations about an organization. If the collection of those conversations is inconsistent, it is hard to identify a strong reputation. In order to be successful in building a strong reputation, an organization must establish consistent behaviour both internally and externally (Fombrun, 1996, p. 165). Establishing consistent behaviour across a large organization can be tricky, but implementing effective core values, policies and procedures will help promote consistency in positive behaviour. An organization that is effectively managing and maintaining a good reputation will ensure that all interactions between the organization and its stakeholders are consistent and mutually reinforcing (Doorley & Garcia, 2007, p. 227).

Consistency can also help shield an organization’s reputation from potentially harming missteps. Even among individual opinions, reputation is a collection of experiences. If the organization has done nine positive things and one negative, the overall reputation will still be quite positive, so long as there is established trust and understanding. For the PR practitioner, consistent communication is the key. Maintaining consistent positive interactions between the organization and the stakeholders will influence the pervasive opinions about the organization and foster a strong, positive reputation.