Reuters, that well-respected paragon of journalism and professionalism has issued a memo to its staffers concerning online media–especially twitter and other social media websites. This is confirmation that the line between the real-world reputation and the online reputation is blurring further.

For example, journalists are advised to get manager approval before using Twitter for professional purposes, have someone double-check their tweets before posting, avoid disclosing personal biases (especially political), and to separate professional and private activity with separate accounts.

This is going to be a difficult thing for many journalists, whose “private” lives might be too wrapped up in their professional ones. The ever-shrinking differences between the public and private life online is virtually non-existent when it comes to social networking sites.

http://mashable.com/2010/03/11/reuters-social-media-policy/

Roseanne Barr has not exactly shied away from controversy in her many years of celebrity. However, her recent comments about the death of Marie Osmond’s son are pretty inflammatory, even for her.

“Marie Osmond’s poor gay son killed himself, ” she wrote even though friends and family have not discussed the 18 year old’s sexuality. She blames his death on the Mormon Church. “He had been told,” she wrote,” how wrong and how sick he was every day of his life by his church and the people in it. Calling that ‘depression’ is a lie!

I can’t decide who needs reputation management strategies the most, Marie Osmond, Roseanne Barr, or the Mormon Church. Maybe all three?

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/03/roseanne-barr-blames-mormon-church-death-marie-osmonds-son

I have read literally hundreds of articles on Toyota since their veritable meltdown in the media. The overall picture that one gets is a.) Toyota screwed up and b.) Their reputation has suffered tremendously. This article put it very simply.

It can take years to build a reputation. Now Toyota has to wonder and worry how quickly an image can be shattered.

It doesn’t get much more simple, or true, than that. Toyota had built up an image of dependability and safety which is now a’circling the drain.

But perhaps most worrisome of all are signs that the company’s vaunted quality has been slipping. Long hailed as the industry benchmark, some key Toyota products have suffered quality snags in recent years. That includes the new Tundra pickup, which Toyota had hoped would finally give it a foothold in the full-size truck market, the last segment controlled by the Big Three.

Toyota has made some major mistakes in the last couple of years–but the simplest mistakes they have made have regarded image and reputation. They are going to be in need of a substantial online reputation management campaign in the future, when this whole thing is sorted out.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33192916/ns/business-the_drivers_seat/