Temin and Company

Don’t Ignore Your Best Co-Branding Opportunity — Your Employees: #1 Of ’10 More Don’ts Of Corporate Social Media’

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, November 20, 2013

We all know employees can be both brand ambassadors and brand detractors. But what we haven’t wrapped our heads around is that they are also our most important co-branding opportunity. This is #1 in our series of “10 More Don’ts of Corporate Social Media,” introduced yesterday.

Corporate co-branding is a marketing staple: Companies co-brand with one another (Apple + Nike; Betty Crocker + Hershey’s; Dell + Intel); for-profits co-brand with non-profits (Nestle + The Girl Scouts; Pampers + UNICEF; American Express, Apple, Converse, etc. + The Global Fund – RED); and all of the above co-brand with movies, music, and sports (Aston Martin + James Bond; PINK + NFL; Apple + U2).

But in this ever-evolving world of social media – where almost everyone is thinking about how to “brand” himself or herself personally over social media – organizations can leverage the trend as their biggest co-branding opportunity of all. In other words, since there is no stopping the personal branding efforts of employees on social media, if you can’t beat them, you might as well join them. […read more]

Introducing ’10 More Don’ts Of Corporate Social Media’

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, November 19, 2013

Every company, corporation, and organization is struggling to get its corporate social media right.

Boards are putting it on their agendas, as a reputational risk and opportunity. CEOs are puzzling over how to lead and evaluate their companies’ efforts, as well as debating what their own social media profile should be. Executive Committees are reviewing metrics and messaging, and still wondering which are meaningful. Human Resource Directors are competing for Chief Digital Officers from a small pool, without always knowing who will be good for their organizations – or what “good” really looks like. And Chief Marketing Officers are trying to be cutting edge and to add value, while juggling competing demands from all stakeholders – consumers, followers, shareholders, management, and an ever-fickle and sometimes malicious public.

And everyone is trying to figure out what the right “content” is, anyway. […read more]

When Brinksmanship Fails

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, October 16, 2013

“Edgework,” an old boyfriend used to call it. He meant taking risks right up to the edge of disaster, but staying just on the safe side of the edge.

In some situations, edgework is actually a lot of fun – the adrenaline flows, the body and mind are pumped, all senses are engaged, and you can then be a hero and pull the situation out of the fire at the very last minute. Innovative. Young. Sexy.

But, you know what…after a certain point, it isn’t fun anymore. It just is tiresome. And then it gets dangerous. As with any addiction, in order to get the same thrill, you have to take more and more chances, and get closer and closer to the edge. Until one day, you can go too far, and you can fall over – and die.

Sound familiar? So, this is where we are as a nation – at the death of brinksmanship. […read more]

How NOT To Handle A Crisis: XO Communications’ Monumental Fail

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, September 7, 2013

We’re a small business. They tell us that we are the backbone of the American economy. What do we need to compete and win at this challenging moment in time? (And they are all challenging of course.) Wonderful, smart people? Check. A valuable, viable business proposition and a record of success? Check. A profound care for our clients and an indefatigable work ethic? Check. A great website, superb intellectual capital, a highly responsive, real-time communications strategy? Check, check, check.

And a reliable, customer-friendly Internet Service Provider to host our email and point folks to our website? NO CHECK!

In fact, our ISP — one that specializes in small businesses — has had three systemic outages in 2 months, leaving us — and a huge percentage of small businesses in America — high and dry.

XO Communications is breaking every crisis management rule in the book. […read more]

What I Learned From Mickie Siebert: Put Your Head Down and Charge

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, August 26, 2013

Mickie Siebert (aka Muriel) said, famously, when asked about the secret of her success: “I put my head down, and charge.”

Indomitable, irrepressible, fearless, salty, independent, and ultimately successful — the secrets of Mickie’s life are inspirational for both women and men leaders, both on and off of Wall Street. But, of course, it helps that she was such an early trailblazer for women in the all-male bastion of Wall Street, and that she charted a course that so many have followed, but so very few have succeeded at as well as she did. […read more]

Getting Out Of The Heat: 10 Ways For Leaders To Deal With An Angry Public

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, July 19, 2013

Beyond 97 degree temperatures, there is another kind of heat that some leaders around the world are facing – and that is an increasingly angry public. Whether they are trying to perpetuate the legacy of the Arab Spring, their yoga pants are made of thinner-than-usual material, or they have been caught allowing their agents to spy on a good percentage of the population… leaders are being cut little slack by their constituents. This article offers ten tips on how to deal with an angry public […read more]

Leadership Under Attack — Escalating Crisis And Reputation Challenges In The Age Of Social Media

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, July 16, 2013

Leadership of all kinds has been coming under unprecedented attack. But, Sometimes it TAKES a crisis to see who you really are. And get the word out. Organizations can use crisis to reaffirm who they are, what they stand for…in deed and word. They can become stronger, finer, more tested, more positively well known. But it is real engagement that is needed. It does not, usually, handle itself. […read more]

When Is An Apology NOT An Apology? New Lessons From Abercrombie & Fitch

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, May 17, 2013

You know when your spouse does something really bad, and knows he or she needs to apologize, but doesn’t really want to? And you know how the way he puts it is often something like: “Oh, dear, I’m so sorry that you feel that way” or “it’s too bad that you have gotten so upset”? And you know how you feel after he says it – even angrier still.

An apology that is not an apology is enraging. It takes no responsibility for the action that prompted the apology. It has no sense of mea culpa, or remorse, but rather seems to transfer the blame to you – sorry YOU got upset, not sorry that I did something to upset you. In a marriage, too many of those, and you are headed to divorce court. In a friendship, that way lays “unfriending.”

And so, here we go again. Given the groundswell of anger that has escalated since my last column on Abercrombie & Fitch on Monday the 13th , and the rebirth of its CEO’s incendiary comments in an interview in Salon 7 years ago on not wanting the un-thin, the un-young, or the un-beautiful to wear A&F clothes, finally the company realized that they had to do something. […read more]

How A CEO Can Wreck A Brand In One Interview: Lessons From Abercrombie & Fitch Vs. Dove

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, May 13, 2013

The power of a CEO to make – or break – a brand can never be overestimated – even in an interview that took place 7 years ago.

That is just what has happened in the case of Abercrombie & Fitch: an incredibly ill-advised interview that A&F CEO Mike Jeffries granted to Salon Magazine in 2006 has just found new life on the internet. And if his comments – including that he only wants the young, beautiful and thin to wear his clothes – were insensitive and politically incorrect THEN, today they are practically an invitation to riot. Certainly, they are causing a boycott in real time. […read more]

It Takes a Lot of Coughing to Go Viral — How I Reached My First 1,000 Twitter Followers

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, April 15, 2013

Virality is the Holy Grail of Both Corporate and Personal Social Media.

We all want to fashion that one perfect tweet or post that will circumnavigate the globe in minutes or days, and will boost our number of followers and “klout” score to the stratosphere. We want to build our brand and reputation. But the public is fickle, and what captures its imagination, much less goes viral, one day might not the next. […read more]

Thought Leadership–Forbes “Reputation Matters”

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