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]

Your Foundation in Crisis: Will You Be Ready?

Davia Temin, Philanthropy New York, June 18, 2013

Crisis is turning into the “new normal” for most organizations and corporations in this post-recession era. And foundations are as vulnerable and prone to crisis as public companies and universities, particularly in the age of social media. In this piece for Philanthropy New York’s Smart Assets blog, Davia Temin writes about the recent “crisis case” seminar she led for foundation executives. […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]

Calling all Global CEOs — Have You Signed the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles Yet?

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, March 11, 2013

The UN is putting its muscle behind changing the game for global women, and is asking companies around the world to follow suit.

There has been so much talk, but so little action – around women’s leadership, gender equality, and curtailing violence against women. This year, however, efforts seem to be more serious, possibly fueled on the humanitarian front by such horrendous examples of violence around the world, and on the business front by Catalyst’s latest report detailing just how badly women’s progress in business has stalled (for at least 7 years, on boards, in top leadership, and in the highest paying corporate jobs.) […read more]

What Makes Up a Reputation – and What Must Board Directors Know about Reputational Risk

Directors & Boards, September 4, 2012

Reputation is a hard concept to circle, but board directors know that it has become one of the biggest assets, or liabilities, a company has. Here, Davia Temin answers discusses how corporate boards must address risk in order to crisis-proof their boards. […read more]

What Boards Must Know About Social Media

Davia Temin, The Corporate Board, May/June 2012

Someone posts a harsh item about your company on Twitter. The comment is picked up and amplified through other online venues, and the company’s stock prices take a fall—all within hours. Today’s world of social media is one where the most obscure person, company or product can overnight become a global trend, or a global villain. Is your board aware of the company’s social media strategy? For that matter, are you as a director up to speed on the new social media world?

In this age of social media, companies of all kinds find themselves at the end of the “command and control” model of leadership. Top-down communications, including those from the C-suite and the boardroom, have lost their primacy.

Today, with blogs, v-logs, Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and social media of all kinds, everyone has a voice. More to the point, anyone can move markets if his or her voice catches on with the public.

Employees have a voice—including the employee that management fired yesterday. Your “like’rs” have a voice; your dislikers have a voice too (including all of the “I hate xx company” websites, and Facebook-facilitated boycotts). Your competitors have a voice, your shareholders have a voice, and you, as board members, have a voice as well. However, amid the cacophony, it is now exponentially more difficult to make the messages you and your company wish to convey heard.

Especially for the board, knowing how to communicate in social media (and when it is or is not appropriate) is crucial. A board’s workings are historically private and confidential, and a board tends to be heard from only when announcing a new CEO or in a serious corporate crisis.

If you’d like to read the full article, please click here (pdf).»

Wall Street, Volatility, and Reputation

Davia Temin, Intangible Asset, May 4, 2012

Davia speaks about the importance of “intangible assets” such as trust and loyalty in brand building, specifically related to the financial crises and reputational crisis surrounding financial firms like Goldman Sachs.

If you’d like to listen to the broadcast, please contact us.»

Announcing CEO Illness — Best Practices from Buffett to Jobs

Davia Temin, Forbes, April 18, 2012

“It is probably much easier to announce your cancer diagnosis in a press release when it is only stage 1…” writes Davia Temin on her Forbes.com blog. […read more]

Flipping Out in Public – From Jet Blue Pilot to Kony 2012 Producer, Stress Takes Its Toll

Davia Temin, Forbes.com, March 29, 2012

Davia examines what the all external media stimulation we receive every day does to our inner selves in her Forbes.com article on stress taking its toll on people in 2012, specifically citing the recent, public meltdowns of the Kony 2012 producer and a JetBlue pilot. […read more]

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