In our latest company interview, we sat down with our Managing Director, Jordan Greenaway, to discuss the agency’s renewed focus on digital reputation as a driver for the growth of the company over the coming 12 months.

Why are you doubling down on digital reputation?

Jordan: It’s very important to make clear that we are a full-service communications agency; that is our competitive edge. Our success has been built on bringing together a comprehensive blend of high-quality services under one roof; we can satisfy all successful individuals’ communications needs in one place.

That means high-net-worth clients, their families, and their advisers can depend on us, whether they need traditional public relations and media support, digital reputation expertise, stakeholder engagement work, or strategic communications and reputation advice. It makes our offering both clear and comprehensive to the marketplace.

However, for a large number of clients, their first contact point with us as an agency is our digital reputation advice, which usually involves us developing a fine-grained understanding of their current digital profile, providing informed analysis on what impression that gives to stakeholders at the moment, as well as putting in place proactive strategies to ensure that their digital profile aligns better with their long-term aspirations.

We are now taking further steps as an agency to ensure that we give proper visibility to this element of our work; in some quarters, we are still perceived, wrongly but understandably, as media management professionals first and foremost. This radically undervalues the significant investment we have made in new technology and top talent over the last five years.

Have you seen more natural demand for digital reputation support?

Jordan: Absolutely. Explaining the importance of an individual’s online footprint was an exhausting uphill battle five years ago, or even three years ago actually. But people now, almost immediately, appreciate that what appears online for a search of their name is increasingly seen as a proxy for their reputation.

What appears online for an entrepreneur, executive, or another successful individual can literally make or break their career and personal aspirations. A strategy for managing their digital profile is essential for all individuals who want to be taken seriously in business and other areas of public and private life. I think that need is particularly acute if the individual has recently taken on a new role, has been appointed to a new Board, or they’re currently active in some new area of business.

How should clients start thinking about their digital profile?

Jordan: This is half of the problem we have experienced in the market. The Internet is so huge and an individual’s digital footprint can be so large and disparate, that it can be difficult for clients to know where to start. As a result, whenever we speak with existing and potential clients, we recommend starting with a Digital Footprint Audit; this provides clients with a concise overview of how they currently look online.

You might see it as a ‘snapshot’ of how a client looks online. It provides them with raw information on the number of people searching them; the content that displays against a search of their name; whether that material is positive, negative, relevant, or irrelevant; and, perhaps most importantly, actionable headline recommendations to substantially improve their online presence.

Over the last 12 months, we have found that our Digital Footprint Audit has become a must-have for executives — and it’s been one of the prime reasons for the growth of the agency over the last 12 months or so. We believe it will continue to drive growth over the next 12 months and beyond too.

So, what does a Digital Footprint Audit actually involve?

Jordan: A Digital Footprint Audit is a self-contained report, which usually runs to 10 pages, perhaps more. It identifies all the key terms that people are using to search for an individual; it provides a bird’s-eye-view of what content they are finding now; and it ends with a series of clear, actionable suggestions for the client to radically improve their profile online.

It will also generally involves us identifying any potential reputational risks to the client online. Although a large number of our sales over the last 12 months have been direct-to-client, we have also started having discussions about white-labelling the product for other advisers in the sector, including lawyers, wealth managers, and others.

What are some misconceptions about digital reputation work?

Jordan: Speaking candidly, it is often difficult to have a serious, considered, strategic discussion about digital reputation with clients. The perennial misconception is that digital reputation is misperceived as the same as online repair work or, even worse, that it involves hiding, eliminating or removing content online. This is a misconception that has sadly been perpetuated by the wider public relations industry.

This leads to some clients getting very anxious about even having a discussion about online reputation; they wrongly feel that it is only a service for people with bad reputations. As an agency, we have taken a conscious decision to decline this type of ‘clean up’ work; it is not where the future of online reputation lies and it undermines the broader value that it can provide to all entrepreneurs, executives, and successful people.

What are the positives of a strong online reputation?

Jordan: Increasingly, a large proportion of our work involves sitting down with a client to understand how a strong, positive online reputation can support them in achieving their professional and personal aspirations.

On the business side, this might mean undertaking some digital and media work to ensure that an entrepreneur’s track-record is given careful visibility online, so that when other co-investors, banks, or financial institutions search them, they immediately think: this is someone that I want to do business with.

On the personal side, it might mean working with a next-generation family member to highlight their passions, experience, and credentials online, with a view to ensuring that they have the digital profile to support their career aspirations, whether that’s going into investment, philanthropy, or something else entirely.

Digital Footprint Audit

How do you look online? Your digital footprint and search results are increasingly seen as a proxy for your reputation, with the power to make or break your career and personal aspirations. Discover our Digital Footprint Audit service →

Do you have some clients who want no online profile at all?

Jordan: This sentiment was common two or three years ago. In fact, I remember there was a time when people would call up the office to ask whether we could erase any sign of them online.

This is not only misguided by actually harmful, and we are not afraid to proactively point this out to clients. This is not just instinct or intuition. Last year, we conducted research to investigate what people made of individuals who had no online footprint at all. The results were clear. In a poll we conducted of 2,000 people, 40 percent of people would feel more negatively about a successful individual if they could not find information about them online.

I think this is completely understandable. If I could not find information about a potential new business partner online, it would make me inherently deeply suspicious; I think other people think exactly the same way as me.

Ultimately, what is a good, strong digital profile?

Jordan: There is no single concept of a good, strong digital profile. Instead, what counts as a good digital profile for one person might be entirely inappropriate for another person. A good digital profile is an online footprint that enables a successful individual to achieve their business and personal objectives; an online profile that aligns with their long-term objectives.

But, what does this mean in practice? This is complicated and will usually involve an in-depth dialogue with the client around what type of content would put their best foot forward with important people. As an agency, we tend to start by thinking about what stakeholders would help that client achieve their professional and personal ambitions. Who are the important decision-makers? Maybe it’s the local community? Maybe it’s a big financial institution? Maybe it’s regulators?

Then we start to think about what online content might encourage these people to act in a way that supports the client; what content would ensure that those stakeholders developed accurate, positive, and up-to-date perceptions of the individual. This will usually point in the direction of different types of content: perhaps a biography that showcases their track record as a successful entrepreneur; an interview that demonstrates their commitment to ethics and community impact; or even a video that evidences their professional mission.

Now, you have a rough pathway for supporting the client in creating a digital profile that aligns with their needs and requirements.

What are you doing internally to set yourself apart from other providers?

Jordan: I think there are a number of key differentiators.

Firstly, our support does not end with a Digital Footprint Audit; when we provide recommendations, we also have the communications experience in-house to be able to execute those recommendations professionally and reliably, if the client so wishes. For example, if we recommend some light media work to support their digital profile, we can immediately action that for the client as well. Or, if we recommend building out a family foundation to capture a client’s philanthropic activity, again, we are able to execute that in-house.

Secondly, we are not a cookie-cutter reputation management company; we are not in the game of loading up a large number of short-term clients. Instead, we are a fully-fledged, highly experienced communications agency, blending decades of experience across public relations, digital reputation, and private client advisory. We are not working down a checklist; when we support a client, we sit down afresh and think carefully and creatively about their digital profile. There is a reason we have a strong reputation globally as the go-to agency for high-net-worth individuals; this reputation has been earned through the high-quality, high-intensity level of support that we provide.

Finally, we are private client specialists; we appreciate that high-net-worth individuals are exposed to a level of reputational risk that other types of clients are not; this means that when we undertake an audit on behalf of a client, we are able to see their digital results through the lens of the very unique risks they face, and the opportunities that they have at their disposal.