For most companies, reputation account for up to 70% of its value. 90% of consumers research companies online before doing business with them. If a company’s reputation takes a nose dive online, it has a real chance of going out of business.

With a flurry of some recent very public catastrophic reputation failures (Tiger Woods, Domino’s Pizza) Reputation Insurance has started to gain popularity. And I am not talking about the service, which would be like something that our company offers. A service that will protect the first few pages of Google from negative content from be exposed. I am talking about a legitimate insurance policy, like you would get for your car, health or life.

Reputation Insurance would be very similar to Errors & Omissions (E&O), professional liability or anything else that protects a company.

I will be really curious to see how/when an insurance company starts paying out. With E&O insurance, it is very black and white. You get an a lawsuit, E&O kicks in and pays most of the legal fees. With reputation insurance, it feels like that would be a little more subjective, so not sure where the line in the sand is drawn where they start kicking in money.

It will be interesting to see how this industry evolves, which it no doubt will be doing very publicly.