Today’s article is actually inspired by an off line event that shows the unintended consequences of a single action and the effect it has had on reputation, social networking and marketing in general.

You may have heard the story on the news or in a newspaper reporting the New York landscape gardener who stumbled across a cool $140,000 in $20 notes. After giving the matter some thought, he decided to hand the money over to the police who eventually found the owner. The landscape gardener received a small reward for his efforts.

However, since handing the money over, the story together with his name and business has spread throughout New York and the rest of the US. Since then his phone has not stopped ringing. He will probably now have more work than he can cope with for many months.

What does this have to do with reputation management, social networking or social marketing? Think about it. Now that he has a reputation for being honest, if he is a halfway decent landscape gardener he could turn this into lucky strike into a viral marketing campaign that will last potentially for ever and take his business from a one man affair to a major contractor.

I am sure you can imagine this scenario. You drop around to my house and see the gardens looking magnificent. You ask me who did it and my response is, ‘that’s the guy that found all the money and handed it in – he is a good landscape gardener too – do you want his card’. Another ‘contact’ made. And so it goes and grows.

The online community is no different. If you can build a reputation for being honest, reliable and willing to help out when needed, you will find your reputation growing in a viral fashion – not rapidly, but growing. Again, I am sure you can see the scene, someone has a problem with their social marketing and the response is, “Nick is a social marketing expert, he is bound to have a solution’. Look at that, a referral and a link to boot.

Reputation management, social networking and social marketing are all closely linked. Getting a leak in one could cause a flood to spread out over the others. I wonder, can a landscape gardener deal with leaks as well.