At one of the recent DFWIMA meetings, a Yahoo! representative pointed out that some companies have failed to boost their online rep by paying someone to write positive blog comments about the company. These people pretended to be regular consumers who were defending or praising the companies. Then the people were found out to be employees or agencies in contract with the companies. That kind of publicity only makes things worse.

One of the best things a company can do is to provide a blog and/or public forum on their website for people to voice their complaints so they can be addressed promptly. Even after having done this, however, it is probably necessary to utilize software which searches the web for damaging comments so that the company can attempt to respond to each with a positive or helpful attitude.

Harnessing the power of the users/consumers is by far the most powerful method of reputation management, as the Yahoo! reps pointed out. Brand evangelists are your biggest allies. They have influence over others and they are passionate about their preferences and opinions. This is where each company must decide how to approach ORP in the way that seems right to them. Faking user personalities can blow up in your face, as we have seen in the news this past year. Still, the power the people wield should be carefully considered when developing a strategy.

At one of the recent DFWIMA meetings, a Yahoo! representative pointed out that some companies have failed to boost their online rep by paying someone to write positive blog comments about the company. These people pretended to be regular consumers who were defending or praising the companies. Then the people were found out to be employees or agencies in contract with the companies. That kind of publicity only makes things worse.

One of the best things a company can do is to provide a blog and/or public forum on their website for people to voice their complaints so they can be addressed promptly. Even after having done this, however, it is probably necessary to utilize software which searches the web for damaging comments so that the company can attempt to respond to each with a positive or helpful attitude.

Harnessing the power of the users/consumers is by far the most powerful method of reputation management, as the Yahoo! reps pointed out. Brand evangelists are your biggest allies. They have influence over others and they are passionate about their preferences and opinions. This is where each company must decide how to approach ORP in the way that seems right to them. Faking user personalities can blow up in your face, as we have seen in the news this past year. Still, the power the people wield should be carefully considered when developing a strategy.

I am no brand expert, more on the social search side of the equation and clearly companies own their brands less and less. Consumer generate media is exploding. 44% of internet users are content creators according to Pew. With easy to publish tools like blogs and RSS content feeds, everyone can be an author. Users are online expressing their opinions. Consumer generated media has already reached an inflexion point, and the technology emerging (data mining, machine learning, computational linguistics, semantic categorization, …) will be disruptive to marketing research, branding, positioning, communication.

-arnaud