Posts Tagged ‘Online Brand’

Consultancy BrandReputation research suggests as much as 84% of online users now turn to the net for reviews before making purchase decisions.  But few marketing executives are either aware of the fact or equipped to manage these reviews which are often negative or mis-informed.

• Consumer electronics 56%
• Home Furnishings 33%
• Apparel 21%
• White Goods 45%
• DIY & Garden 18%
• Entertainment Products 12%
• Sports Goods 9%
• Food 2%

As consumers become more savvy about using the Net, so they will increasingly turn to 3rd parties for advice rather than trusting the brand owner who is seen as dishonest and opaque.

Marketing executives need to rethink brand reputation and who constitutes the owners of the brand.  As Dr John Sullivan described it, “the new owners (of your brand) are a complicated mix of individuals who use a variety of communication channels to influence your brand without your knowledge, consent, or guidance.” As more consumers turn to reviewers, so their first experience of the brand comes through third hands, these opinion formers are now meaningful stakeholders in the brand, but few marketing executives actually pay them much attention.

It has been a truism of brand marketing that you talk to the heart rather than the head, but if the warm fuzy communications are taking place in an ocean of negativity, you will get no traction.

Bad Press in the 80’s and early 90’s

Bad Press Vrs Online Reputation

Back in the good old days when the Internet was just a urban myth used by the geeks and the MOD, health and safety had not banned the use of newspapers to wrap your fish and chips in, bad press often only last 24 to 48 hrs.   Life would turn to normal for those involved in the bad press after a couple of days as people threw the newspapers away and the TV news would move on to the next big thing.

Often you would keep your mouth shut and watch the news go away unless you had some one like Max Clifford on side who could help with damage control and even stop some of the stories appearing in newspapers.

Then came along the 00’s

It’s incredible to think how many massive companies and PLC’s still have not got their head round bad press online or as we call it Reputation Management Online.  The biggest difference today is often a well written article on an authoritative site can stay at the top of Google.  These articles and pages often encourage people to add remarks which helps cement the pages ranking in the search results.  So ignoring bad press online can actually hurt you more then if dealt with in a correct strategic manor.

Now what you definitely don’t want to do is reply on 3rd party sites defending your position are challenging people as this will make things much much worse.   What you need to do is to take a very proactive approach and smother the Internet with positive stories.  If you have a large brand then a couple of articles a week or blog posting will not cut it.  You need to very aggressive and supply content through many channels to bury any negative content that might be rising.Many of our clients need help and resources with creating content and managing profiles and channels online.

So how do we approach bad press online?

If you have a global company, brand or a celebrity and have already been effected by such negative content online already then this will require our Warpath package.

• Track brand or company (unlimited keywords)
• Dedicated account manager and team
• Continuous searching of the Internet for any up and coming negative content
• Weekly reports
• Register and create social network profiles, blogs
• Reputation management for 10 countries
• Full online media monitoring
• Aggressive and continual positive content produced and channelled
• Micro sites built and marketed

To see all our rates and prices for online reputation click here

The process of online branding the business, person, company or available service is called as the Online reputation management (ORM).  ORM is typically considered as a coloration of marketing (including SEO, SEM) and public relationship. The online reputation management industry is becoming the hot one. Multiple companies are offering this service or starting the newly branded companies to focus on this. The reason for ORM industry fast growth is because of the huge need of protect the business and individuals online. The rapid pace of growth on the internet businesses well as the consumer introduction and the user generated media caused to increase the need of ORM. Mostly user generated media would be the things like blogs, forums, book marking sites, social networking sites etc. These kind of sites make more influence on decissions in online purchases. These kind of social media websites can be used to a company’s reputation growth or can be used to destroy a company’s reputation. That the main reason of Online Reputation Management industry growth.

Overall Consumer Generated Media (CGM) Tips

You have to investigate the fact before you plunge into action because you have to sure if this is not your competitor’s rumor to harm your business. Take a high note of the reality and be honest to counter them. Put down an explanation to justify your action and how you rectified it.  Rally friends, clients, peers and utilize your allies. Don’t create new profile to support you position you are likely to be caught.

How to conduct outreach to CGM

Task someone in-house to participate in any applicable forums as user. This will help minimize the impact if there is a regular contributor from your organization. Try sponsoring most forums and build alliances/partnerships with most vocal members.

Forums, user groups and message boards

When trouble strikes, you can minimize the impact if someone from your organization is a regular contributor and can voice your company’s side of the story on the forum. Put yourself consider sponsoring most influential forums Less likely to see sustained criticism if you are a supporter/sponsor.
You build alliances/partnerships with most vocal members.

Blogs

Identify the author of the blog, and read their profile and try to see who they are and what they do and about their work. Just check their author’s previous work to get a feel for his work. Understand the threat level – How respected are they. What is their audience reach

If a blog post is factually incorrect:
Ask the author to remove the same providing him with enough supporting evidence. Put yourself on the forum to keep the blogger updated about future news. If it still does not works, the last thing you can do is send your side of the story and explain the situation. You can even add comments to the post and be open to acknowledge email questions.

Balancing Negative CGM

If the article is true, do not try to ignore or hide the issue. But instead be a part of the discussion. Add response to the website and post your statement like what you wish to do. Try to engage the expertise of  CGM communication expert.

On the other hand if it’s not true, you can politely request for the removal of the blog owner remove or retract. You can even try for legal opinion and ask the blogger to suffice correct information and request them to put your information. Add statement to your website  with a search engine optimization consultant to ensure all content has been optimized and will achieve top search rankings