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Whereas online reputation management was a specialist term to describe a fairly esoteric practice up until about 2 years ago, it has now become indispensable element to corporate communication strategy.
The reason is simple; “opinion making” and “agenda setting” transformed completely somewhere along the way from the one-to-many mass media paradigm, to mainstream’s adaption of interactive Web 2.0 channels such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube.
Opinions are today less formed as a result of carefully crafted press releases distributed through classical media channels (press & broadcast). The Web 2.0 “share with a friend” or “re-type” functions allow for viral distribution of information and conversations that also reflect on a cultural change in our society: Online sharing of experiences have become an important way of self-expression. First, providing valuable information to “friends” or “followers” can gain a community member status. Second, the ability to “rant and bash” can warn of a bad product or service…
These two dynamics, the promotion of good, interesting or funny information, vs. the warning function is what online reputation management is all about. Online communities are both a potential target group, and an important source of feedback revealing customer experiences.
To locate this information you’ll need more than Google Alerts and other B2C search engine tools. Sure, they deliver information, but in an unstructured form that makes it very difficult to make any sense of it.
Professionals use semantic text recognition software to locate and comprehensively analyze their company name, competitive intelligence and the latest industry trends. Not only are they able to track who, where, when, and what kind of opinions circulate; they also improve internal communication and knowledge management with virtual project management and calendar functions.
The advantages of proactive online reputation management, as opposed to a defensive PR-in-crisis strategy are significant. To get started you need find some people for your community management team (read more about that here) and an online reputation management tool.
You can register for a free trial with Imooty right now!
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