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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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Can video media monitoring tools become a problem for free speech? If fully automated like YouTube’s ContentID system, the answer appears to be yes.
Adding new subtitles to videos has become a popular form of satire. Perhaps you’ve seen Bruno Ganz portraying Hitler in the movie “Der Untergang”? In the original he’s going bananas realizing that he’s about to loose WWII. With new subtitles however, he’s lamenting everything from the state of Twitter to the shortcomings of the iPad. But now Constantin Film AG, the owner of the movie rights, has had enough of Hitler jokes.
Via YouTube’s contentID system it has uploaded the clip’s audio and footage, instructing identical clips to be removed. Specifically, the YouTube media monitoring tool compares Constantin’s movies with new uploads, deleting all un-authorized videos. ContentID and “take downs” is nothing new of course, one of the exclusive rights afforded copyright owners is after-all the privilege of controlling distribution.
Still, there’s no rule without exception and in copyright it’s called the “fair-use doctrine”. Fair use recognizes that a system allowing for sharing and referencing of ideas stimulates public discourse and benefits society as a whole. Paraphrasing and quoting of literary works has long been acceptable as a matter of public policy because it assures authors the right to their original expression while encouraging others to build freely upon the ideas and information conveyed by a work.
Accordingly, for purposes of criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching and research, copyrighted material may be used without infringing on copyrights. But YouTube’s ContentID and media monitoring tool doesn’t distinguish between use and fair use. Needless to say, that quickly becomes an issue for “free speech” which from the perspective of public policy is more important than making sure individual privileges are upheld by intellectual property laws…
Interested in finding the latest new on IP law and fair use? Find out with Imooty’s media monitoring tool! Free speech guaranteed!
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