On-line reputation

The rise of blogging culture has got loads of corporate types in a tizzy.  They are worried that their beautiful (and expensive) brands will be bought crashing to their knees by armies of bloggers on smear campaigns triggered either by poor product experiences – or simply for the hell of it (apparently a lot of bloggers are bitter and twisted and have nothing better to do than complain and rubbish innocent companies. . . )

I’m not sure how many small business reputations are either built or broken through  blogging alone. . . but whether it’s in the virtual or real world, one thing’s for sure.  Bad news sure travels quicker than good news.  And a real horror story about any kind of consumer experience is somehow much more interesting and hence ‘viral’ or ‘sticky’ than a piece of good news.

To read deeper insight on this phenomenon, I’d like to point you at a site I discovered just last week, thanks to a commenter on this very blog.  (Sheesh, that’s how those crazy networks become self fulfilling. . .)  This site is obviously put together by some seriously marketing savvy cookies and lots of the content is really ‘out there’ thinking.  But the blog is well structured, so if you have a particular topic in mind, you’ll probably find some interesting food for thought.

Sara is a marketing specialist with a wealth of on-line and traditional experience. With award winning credentials as an advertising writer, her career also spans the disciplines of planning and strategy for both B2B and consumer clients. Having worked for one of the the UK's biggest non-London agencies, Sara now works on a consultancy basis for clients large and small. http://www.smallbizpod.co.uk/blog