Managing your reputation online
The web and more widely, online media (e-mail, chat etc) is becoming increasingly important in raising awareness and the reputation of a brand. In fact, the web now enjoys the same media consumption as newspapers at around 14% in the UK.
Being an instant medium, news spreads around the web quickly. All the major portals run news services, blogging continues to become ever more popular and RSS (Rich Site Summary) picks up news very quickly. It's not surprising therefore to note that 98% of journalists go online every day and 75% use the Internet for sources and to find press releases. Managing your online reputation should not be viewed separately to your offline reputation - your audience, after all, makes no such distinction - so why should you?
Traditional news and press coverage monitoring should be a regular activity - the major news sites such as Google News, News Now and Moreover can help keep track of press coverage.
Monitoring the online community associated with your brand is becoming an increasingly important part of modern PR. In some cases and some communities, it's seen as more important than courting journalists, as the web has effectively shifted power away from them and towards your customers.
Some communities are more active then others, and the scale of the community doesn't always matter - small sites can often wield extreme power (Harry Knowles' Aint It Cool web site, once derided and ignored by Hollywood, is now regularly quoted on movie posters!) A good PR will research the community, get to know the web sites and forums that count and ensure that they regularly visit - and contribute - to them.
Monitoring your reputation online is a broader discipline and involves keeping track of all the online news stories featuring your brand. This can seem like a huge task, particularly for large, active brands, but there are resources that can help. NewsNow and Moreover are great for tracking stories, and there are specialist companies who can provide more in-depth monitoring, such as the unauthorised use of logos, for example.
A relatively new phenomenon for PR, but not to be ignored, are blogs. These "online diaries" or journals are kept by all kinds of people and can be extremely popular. Also, the fact that most bloggers are just ordinary people - honest brokers, if you will - can makes the blogger an extremely influential opinion leader. It's the job of the PR to find out more about the blogs in their client's sector and nurture a relationship. It's worth noting too that many blogs are picked up very quickly by RSS - this, combined with their viral nature, makes them an important news source to be ignored at your peril.
