Still a Disconnect Between Marketing and Social Media Branding and Reputation Management

e-Marketer has published a survey of how marketers are using social media for brand and reputation management. The results show that there still is a majority of marketers who see social media as another medium to sell a product or service. They don't understand or appreciate the relationship building aspects of social media, or they are so focused on transactional monetization that they cannot get beyond that.

More than 52% of those surveyed said that they either try to push the offensive comments appearing in social media down on the Google search pages or try to put out a positive press release or pay someone to say something positive about the product or service.

These actions are troublesome on so many fronts. There are still too many people who believe that social media is just another medium or that they can defy the changing nature of customer relationships--somehow feeling that they do not have to abide by the new rules of engagement. They do not seem to understand that social media is about relationships and community and conversation with the customer, not the company, at the center. It's a tough world for those who demand command and control. Intrusions into the community are not welcome and companies do this will lower their brand equity and reputation rather than raise it.

I am also troubled by the fact that 12% are trying to do a reverse SEO to squash negative information that appears about their companies. While nearly 40% said that they were working on improvements in product and service as a result of negative comments about their brands, there are still those who think that they can bury negative news. First, the importance of SEO has diminished as social media has risen. We used to only being able to determine the value of a brand by whether or not it came up on the first page of a Google or Yahoo search. With social media, there are conversations that are more important.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am not sure the analytics will work as intended to push the comments down, since so many people know how to manipulate searches these days. Also, it is a demonstration of the worst sort of management. Why not just hire the local "wise guy" to "wack" the offender? It's the same thing. We live in a transparent world. Embrace it or stay out, but don't think you can get rid of problems the way the Mafia gets rid of its problems.

An On-Line Bonanza for Bad Managers

I had an interview today with a reporter who is covering a story about a company that sells the ability to bury bad on-line comments by pushing them down the Google search. In other words, a reverse search-engine-optimization concept.

It is not surprising that someone came up with the idea to sell companies on the idea to get rid of the bad reviews. It's like the Mafia getting rid of the body.

There are so many problems with this that I am not sure where to start. First, brands and reputation are not being build on Google searches like they were 5-years ago. This has now moved to social media--conversations on the Internet. Blogs and micro-blogs (Twitter) are where the action is. Second, this plays right into bad management. If someone is saying something negative about your company, a smart manager should want to know why, whether it might have some truth, and then take action to correct it. This is the opposite. "I don't like what people are saying and I want you should make them go away"