“If you upset your customers in the real world, they are likely to tell 6 friends each. On the internet, your unhappy customers can tell 6000 friends each” explains Jeff Bezos, CEO Amazon.com.
No matter if you’re a large brand or a small business we believe everyone should manage and monitor their online reputation. Reputation management entails tracking all mentions of a company and or its products/services on the Internet, reporting on what’s being said, then creating supportive or oppositional content. This service is performed 24/7/365. Costs can be as little as $300.00 per month and can easily reach $5,000.00 and higher each month.
A few key statics regarding online reputation is that 76% of US retailers said user-generated content will have greater impact on their marketing goals in the future. Reputation risk is ranked first among risk priority for company mangers, along with 58% of executives who believe the risk of reputation should be addressed by the management committee but only 15% monitor their online reputation.
You should never underestimate the impact of consumer-generated comments on your business. Some startling statistics: Starbucks is mentioned 10 times per minute on Twitter, Apple shares lost $9.9 billion dollars on a consumer report criticizing the iPhone4 in July of 2010, Old Spice is now the #1 body wash brand for men due to its social media campaign; and even more interesting is that 25% of search results for the world’s top 20 brands are links to user-generated content and 50% of comments about a brand come from Internet sources that are NOT directly related to its business.
