Companies Take Reputation Management More Seriously

by Lucy Griffiths on 23rd April 2010

Internet analyst Econsultancy reports a growing sense of importance among corporate website operators of the implications of social media and online reputation management.

The organisation explains that monitoring buzz has become a matter of risk management for many firms.

It can also play a role in link building, by encouraging social media users to link back to a brand or product website from their profiles.

"This market is really starting to take off," says Econsultancy senior research analyst Aliya Zaidi.

"More companies are investing in analysing the insights generated from social media channels."

The importance of buzz marketing – where third parties spread positive information about a brand through word of mouth – was highlighted by Greg Metz Thomas’s 2006 paper Building the Buzz in the Hive Mind.

Published in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour, his study looked at how brand advocates can create positive buzz by sharing their favourable opinions of products and services with their friends.