15 Internet Sites That Can Make or Break Your Brand - Inside CRM - The Diigo Meta page

• 28 Nov 08
  

  Stacy Lukas

  websites twitter socialmedia seo reputation marketing

• 21 Jul 08
  

  Christine Blowes

  Once a brand enters the market place it becomes the subject of many online conversations. Most will stay under the radar and have little or now effect, but not so if they become the topic of discussion.

  marketing google youtube amazon internet online Business

• 09 Jul 08
  

  Matthew Clemmons

  marketing internet seo promotion branding

• 

  Doug McCaughan

  marketing branding SEO reputation internet promotion blogging

• 

  FruFru FourOne

  toread

  • Once a brand enters the marketplace, it becomes the subject of many online conversations. Most of the time, these dialogs will stay under the radar and have little or no effect on overall revenue. However, profound business implications can occur for brands that become the topic of discussion on certain influential Web sites. These sites can greatly sway the marketplace in favor or against the brand, heavily influencing customer sentiment and overall sales. The following 15 sites possess such power.

  • 1. Google: With a dominant share of search-engine traffic, Google is almost always a consumer's first stop online to find out more about a brand. The top 10 results returned by Google on a branded search will be perceived by most consumers as the prevailing public opinion about a brand, and the tone of these results can greatly influence whether or not a sale will be made. Google’s first-page results are so critical to business success that a whole industry has been created around the concept of online reputation management, and many businesses use online- reputation-management software to monitor brand discussions and, if necessary, engage brand detractors with the the goal of removing negative brand mentions from search results (or at least pushing them lower).

    Power Example: Far fewer people would have been ripped off by multilevel marketing schemes had they entered them into Google first.

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  • • 2. YouTube: Well over half of Web surfers watch videos online, and YouTube holds a dominant position as the top Internet video destination. Businesses should realize that brand evangelists (and detractors) make and post videos on YouTube, and that the videos that are creative and clever enough to go viral can reach millions of viewers and potential customers. For example, Blendtec.com has leveraged a popular series of creative “Will It Blend” videos into incredible brand awareness and business success. Similar to monitoring search results, companies should monitor YouTube for videos about their brand for online-reputation-management purposes.

      Power Example: One wouldn’t think that a video that encourages men to examine themselves for possible testicular cancer could become superpopular and go viral, but this one did.

    • 3. Amazon.com Inc.: Amazon.com is the most popular online retail destination, and a Google search on the name of almost every product available online will return an Amazon.com product page as one of the top results. Consumers visit Amazon.com (even if they buy elsewhere) because no other Web site offers such a large number of trusted product reviews from previous product buyers. The consumer sentiment for a particular product will directly impact sales not only at Amazon.com but across the Web. Brand managers can quickly measure the health of their brand by reading Amazon.com reviews, and perceptive companies will quickly react and respond to their Amazon.com audience.

      Power Example: Were you planning to buy the DVD of the "Ron White Show"? Don’t bother.

    • 4. Wikipedia: Wikipedia is the de facto online reference encyclopedia that allows anyone to create or edit an entry — provided that their contribution meets site standards. Wikipedia pages almost always rank on the first page of search-engine results. This means that if your brand has a Wikipedia page, it will generate a lot of search-engine visits, and the content will be trusted because Wikipedia is considered to be an impartial source of information. While obvious emotional or commercial pitches about your brand will be quickly removed by Wikipedia editors, information pertaining to your brand that can be objectively sourced from “reputable” Web sites will likely stick. And if this information is negative or critical, your brand will be affected.

      Power Example(s): Hoaxes abound on Wikipedia, and though they can be corrected, they still have the power to damage your brand. Examples that received tremendous publicity include George Washington did what?, Sinbad’s (the comedian) death and the John Siegenthaler incident.

    • 5. Facebook: Facebook is the top social-networking Web site for adults and professionals. Prominent Facebook members with large numbers of friends wield tremendous brand influence, because when they post an opinion about a product or a service that they have used, it will be seen by their friends via Facebook's friend feeds. In addition, there are many popular Facebook applications that allow people to voice opinions on a wide variety of subjects (such as films and books) that will be broadcast throughout the Facebook network. Facebook also offers brands the opportunity to create engaging, clever and fun applications that generate a large amount of goodwill by spreading virally through people's friend networks.

      Power Example(s): In conjunction with the release of Bob Dylan’s remixed greatest-hits album, a developer launched a Facebook application that allows users to graft a short message onto the placards within Dylan’s legendary "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video, which they could then send to friends within Facebook. This application has nearly 5,000 Facebook fans, and it got a tremendous amount of positive buzz from Dylan aficiandos. You can check out the Web version here.

    • 6. MySpace.com: MySpace.com is the top social-networking Web site for young people (especially teenagers). If your brand targets this demographic, MySpace.com users are almost certainly talking about it. MySpace.com offers a very chaotic environment for brands to engage with, though many product categories — especially music brands — use the site as a way to connect with their audience and promote their releases. Brand evangelists do exist on MySpace.com, and people with many thousands of MySpace.com friends wield a lot of influence when they offer opinions about products and services.

      Power Example: A MySpace.com page for Amy Winehouse has been viewed almost 15 million times and serves as a very visible marketing vehicle for her music and career.

    • 7. Digg Inc.: Digg is easily the most popular social-media Web site. It has a very passionate user base, (mostly young, technology-focused males) and stories that land on the front page of Digg generate a tremendous amount of traffic and inbound links. But Digg is a double-edged sword for brands. If you manage a brand that is looked upon favorably by typical Digg members (such as Diablo 3), the visibility will be directly tied to your company's bottom-line revenue. However, more traditional brands usually get popular on Digg only if something is found to be wrong or flawed with them (such as Rogers Communications and its expensive iPhone plans).

      Power Example: The article "19 Things You Didn't Know About Death" made Digg's front page and generated so many inbound links for LifeInsure.com that the site was pushed onto the first page of Google for the search term "life insurance," which generated tremendous ROI (return on investment) for the company.

    • 8. TechCrunch: TechCrunch is the most popular and influential technology blog online. Run by Michael Arrington, TechCrunch offers no-holds-barred commentary on Silicon Valley, its companies and its people. Everyone who is remotely involved in a technology-based company reads TechCrunch, and a blog post about a brand or a company can have a significant business impact. The commenting at TechCrunch is very active and meaningful, and it is quite common for representatives of the companies in question to jump into the discussion (joined by Arrington and his other bloggers).

      Power Example: Michael Arrington was an incredible brand evangelist for Twitter, but as Twitter suffered all kinds of technical snafus, Arrington cast an ugly glare on its developers, openly mocked the service reliability and pushed his microblogging conversations onto FriendFeed, a Twitter competitor.

    • 9. Colbert Nation: Very few entertainers have harnessed the power of the Internet as well as Stephen Colbert. From coining and championing the 2006 word of the year "truthiness" to inciting the Web masses to get bridges named after him, Colbert and the “Colbert Bump” are a force to be reckoned with in the powerful 18-to-35 demographic. Just ask Mike Huckabee.

      Power Example: Based upon Amazon.com sales data prior to and after a mention on "The Colbert Report," the Colbert Bump can increase or decrease sales of a book or product by nearly tenfold.

    • 10. Valleywag: Valleywag is the gossip blog of the tech industry and is focused much more on the personalities of Silicon Valley than products or companies. The site mixes tech news coverage with people news and grist from the rumor mill. Being criticized on Valleywag isn’t the brand catastrophe that it might be elsewhere, because the site views almost everyone and everything on with a cynical eye. However, Valleywag occasionally hits a bull's-eye with its blog posts, and tech-industry folks monitor the site for precisely this reason.

      Power Example: An article about a bank worker who was discovered partying via Facebook photos when he had been officially excused from work is Valleywag’s most popular post, and it typifies the type of story that the site publishes.

    • 11. Twitter: Twitter is the official back-channel conversation of the Internet. The people who use the site are well-connected network influencers, and it is a given that most brands is being discussed on Twitter. (Search Summize to see what Twitter users are saying about your brand.) Monitoring Twitter is one of the best possible ways to get a sense for how people feel about your company's product or service, and the ease in which people can be reached via Twitter offers a wonderful way to engage brand evangelists or detractors based upon their previous tweets.

      Power Example: Comcast monitors Twitter for all company mentions and proactively engages all people talking about its brand. Comcast is the most visible company using Twitter to increase customer satisfaction, and its efforts have been universally praised as a model that other businesses should follow.

    • 12. The Smoking Gun: The Smoking Gun features stories sourced from legal documents — such as lawsuits, mugshots and contracts — with the intention of highlighting either the misdeeds of the famous or oddball stories that the mainstream media won't cover. If your company's brand is featured on The Smoking Gun, you should be very concerned, because this site doesn’t run positive stories on brands, and it doesn't run stories without solid evidence to back the claim.
      

      Power Example: Many people don’t know the backstory of why film director Roman Polanski fled the United States in 1978, but The Smoking Gun published very graphic grand-jury testimony from the teenage victim that he allegedly assaulted. This story typifies the site's total commitment to publish the truth, no matter how it affects the parties involved.

    • 13. Oprah.com: Oprah Winfrey is the most powerful woman in media, and Oprah.com is the online hub of her media empire. If your company's brand gets featured on Oprah’s Web site or on her television show, expect a huge spike in consumer interest from her loyal, mostly female audience, which looks very favorably upon products that she endorses.

      Power Example: Many people endorsed by Winfrey — Dr. Phil, Suze Orman, Marianne Williamson, Barack Obama and countless authors — have had their personal and professional brands greatly enhanced.

    • 14. The Consumerist: The Consumerist is a blog that offers consumers tips and tricks to help them save money and exposes corporate bad behavior that affects consumers. Brands usually get featured on this site when they’ve deeply offended a customer or class of customers. Public apologies and acts of contrition would be the smart course of action in response to a post about your company's brand, though long-term brand damage isn’t likely unless the offense is particularly egregious.

      Power Example: The Consumerist publicized the story about Wal-Mart Stores Inc. selling a T-shirt with a Nazi insignia. While no one accused Wal-Mart Stores of intentional wrongdoing, this news item was extremely bad public relations for a company that is already fighting public-relations wars on many fronts.

    • 15. The Huffington Post: The Huffington Post is an online news destination that offers an unconventional alternative to old-media reporting. A cutting-edge blend of traditional news coverage, expert commentary and social media, The Huffington Post does a remarkable job of getting site visitors engaged with the news and the people covering it. If your business's brand gets kudos on this site, it will likely get plenty of brand engagement in the comments section, but there is also a decent likelihood of getting the story pushed to and promoted on other prominent social-media sites such as Digg, StumbleUpon and del.icio.us.

      Power Example: John McCain doesn’t know the price of gas, but that's not a big news story for the mainstream media. However, The Huffington Post features this story is featured on its home page, where it has generated more than 250 comments. The story then landed on Digg's home page, where it received more than 2,000 Diggs and brought a traffic windfall back to The Huffington Post.

• 08 Jul 08
  

  Chuck Brands
• 

  Andy Brudtkuhl

  Once a brand enters the marketplace, it becomes the subject of many online conversations. Most of the time, these dialogs will stay under the radar and have little or no effect on overall revenue. However, profound business implications can occur for bran

  branding reputation orm

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