Ears Burning? New Media’s Been Talking

A recent Weber Shandwick survey asked 700 executives from around the world about online reputation management. According to the participants:

• Traditional media (television, radio, newspapers) plays a greater role in deciding reputational fates than new media (web sites, blogs, social networks).
• They [the participants] are five times more likely to trust traditional media appearing online as they are to trust strictly online media.
• The leading online source of company information is the corporate web site.

While monitoring coverage in traditional media is certainly important, times have changed. According to a Pew study from December 2008, more people get their news from the Internet than from newspapers. A ClickZ study found that 74 percent choose to do business with companies based on the customer care experiences shared by others online.

What does this mean?

There’s a clear disconnect between what these executives believe to be true, and what’s really happening. People are talking about your company, and they’re just not doing it in newspapers, on television, or on the radio. The conversation has moved to web sites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social media outlets. Ignoring these types of media puts you (and your company) at a disadvantage. How are you supposed to manage your online reputation if you aren’t listening to what’s being said?

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Tags: Listening, online reputation, Social Media

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