Do Consumers Have Control of your Brand Presence Online?

This recent article from Marketing Sherpa explains why Consumer Generated Media (CGM) matters:

According to Pete Blackshaw, Chief Marketing & Customer Satisfaction Officer of Intelliseek, a company tracking consumer-generated media online, you should be paying attention to how your brand is mentioned on:

• public Internet discussion boards and forums
• consumer ratings websites or forums
• blogs and personal websites
• moblogs
• social networking sites

2004 Forrester/Intelliseek research shows that more than 60% of consumers trust other consumers’ online postings about products and brands. In comparison, pop-ads are only trusted by roughly 5%, search ads by less than 40%, branded ads by less than 50%. So an individual consumer post may have far greater impact than the online ad campaign you paid for.

The article warns that 70% of consumers who call or email in complaints to your service center are also extremely likely to express their dissatisfaction publicly online.

Also included are suggested tricks, tips and examples to track and influence Consumer Generated Media