Our online identity

Every time you click on a site or view some content, that says a lot about you. This information Facebook stores..perhaps one day your Facebook account, could be your online passport. Whether, it is a better loan rate, a holiday in Italy (because you have posted photos of your previous visit) your online identity is highly valuable information,and this will only grow in importance. As companies hone their predictive analysis algorithms, it will become easier to match up particular products and services with our online values and personality.

Our online reputation

There is also reputation to consider. Product referrals from someone with a huge social network for example, or a blog post to many followers advocating a product, can both act as a currency of sorts. If our friends “like” it, we already know that research has shown how that can impact our own purchasing decisions.Brand perception is everything on the social web, and that is why it is so critical for brands to be engaging with their target audience. The ability of these brands to align with our own set of values will define their success on Facebook and other social media platforms, and ultimately in the offline world.

Facebook $

The use of Facebook credits is also predicted to rise significantly, and fast. At the moment, they are largely confined to the purchase of virtual goods within the Facebook world. But with 500m+ users..there are many countries with their own currencies and with far less populations! If consumers can be sold the virtual currency in a way that gives them confidence, this could soon become commonplace as a currency for everyday transactions.

The people will decide, but if you make it easy for them, it can work across pretty much every aspect of our lives.

Now I am all grown up:

So what to do? You are now a serious business person, or an upstanding member of the professional community; or perhaps even a celebrity. There are companies out there, that for a fee, will work to eradicate any negative internet footprints of your past. No guarantees, but they can improve things considerably in certain areas. Images and comments they will hunt down and kill on your behalf. This has the somewhat grandiose term of Online Reputation Management.

The importance of ORM

This is important. Reputation is as essential online as it is in the offline world. Building relationships on LinkedIn, will be hindered considerably for example, if (and they invariably do) clients and prospects google you, to find out more about who they are talking to. If they discover you dressed as a goat stomping along the promenade at Blackpool for your mate’s stag weekend, it will undoubtedly present an obstacle in their minds, when you apply for a job with them or to prise some of their precious budget away from them in return for your product or service.

ORM tips for you:

On a personal level, start doing some of your own Online Reputation Management. Untag those photos on Facebook, and delete previous wall posts. Or if you are that concerned about it, don’t participate in social networking.

And for your business:

On a corporate level, use  Technorati to see where you are mentioned within the blogoshere, or go to relevant forums and see what people are saying about you. If you can’t delete previous threads, you can definitely go a along way to restoring and managing your ongoing online reputation.

Take Dry Max, the new version of Pampers; officially launched on March 1st in the US. This was billed as the “driest” nappy ever, and the advertising at launch was accompanied with the now familiar strategy of sending samples to bloggers, including Shopping Mama, in order to build grass-roots enthusiasm.

But things started to go wrong very shortly after the launch. Many “mamas” started to complain on social networks and review sites.  These complaints increased and now there is a Facebook page claiming children have suffered rashes, burns and the like. This page has over 6000 fans.

After the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CSPC) announced they would be looking into these complaints, Procter & Gamble immediately launched a full-scale counter offensive, citing what they described as “growing, but completely false rumours, fuelled by social media”.

Many loyal customers felt offended by the robust tone of P&G. They did not feel their voices were being heard. This only heightened the tension between the two parties.

Procter & Gamble knew it had to do more and simultaneously stepped up plans to engage with the online community.  Many bloggers, and key “influencers” within social media, have been invited to P&G’s headquarters, listening to staff discussing the R&D side of their work, and looking at prototypes of future products.

Digital marketing experts are trying to glean the lessons from this whole experience. The episode underlines the challenges for a process of product development that was developed “in a time when consumers did not have a voice, and there was no notion of consumer feedback, reviews and social media.”

Perhaps the lesson is, that if P&G had more consumers involved more intimately in the product development process, they would have been advocates for the product as it comes out. It is imperative now that consumer brands interact with the blogging community early on; certainly before events reach a crisis point.

Most people engage in social media with good intentions..they want to be heard. So I think the point for the brands is not to try to shut them down, but to listen and hear them.

Phrase for the day: “power mom” – bloggers, who are sought after by brands to test or comment upon new products…only in America!!

The Great Enabler:

Social Media has enabled society in many astonishing ways.  However, the ability to “design, produce, direct, and sustain” conversations that have specific, predictable and tangible economic outcomes, remains the Holy Grail of Social Media, and indeed a true Innovation Economy.

The people who have the ability to generate value in this new economic paradigm are those who have the ability to start and sustain conversations in social media space.  The objective for those seeking success in social media is to empower and compensate conversation designers, producers, directors, and sustainers.

Perfect information in markets will always benefit the highest integrity companies, the most trustworthy brands, and the most socially relevant industries.  Imperfect information favours low quality, corruption, and misrepresentation. Imperfect information facilitates the “transfer” rather than “creation” of wealth.  An innovation economy will always seek to create new knowledge rather than suppress it and conversation is the currency of exchange.

Billions of dollars of Advertising revenue is being reallocated to listening to the market rather than shouting at it.  The brands are listening to you.  Like never before, customers have the control.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, whilst all the Web 2.0 stuff is great for consumer comments, those comments can be both good and bad. When you look at Tripadvisor, it is highly unlikely that all the comments are 100% positive … if there is a negative comment though, how have the hotel dealt with it – did they just ignore it, or comment back and explain the issues?

How did you react in that scenario – personally, if the hotel ignores the bad comment I would consider that a bad comment on the hotel itself – if it can’t be bothered to reply then how will they be at looking after me?!!

These days of course, there are multiple routes available for people to praise your service, or slag you off too. Either way you should be checking what people are saying about you.

This all came to the fore yesterday when a client of mine showed me his own experience. I think it would be safe to say that when this chap became a client he was less than convinced by my evangelism on the benefits of social media! How he has changed! Not only is he now blogging and tweeting away like a good un, he is now going to add Facebook, Linkedin and YouTube to the mix too … and part of the sources for his articles etc will come from what he reads via the alerts he has set up in Google Reader (personally I use Feedly as I think it is more user friendly).

One of his alerts is his company name of course, so when a particular client started something of a rant in a forum, he was alerted to the comments and was able to go back and respond. He may not be able to stop her saying things, but at least he can balance the view.

I would therefore suggest you go do three things right now if you have not done so already.

• Set up Google Reader
• Set up Google Alerts
• Set up Feedly

Of course you may want to add your competitors to your alert list so you can see what they are up to aswell!!

If you have had any experiences yourself, please let me know, or if you use any other tools I’d like to hear about them too please.