Managing Reputation OnlineManaging Reputation Online

Presented by Katherine FletcherSenior Partner & Managing Director iStudioSenior Partner & Managing Director, iStudio

February 11, 2009

Agendag

• How Online Conversations Can Affect Your Organization

• Digital Media Demographics• Importance of Online Reputation• Managing an Online Crisis• Steps to a Successful Reputation Management p p g

Campaign

How Online Conversations Can Affect Your Organization

Risks and Opportunities

Bill Marriott Blog: on the moveg

Customer Service/Sales: New Media Styley

New Rules for Customer Service

• New technologies have further lowered the barriers to publishing• Your customers can post reviews to microblogging services in

seconds with no technical background• Memes can spring up around customer service complaints• Memes can spring up around customer service complaints• Are you listening?• 169 hotels from across the world are listening on Twitterg• 27 multiple property/chains have profiles on Twitter

• For a list of hotels and chains on Twitter:http://webtravelrob.blogspot.com/2009/02/hotels-using-twitter.html

Digital Media ConsumersDigital Media Consumers

Who’s Online

Page

The Importance of Social Mediap

• 58% of all Canadian Internet users visit blogs• Canada ranks #1 out of 8 countries in terms of blog penetration• 6 out of every 10 Canadians in their 30s have visited at least one

social networking site– 83% for 13-1783% for 13 17– 74% for 18-29– 45% of those in their 40s

33% f th i th i 50– 33% of those in their 50s– Overall, over half of all Canadians (53%) have visited social networking

sites

Business Professionals Online

• 65% of business people use social networking sites including MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Yahoo360, and FacebookB i f i l di bl• Business professionals are reading blogs:– 80% of business professionals say they read blogs, 51% reading blogs at

least once weekly– 53% read blogs for business information, 57% for technology topics– 53% of business professionals say the content read in blogs impacts

work-related purchasing decisionsp g– 70% recommend/pass on content from blogs at least once a month

Leisure and Business Travelers: Most Important Destination Information Sources

Business BusinessLeisure Leisure Business 09

Business 08

Internet website40% 18%

Leisure 09

Leisure 08

Website of place you are staying/ 40% 20%

Previous travel experience

17% 16%

you are staying/ general internet

40% 20%

Internet booking Company referral/ preferred suppliers

15% 29%service (Expedia, Hotels.com)

15% 25%

Friends /  ppInternet booking service

13% 30%

Friends/ relatives/

/Relatives/ Word of  Mouth

11% 36%

Previous travel Friends/ relatives/ word of mouth

5% 17%

n= 539 503

Previous travel experience

10% 22%

n= 1,069 1,008

Leisure and Business: Use of internet

89%

87%90%Look at photos

87%

85%

85%

89%

86%

Get maps/directions

Look for "specials"

A iti i th 85%

73%

70%

85%

76%

Amenities in the room

Take a virtual tour

Consult ratings 70%

68%

52%

75%

70%

55%

Consult ratings

Read testimonials/ …

Read trip advisors31%

18%

55%

31%

22%

Read trip advisors

Consult blogs on …

Comparison shop… 22%Comparison shop …

Leisure and Business: Influence of sites on h t l t l t l tihotel, motel or resort selection

Scale 1-5, 1 no influence, 5 great deal of influence, what kind of influence do these have on your hotel, motel or resort selection?

72%Star ratings on internet

55%

75%

48%Read testimonials/comments by

booking services

12%

55%

11%Travel blogs

testimonials/comments by previous travelers

21%

12%

21%Other

g

21%

How to Handle a Crisis and How to Handle a Crisis and Manage Your Online Reputation

The Online LandscapeThe Online Landscape

• Online conversations affect brands Online conversations affect brands, reputation and customer relationships

O li b d b l t th h th – Online, brands belong to those who own the conversation

– Touches all corners of the organization: communications, sales, product, marketing, HR, executive team

Your Online Reputation MattersYour Online Reputation Matters…now more than ever• “Badvocates” have 300 per cent more impact on an

organization’s growth than advocates T t d ti i “b d t ” l d t t f • Two per cent reduction in “badvocates” leads to one per cent of growth– Seven per cent increase in advocates needed for one per cent of growthSeven per cent increase in advocates needed for one per cent of growth

• 50 per cent of all online “badvocacy” or brand bashing is due to frustration at a company not listeningp y g

• Who’s “badvocating” for you?

S D P l M d L d S h l f E i 2008Source: Dr. Paul Marsden, London School of Economics, 2008

The Benefits of Listeningg

• Constant awareness of popular opinion, growing sentiment, p p p , g g ,possible crises– Shapes communication strategies and plans

Can help craft policies for employee use of social media– Can help craft policies for employee use of social media• Familiarity with online influencers – as important as journalists

– Ability to build relationships before a “need” arises• Preparation for proactive outreach to blogs, communities and other

social mediaAbilit to harness the “brand ambassadors” and ad ocates– Ability to harness the “brand ambassadors” and advocates

Online Behaviour: Three Clusters

Source: An Analysis of Aggressive Online Behavior Targets Against Corporations, their Products, Services and Brands. Urs Gasser and John G.Palfrey, May 2007.

Online Aggression: Response Strategiesgg p g

• Prevention– Ongoing monitoring and awareness– Report and analysis to the right levels of the organization

Providing constructive and effective outlets for employee and customer – Providing constructive and effective outlets for employee and customer frustrations

• Early engagement with critics– Identify motives

• Create a response plan for different scenarios– Identify appropriate response channels– Identify appropriate response channels– Pre-approved messaging ready to distribute– Acknowledge the limits of what response can accomplish– Legal action only as a last resort

Online Aggression: Response Strategiesgg p g

• If you take the decision to engage:y g g– Expect a backlash– Expect to be “flamed”

Expect to see every word you write or say scrutinised to the Nth degree– Expect to see every word you write or say scrutinised to the Nth degree– Expect to see constructive dialogue evolve– Expect to see advocates emerge– Expect to continue the dialogue

What Would You Do?What Would You Do?

• A prominent business and pcommunications blogger has a complaint

1 Will your monitoring pick this up?1. Will your monitoring pick this up?2. How do you categorize this as a

threat to your reputation?3 Is the complaint legitimate?3. Is the complaint legitimate?4. Should you engage? And if so,

how?5. What do you do when the y

complaint is amplified and spreads?

Page 26

Steps to a Successful Social Media Steps to a Successful Social Media Campaign

Steps to Successful Social Media OutreachSteps to Successful Social Media Outreach

1. Listen to your audience2. Identify your greatest advocates3. Engage your audienceg g y4. Expand the conversation

Page 28

Who’s Talking About Youg

• Find the Conversations– Where do they occur?– Who is participating?

What is the volume?– What is the volume?• Develop list of key words and phrases

– Consider business lines, brands, products, issues, competitors, common complaints, executive names

– Gather insight from key departments such as customer service and HR– Keep Google in mind – what terms would a consumer search for? What will eep Goog e d a e s ou d a co su e sea c o a

they find?

Listening to What’s Being Saidg g

• Ongoing tracking and monitoring begins– Options include both manual and automated tools

Identify who has online influence– Identify who has online influence• Monitoring process is determined by:

– Risk tolerance– How many key terms will we monitor?– Do we have “spammy” terms?– What frequency of reporting is needed?– What frequency of reporting is needed?– Is there additional analysis required?

Learning About What’s Being Saidg g

• Dig deeper into the content– What is the tone?– How are conversations connected?– How does offline activity influence online conversations? How does online

activity influence offline?• Assess influence of conversations

– Overall traffic – Connectedness (inbound links, commenting habits)– Content quality and frequency of updates– Saturation of blogging in a given topicgg g g p– “Offline” blogger credibility

• Learn how to best respond, and refine your approach before leading the conversationleading the conversation

Engaging in the Conversation

• A Social Media Spokesperson would:– Build a targeted list – Aggregate and monitor relevant feeds – Read what the targets write– Establish rapport Establish rapport

• Respond to Blogger queries • Comment on other Blogs

– Pitch with transparency and honesty Pitch with transparency and honesty • Offer access to an experts or official representatives • Offer compelling content – whitepapers, research, surveys, video, photos and

exclusive informationexclusive information

• They would avoid:– Pitching in the traditional sense

Page 32

– Posting a news release in a Blog’s comments thread – Over pitching the market

Expanding the Conversationp g

• Focus outreach on neutral and positive bloggers

• Avoid – blogs with extreme POVs– hostile bloggers hostile bloggers – those without influence

Page 33

How to Pitch: Bloggers Love Social & Rich MediaRich Media

Page 34

Online Resources

• Compete com (compares site traffic influence reach)Compete.com (compares site traffic, influence, reach)• Digg.com (the pulse of what’s important online)• AdAge.com (relevant marketing stats)g ( g )• Mashable.com (latest news and tools for social media)• Comscore.com (marketing information)• Twitter.com (microblogging platform)• Netvibes.com (RSS aggregator)

G l ( l l t bl h)• Google.com (google alerts; blog search)• YouTube and Flickr (video and photo aggregations sites)

Hi t j t lik th li l d th Hint: just like the online landscape, these are always changing!

Case Study Conclusiony

• With the right outreach a With the right outreach, a “badvocate” was turned into an “advocate”

Questions?

K h i Fl hKatherine FletcherSVP, Senior Partner and Managing Director613-244-4747 (ext. 223)kfletcher@istudio.ca