http://www.demainlaveille.fr/2009/06/16/journee-porte-ouverte-camille-alloing/

Online reputation today has become one of the main « buzz words » of the blogosphere : it conjures up several ideas (including the management of your digital footprint, a concern for most individuals) but especially online monitoring for business intelligence purposes.

With this in mind, the site CaddE-Reputation was created. The result of a collaboration among three students specializing in online monitoring, CaddE-Reputation is an open space where you can find all of the current events regarding online monitoring tools or simply online monitoring, itself, in France.

Camille Alloing, one of the collaborators for CaddE-Reputation, has provided us with a clear and concise resumé of the process of online monitoring on Aref Jdey’s blog, Demain la veille, also well-known in the online monitoring sector.

The only missing part we saw was the Analysis of Search Returns that should follow any monitoring and precede any action. In fact, online monitoring (put simply) means:

1)      Identifying and Listening to what needs to be monitored

2)      Analyzing and Measuring

3)      Reacting judiciously

Sentiment analysis, as well as a ranking of the articles, are therefore key elements necessary for preparing the monitoring follow-up in function of the business’s short- and long-term strategies.

We will be blogging soon about how Synthesio ranks its sources, but in the meantime we’ll simply say that search returns make no sense without being able to determine their influence.

All in all, a good resumé that is worth taking a look at.

US Women use blogs and social media for information

We often receive questions about social media and the point of measuring them, and we would like to present you with some opinions from other experts on the subject. In this article you can see the results of a study carried out by BlogHer and iVillage, the two largest feminine Internet communities.

Although this study is only based on American participants, the analysis can surely be applied to a large number of countries, France for example, within a couple of years if not right away (the average delay with regards to the U.S.’s Internet use is 2 years).

Among the study’s conclusions is a poll of 3.000 women, 80% of whom read a blog 1 to 3 times a week, often searching for new products online.

Nevertheless, the fundamental point remains: these women buy brands that they are “familiar with”.

Once again it is interesting to see the remark that the Internet user is “in control”, an expression that seems to group all consumers into one category as having the same amount of influence. It’s crucial to see, however, that certain ones have definitively more influence than others in regards to a company’s online reputation.

To give an example, Sprint just recently sent a complimentary Blackberry to Loïc LeMeur following a post on his Twitter account that they were not offering the new version. His friend didn’t get quite the same response (if he got any) to similar posts on his own Twitter account: seems like a bit of a double standard…

Happy reading to those who haven’t yet downloaded the white paper

Online Reputation Management (ORM) – A Proactive, not Reactive Process (but SEO and SEM only go so far)

Taking care of your company’s online reputation is certainly not a task to be dealt with “post crisis”. Monitoring should be a constant activity, either with any number of the free tools that we are all familiar with or with professional tools like Synthesio.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and SEM (Search Engine Marketing) can respond to monitoring needs in their own way but they don’t go far enough. You also need to be able to identify which sites are the most important, who are your brand’s influencers, what are your community’s main activities, etc.

In order to avoid certain crises (by detecting Internet users that can damage a brand’s reputation – rightly or wrongly), being proactive is key, but also and perhaps above all, so is finding and promoting so-called “brand ambassadors”.

After that it’s up to the company to decide what to do with this information. Unfortunately there is no handbook that can tell you exactly how to interact with your community. We’re well aware that the agencies that we work with have their work cut out for them!

Poor Economy Heightens Brand Equity

According to a study published by Harris Interactive, brand equity does not decrease during an economic crisis. On the contrary, consumers see purchasing familiar products or services as a sound investment.

Doesn’t that mean, then, that you should be monitoring your brand more closely during any type of crisis? After all, brand equity is created largely via buzz (online) and word of mouth (everywhere else), and WOM doesn’t go away just because of economic troubles!

It’s clear, of course, that a “golden” reputation is constructed over the long-term, but the analysis of Internet users’ online conversations makes up an essential starting point for a brand’s strategy with regards to their presence in consumers’ lives, whatever the situation… our clients seem to have gotten it quite well .

For those of you unfamiliar with Dilbert, check him out!