Reputation Management in a Web 2.0 World

22nd October 2009

#LBTB

The consumer as publisher

Mr Angry-Traveller

Respond

Take it Offline

Monitor

Encourage Reposting

Evaluate

Monitor

Respond

The world moves at an alarming pace

Dealing with issues on-line

“Fear leads to anger.

Anger leads to hate.

Hate leads to suffering.”

Yoda, Star Wars

Some ways to get past the fear (& anger)

• ! It is better to respond

– ! Consumers fill the void

• ! Thank the respondent for their comments

• ! Don’t be defensive

• ! Take the conversation off-line

• ! Solve the problem if you can

• ! Ask the individual to repost

A case study in being pro-active

Avis: We try harder

• ! Identified impact of social media on decision

making process

• ! Saw negative comments around the web

• ! Opportunity to service Avis customers better

• ! Reinvigorate ‘we try harder’ brand promise

• ! Create brand champions opposed to critics

The solution

• ! Conducted an audit of online discussion

• ! Identified key conversation topics

– ! Clearer contract

– ! Satnav/GPS

– ! Enhancement to the loyalty programme

• ! Adapted customer service offer in accordance

• ! Created wetryharder.co.uk bespoke blog

– ! A platform through which to enter the conversation

The results

• ! Avis approval rating increased by 200%

• ! Eclipsed Hertz, a main competitor

• ! Over 400 independent positive customer

comments

• ! 10% growth in a sector growing at 1% p.a

• ! Award winning

– ! 2007 SOCAP award for Innovation in Customer

Service

Measurement

Free web based tools

Most of all…..

“Google is not a search engine. Google is a reputation-management

system, and that’s one of the most powerful reasons so many CEOs have

become more transparent: Online, your rep is quantifiable, findable, and

totally unavoidable. In other words, radical transparency is a double-

edged sword, but once you know the new rules, you can use it to control

your image in ways you never could before.”

Clive Thompson, Wired, March 2007.

A Google check-list in 30 seconds

• ! Monitor regularly

• ! Engage with user generated content that ranks

highly

• ! Promote your own content

– ! Change frequently

– ! Use keywords in your headlines

– ! Post links around the web

Thank you

Questions?

Reputation Management in a Web 2.0 World

22nd October 2009

#LBTB