The culture of participatory social media is having some surprisingly significant effects on both the way satisfied customers play a role in contributing to the marketing message development of products and services. And it is also playing an increasingly important role in defining the key touchpoints that customers use in the deciding factors one what to purchase. What makes this all the more noteworthy is that much of this is rooted in offline purchases. I’m putting this together from two recent studies…

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Check out the article in last Thursday’s Times, Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics, that addresses how to handle consumers who develop a personal vendetta against your company. Well, you could send lawyers but legal cease-and-desists generally just make the customer madder than hell and it isn’t hard to just start yet another attack site.

I hate to say it, sucking less always helps. Start with treating your customers better. Also, be sure to register lots of domain names and work on your online reputation aggressively before it becomes a problem.

Online, the best defense is a good offense and an ounce of online promotion is worth a pound of cure. Here are some great commented-by-me excerpts from the article, Dealing With the Damage From Online Critics, so you can get a gist:

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With the issue of reputation management in the news, I’ve been thinking a lot about the recent discovery that many of the Mattel toys made in China were painted with lead-based paints. This had followed several other unrelated incidents that had previously caused embarrassment to either Mattel or to China.

A company such as Mattel needs to have a proactive online strategy that could meet the negativity head on, to help suppress those damaging rumors that could hurt the company both immediately and permanently. A company needs to understand what is being said about them in online forums, on blogs, and, if necessary, it needs to help blunt and diminish the negativity headed their way.

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Over the next 13 months, we’re going to have to endure yet another campaign season here in the States. Two primaries and then a long, drawn out general election. One way to deflect these attacks is through defensive SEO. It helps suppress concerted attacks by depressing negative search results while increasing positive ones. And I think it will be vital. Hopefully, others will listen.

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I have a Googlegänger, Chris Abraham the Director from Canada. We fought over top Google dog for years but now I pwn him. That said, I want to meet him some day, too. Do you have a Googlegänger? Tell me about him or her in the comments. Via MSNBC

‘Just as “Googling” has become standard slang for “searching online,” the term “Googlegänger” has also caught on with a generation of young people defined not so much by their accomplishments but by how Google-able those accomplishments are. “You are who you are because of Google.’ […] ‘For some, their Googlegänger is a rival in a race to the top of the Google hit list. […] For others, the Googlegänger can be an object of curiosity, of comparison—an alter ego of sorts.’ Via MSNBC