Concept
With the first generation of the Internet, information
was provided and owned by the few for the consumption of many. The
second generation Internet sees the many now willing and able to
contribute to wealth of knowledge and information.
Companies and
individuals alike are now no longer in control of the information
written about them on the web – nuggets of information appear within
many diverse sources. It is not easy to either seek out all the
information or influence the impression that it is making.
Trajectory
To
date, Internet reputation is often overlooked by companies and
individuals alike. The power of Internet reputation has not yet hit home
in many instances, and its impact on brand – positive or negative – is
not fully understood.
It is possible that we will see this coming
to a head in the next few years. Major brands may be hit hard, if they
do not acknowledge that their brand’s identity and the information about
it are being created in a wider context by the ‘many’. Failing to
manage the reputation of brands on the Internet may have damaging
consequences.
If one major brand is affected in this way, there
will be an initial knee-jerk reaction from other brands as this event
brings the message home. Initially, other brands will fight hard to
regain control of information about them, but this is doomed to failure
as information proliferation cannot be controlled on the web. In the
longer term, companies and individuals will embrace the ability of the
Internet to build or destroy their reputation and managing Internet
reputation will become a mainstream activity.
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