Reputation Is Built Upon Character----Or Twitter

Since you were young, I am sure that you parents always told you to do the right things in life in order to form a good reputation. Constantly, thereafter, they reminded you of how sensitive your reputation may be and how to protect it with good honor. Is this all that it takes for a business to create a good reputation?

Unfortunately, it takes much more than ethics to create a good reputation in the consumer's mind. The majority of businesses today have formed a Web Reputation Systems team that focuses mainly on building a positive reputation via the web including social media platforms. A few years ago, employers would request that their employees signed onto the website and insert relatively accurate perceptions of the consumer, but leaving out the curse words and screaming attitudes. Being that this is completely unethical, the alternative has created a free field of play for the consumer and their opinion.

Along with innovations, companies have expanded their process of customer feedback. Some companies allow limited feedback, using a ranking system that includes a star ranking or a "like" button. Some companies included unlimited feedback, which includes blogs, discussion boards, video/picture uploads, and even audio voice recordings. Along with these options that are provided to you upon the employer, the consumer is also voicing their opinion of you/your product to their personal networking sites including Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

Now that businesses have began to catch on, to what can be compared to a virus, this form of reputation being formed; they are creating disaster relief teams that research what is being said on the web and are trained to assist the problem immediately. The example that was given in my class was Delta Airlines, although usual forms of communication had been used, a few post on social media websites was quickly found and delt with immediately so the "virus" couldn't spread any further.

A businesses' reputation in general is a necessary tool, a reputation shared in general can become a deciding factor for their success. Although you cannot predict how a consumer may react to your product, accurate training, implementation, and execution is key to creating a great reputation on the web.

Charlie Sheen- Yeah, I said it!

                                                        
I have always heard, "sometimes bad publicity spreads faster than good publicity"; If this is the case, then Charlie Sheen has perfected it. Mostly everyone is familiar with Charlie's lifelong array of bad decisions that has now led him into more of a spotlight than the Pope. Through out the past few months, Charlie's personal social network sites have hit the jackpot, breaking world records.

Charlie's personal Twitter broke a record of 900,000 followers within 24 hours of his first tweet. Sheen contacted Ad.ly, a small Beverly Hills startup that focuses on celebrity endorsements via Facebook and Twitter, to help launch his account. His first "tweet" was a picture of him and one of his many girlfriends, with a caption that stated: "Winning..! Choose your Vice..." The phrase "#winning" has become a very popular tweet on Twitter.

By creating this account, Charlie is able to provide his audience with insight of what all is going on, but from a more personal perspective than, say, the news reports. One of the publishers that work for Ad.ly stated, "It is inevitable that brands will be lining up to work with him. That time will come sooner rather than later."

From a marketing standpoint, Charlie should take this opportunity to not only reach out to his audience, but also change the image that they have formed of him and his character on television. Although bad publicity is what brought him the majority of his recent fame, good publicity could help the fame stay around in the long run.

Trent Bedding Campaign

In the Bowling Green area, social marketing is becoming a new trend among local businesses. They have found the importance of social marketing and are learning the techniques needed to implement a successfully campaign. One specific business that has been the first to create a highly successful campaign in this area is Trent Bedding.

When discussing advertisements that are viewed on televisions, most local residents are aware of Trent Bedding's. Trent, himself, is known for creating and being involved in his business' advertisements while bringing a fun atmosphere to the viewer. In the past, he has created his own jingle (which would be stuck in your head for days), come up which store slogans which created a good positioning in the consumer mind, and provide promotions that were hard to compare with the competitor.

Trent's new form of advertising was using social media via Facebook and television. Through his television commercials he promoted a contest available to his Facebook friends(Trent Bedding Contest). The contest included creating a 30 second commercial for Trent Bedding and uploading it to the official Facebook page. Once the video was uploaded, the person who received the largest amount of "likes" on their video had the opportunity to receive up to $2000 dollars worth of prizes provided by other local businesses. The commercial would then take the place of Trent's usual commercials on T.V. By promoting the contest via television, he was able to reach out to local residents, including WKU students, and bring them to the store's Facebook page.

The contest was a huge success, having over 20 people take the time to put together a commercial along with a combination of 1,200 "likes" among all videos. I can personally say that I had never been to Trent Bedding's Facebook page until I was asked by one of my Facebook friends to "like" her video. This amount of publicity is amazing for a local business and will hopefully encourage people to revisit the site often to check out other opportunities and promotions. Be sure to keep your eyes out for the winner's commercial! It could be your next door neighbor!