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Bloggers a potential PR menace: report
18-04-2006
by Maxim Kelly
Companies that ignore the opinions of bloggers and internet commentators could create massive public relations disasters, a new report has warned.
The report, from Jupiter Research, highlights the growing trend of online communities influencing the media landscape as well as the way marketers adapt their branding or corporate image strategies.
Jupiter's Consumer Created Content report found the growth of consumer-generated content has already had a disproportionately wide influence and may seriously impact on brand communications. This is despite the fact that most Europeans are "passive" surfers who don't publish their thoughts online.
Ninety-two percent of European online publishers interviewed by Jupiter prompt their visitors to participate online, but the majority (53 percent) of internet users are passive, "silent" surfers and do not create content. Only 23 percent respond to prompted participation, such as polls and competitions, and a further 24 percent are unprompted contributors that maintain web logs, websites or post in online forums.
Jupiter warns that although the number of contributors is currently small, their impact and influence can have wide reach. This is because the most vocal online element tends to be young, male surfers who have been using the internet for some time and have high-speed connections. Strong brand opinions and feedback posted by these influential contributors will quickly spread among interconnected consumers due to the highly linked nature of the weblog network, or blogosphere, the report claims.
Report author Julian Smith said consumers were increasingly exposed to more peer-produced content alongside professionally-produced copy. He believes marketers need to monitor key contributors in order to target them over a mass audience monologue approach.
"Organisations ignoring community-based influencers face the danger of small-scale disgruntlement being exposed to a mass audience, resulting in a disproportionately large-scale public relations problem that can directly affect their bottom line," said Smith.
In related news, The Sun newspaper may be ahead of the posse when it comes to consumer created content as it is joining forces with social networking website MySpace. In March, The Sun announced that its MySun branded portal will allow Sun readers to set-up blogs, or share pictures and video clips.
Both The Sun and MySpace.com are owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. MySpace currently has some 60 million registered users in the 16 to 34 age group -- always considered one of the hardest demographics to reach with any form of marketing message.
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