PR Surgery Disasters

It seems that hardly a week goes by anymore that some firm or another is blindsided by blog reports of bad customer service or legal departments run amok. Often the matter is made worse because the company is completely unaware of the extent to which the incident has been reported. While unfortunate events cannot always be prevented, being aware of what's going on can help prevent a misunderstanding from becoming a nightmare.

But search engines are only of limited use. Many people who read a lot of blogs gave up on browsing web sites long ago and instead use feed aggregators to keep up with the volume of their news. However, even aggregators are overwhelming at times and sophisticated processing rules are becoming widespread. The results need to be accessible and easily understood.

In particular, the Data Mining blog points us to a new system called Reputica which provides an ongoing reputation metric for your firm, brand or product.

The key to our service is in using Reputica's unique software to predict how information will disseminate across various media platforms. In other words, if a negative blog comes out one day, Reputica can predict - based on complex analytical algorithms - where that story is likely to go next, and when. We can then advise our clients on the most effective pre-emptive steps to take.

Whether these claims are true or not, an increasing number of services and tools are available to keep track of what people are saying about you. This is definitely a space to watch.