The recent Forbes article (thanks to Robert Tolmach for the pointer) is angry and sensational, and the author clearly doesn't understand the blogosphere (it's just people talking, not edited journalism under a publisher's masthead, DUH!). "Web logs are the prized platform of an online lynch mob spouting liberty but spewing lies, libel and invective. Their potent allies in this pursuit include Google and Yahoo." ??!?? I mean, really!
The criticism of Google is particularly off-base - that's like criticizing Excel when you don't like the way the numbers add up. People won't get anywhere trying to fit blogs and search engines into the old boxes they are already comfortable with, like "newspaper articles" and "publishers".
The threat of the "angry mob", though, is very real and does need to be dealt with. The blogging platforms need to get together to create reputation scales where bloggers can be judged on their veracity by their readership. Sxip could help, and Dick Hardt has been getting around the speaker circuit lately at the right conferences, so hopefully we'll see some synergies emerge.
The real message of the article, though, is that people and companies with reputations to uphold can't ignore negative word of mouth anymore hoping it will go away. Instead we must listen and respond (both in voice and in behavior -- is there any truth in the accusations?). We must marshall our own WOM troops in advance of being defamed. Companies need to create an online community of people who will take their side in a scuffle.
As an aside, my client Edelman is well-positioned to help large entitites do this (In fact, their CEO Richard Edelman has already blogged about this article and totally gets it); Ed Vielmetti does it for smaller companies, as can I.
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