Corporate and marketing communicators face challenges as consumers begin to use the power of online communities and social media 

The web is changing corporate and marketing communication for ever. Reputations are being challenged and tarnished 24/7 as the consumer finds it has a voice that can be expressed through a multitude of social media channels.  

Many organisations are oblivious to what is happening in online communities. They simply ignore online and still treat the traditional media - today’s newspaper, radio or TV - as their barometer of consumer sentiment.  

Yet it is difficult for consumers to have their say through the ‘filter’ of normal media. With social media they have control.  As ‘Unwired’ magazine said “The Internet accelerates and amplifies public opinion like nothing that has come before it”. 

“For most Australian organisations the ‘online chatter’ about a particular brand will likely be  spasmodic. However, you ignore online communities at your peril”, said Grant Common, Managing Director, of Sydney-based Network PR, which is the first pr agency in Australia to specialise in online pr. 

“Any major brand or organisation that doesn’t at least monitor the online community is leaving itself exposed; increasingly many are seeking to embrace it and learn how to communicate and build relationships, just as they have had to with other stakeholders and traditional media”. 

Internationally there have been a number of concerted and targeted attacks aimed at major corporations, undermining their corporate or brand reputation.

 A new white paper - ‘Responding to Aggressive Online Behaviour Target at Your Company’  seeks to show how organisations can minimise the impact of an online attack and keep it from damaging their reputation.

From the Harvard Berkman Center for Internet & Society in the US, the study analysed hundreds of online attacks against leading companies to understand what drives these attacks and how corporations should respond.  The document documents many of these attacks, analyses the types of attack and gives advice on how and when to respond.

Network PR has also written several articles on online communication and marketing that can be found in PR Influences - Australia’s most comprehensive PR reference source. 

Its article ‘Online Reputation: Using pr to protect and enhance the brand’ in its June/July 2007 issue, with a link to ‘The See-Through CEO’ -an in-depth look from Wired magazine at why and how organisations need to be gearing themselves to cope with the new phenomenon of online is particularly relevant to the topic of managing online communication.