Big companies are concerned about their image. The net does change how PR is done, and no-one yet knows how to do it. So making that problem managable is an important contribution. Let's be clear: for a big company, $400 pcm is a rounding error for PR expense. The real question is whether that expense will actually do them any good. And so we move to execution:
The info on the actual pages is not helpful. There's no way to get a sense of "what is being said". It's almost as confusing as trying to get the info by browsing the net. I think a solution would be something like "google trends/news for social media". For example, amazon's PR problem isn't apparent at all: http://www.squidoo.com/amazon-in-public In fact, it looks like mostly amazon PR. For it to be taken seriously, the raw information needs to be clear and neutral (like Google not having pay-for-placement search results).
But the biggest problem is whether anyone will actually look at these pages, apart from PR departments. Consumers don't use brands like that. Before you buy a Coke, do you usually have the urge to see how their branding is going? Possibly, bloggers/reporter will use it, and will see the PR response at the same time, and therefore it helps disseminate the company's message.
But the problem/opportunity is real, and this suggests a startup: a google-for-brands. The technical challenge is to work out how to extract the relevant, valuable information; the marketing challenge is to get known (e.g. quoted by bloggers, by news services). Then, you can work out a way to charge for it. Perhaps like a Gallup poll; or a newswire service.
Comments
Great opportunity, poor execution.
Big companies are concerned about their image. The net does change how PR is done, and no-one yet knows how to do it. So making that problem managable is an important contribution. Let's be clear: for a big company, $400 pcm is a rounding error for PR expense. The real question is whether that expense will actually do them any good. And so we move to execution:
The info on the actual pages is not helpful. There's no way to get a sense of "what is being said". It's almost as confusing as trying to get the info by browsing the net. I think a solution would be something like "google trends/news for social media". For example, amazon's PR problem isn't apparent at all: http://www.squidoo.com/amazon-in-public In fact, it looks like mostly amazon PR. For it to be taken seriously, the raw information needs to be clear and neutral (like Google not having pay-for-placement search results).
But the biggest problem is whether anyone will actually look at these pages, apart from PR departments. Consumers don't use brands like that. Before you buy a Coke, do you usually have the urge to see how their branding is going? Possibly, bloggers/reporter will use it, and will see the PR response at the same time, and therefore it helps disseminate the company's message.
But the problem/opportunity is real, and this suggests a startup: a google-for-brands. The technical challenge is to work out how to extract the relevant, valuable information; the marketing challenge is to get known (e.g. quoted by bloggers, by news services). Then, you can work out a way to charge for it. Perhaps like a Gallup poll; or a newswire service.
What Amazon PR problem?
From Seth's blog that launched brands in public: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/launching-br...
Over the last few months, we've seen big brands (like Amazon and Maytag) get caught in a twitterstorm.