posted on February 26, 2001 05:04:57 AM new
Interesting article in the NY Times about companies who have people on staff to combat chat forum criticism...
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Incognito Spinmeisters Battle Online Critics
When a Company's Product Is Under Fire, One Option Is to Plant a Defender in the Chat Room
By REBECCA FAIRLEY RANEY
The scene unfolds on the Internet every day: a pack of outraged consumers takes over the discussion in an online forum with heated criticism of some offending product, perhaps a brand of stereo speakers.
Then someone asks, If these speakers are so awful, how could the company have moved from No. 10 to No. 2 in the last year? After that, the criticism in the forum fades...
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The rest of the article is located at http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/circuits/articles/14spin.html
You have to register with NY Times (free) to read it-I have no affilation with the Times
posted on February 26, 2001 07:25:32 AM new
The marketing department and technical support departments of most companies I have worked for get "digests" of newsgroups that are discussing their products.
A few have employees who spend a couple hours a day reading and posting in the relevant newsgroups. So far, they have all had a policy of having employees posting in technical newsgroups identify their company affiliation in their sigfile.
I would lose a LOT of faith in a company that employed sock puppets instead of having the guts to identify themselves.
