Archive for January 7th, 2009

A recent article found that a huge 50% of British businesses do not check how their brands are doing online. The research by web hosting company  1 &1 was not encouraging for online reputation management. Nearly half of the 400+ companies surveyed  also reported having no capabilities to manage their online reputation.  The article wisely pointed out that these findings are even more remarkable when compared to the diligence that consumers take in using the Internet to guide their purchase decision-making. Nearly two-thirds of online buyers check  out and research brand and  company reputations before buying something. Contrast this with these British companies are surprisingly lackadaisical about their reputations online.

The 1 & 1 survey also found that nearly one out of every two UK businesses never monitored the web for customer complaints, comments or reviews about them.  When it comes to social networks and blogs, these businesses were even less adept with less than one-third using these sources to check out their reputations online.  As the article says and it seems to be the case is true, “The data would suggest that British firms are undervaluing the impact that online reputation can have on revenues.”