Steve Rubel’s latest blog post provides a few examples of how companies are asking for feedback on their advertisements (this picture is from his blog). The examples Steve points out are AOL and CNET. When you come across an ad, you have the option to provide feedback based on the ads relevancy, marketing message, what actions you will take as a results of the ad, etc.
While ad feedback is a step in the right direction, it is far from being an actual solution. The reason is that more and more companies are joining the “social media” bandwagon. Now, more then ever you can start to see corporate blogs popping up all over the internet. The reason is that companies assume that a blog = reputation management. Well actually, blog = blog. Reputation management has nothing to do with the creation of a blog at all; it has to do with WHY the blog is created to begin with and HOW they are being utilized. If you have a client asking for advice on blog creation, or if you are recommending blog creation to a client, ask your client and yourself WHY the blog is being created to begin with and HOW the blog is going to be utilized. I am a proponent of blog creation, however creating a blog just for the sake of creating a blog does not mean much, nor does it provide much value to your readers, figure out the WHY and the HOW, then CREATE.
Jermiah Owyang states that one of the impossible conversations for corporations involves asking for feedback. Asking for feedback is not difficult, what is difficult is acting on the feedback that you receive. What most companies need to realize is that from a user’s point of view, asking for feedback and acting on feedback is virtually the same thing. Think about it, if you visit a website that is asking for your feedback, you are going to expect some sort of action on the company’s behalf. Dave Charbuck, the global VP of web marketing at Levorno, had this to say about Jeremiah’s post on “impossible conversations for corporations to have.”
If you do not intend on acting on the feedback that you receive (somehow), then do not bother asking it at all.
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