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Traditionally companies handled consumer complaints directly or through authorized vendors. If you had a problem with a product or service you’d either go to the place of purchase or contact the company directly. If the problem was handled swiftly and to the satisfaction of the consumer then most likely their were no negative repercussions for the company and possibly even praise for excellent customer service. However if you had an unsatisfactory result then you were likely to spread negative feedback among your friends and family and the news would travel through the grapevine. While this is not the type of word-of-mouth publicity companies are looking for, usually the distance that the unfavorable information travels is reasonably finite, and the damage isolated.
 
The advent of social media produced a viral method of distributing information including thoughts, ideas, rumors and opinions. Negative feedback about your company can spread like virtual wild-fire through a number of social media channels. Claims made against companies, whether true or false, once published on the Web have the potential to never disappear. In many cases you can request false information be removed either directly by the author, the publishing platform, or the hosting company. Software and hosting companies do not want your legal troubles so they usually expedite such matters. If your request falls of deaf ears typically a cease and desist from your legal council is enough to do the trick. Sometimes, however, these claims ring of truth or are merely opinions protected under the First Amendment. In these cases it is pertinent that companies appropriately respond to such statements in order to salvage their reputation and their business.
 
Social media monitoring, metrics, analysis and reputation management companies offer solutions to track what is being said about your company across popular social networking platforms, blogs, forums, news outlets, and more. You can track keywords, phrases, demographics, geo-locations, and know exactly where to send your corporate bag men to silence the source (just kidding… or are we?).
 
Not only can you drill down the sources of information about your company, you can also identify which individuals are influencing conversations about your products or industry and engage with them directly. Some solutions, such as Sysomos Media Analysis Platform (MAP) offer collaboration features that allow you to share information with co-workers and across teams. Similar products include ReputationDefender, Sentiment Metrics and SM2 from Techrigy.