The BizCATS REVIEWS: Watching Your Brand? Some Yes, Some No…

An Observation? …

If you read The BizCATS regularly then you know that we pick new and emerging technology products that we like, try them out, and then write about them. You may also have noticed that we don’t “dump” on anyone – we only review our favorites and, logically, generally say pretty nice things about them. If we don’t like you we don’t review – simple. Now it also makes sense that any company whose product we positively review ought to be more or less happy about it and maybe even use our reviews to help boost their marketing. I know that if you wrote something nice about The BizCATS I’d share that with everyone I know. Finally, you would also assume (I know, always a dangerous thing) that these technology companies would be keeping an eye out for any mention of their products, especially good reviews. Since we aggressively share our reviews via Twitter, Facebook, Google Buzz, and just about everything else, any company looking for their product ought to easily see it – especially a tech company.

All this “logic” brings me to an observation: some do and some don’t. About half of the companies we’ve reviewed either sent a note to us or we could tell they caught the review via their social media feeds. (Yes, we watch ourselves as well as the products we review.) The other half apparently didn’t know or strangely didn’t care, and if so, they’re missing an opportunity to leverage their brands. We’ve heard from some great companies: GIST, Teambox, LogMeIn, YouSendIt, MaaS, ZoHo, and others, often within hours of a new review. What’s impressive is not that they respond to us, but that they’re doing such a great job watching and managing their brands via social media. Kudos, guys! Oddly enough (?) all these companies seem to be doing well even in a tough economy.

“Brand Management” has taken on a new meaning in today’s social media world. Many companies I talk to are a bit scared that negative things are being said about them and would rather “just not know”. But not knowing means not being able to respond … and it also means not being able to take advantage of the positives. Every marketer knows there is nothing more powerful than a testimonial, but if you aren’t watching then you’ll never know they were out there.

The Business Bottom Line: One of the easiest tools for managing your brand is Google Alerts, a free tool that “watches” constantly over the internet for your brand (although not Twitter or Facebook yet). Combine that with a product like Hootsuite to watch your social media feeds, and you’ve got a solid brand management “watcher” strategy.

About Today’s Pix: Summer Sunset on Boothbay Harbor, Maine

– Tim

Tags: Gist, Google Alerts, Hootsuite, LogMeIn, MaaS, social media commentary, Teambox, YouSendIt, ZoHo