Before Thanksgiving there was news article about a Canadian woman who lost her insurance coverage, reportedly because of photos she posted on Facebook.  The CBC article is here. This follows other reports of employers screening potential employees based on their social networking postings.

While all the facts are not known, the actions that contributed to the stories are real:

• People are social and like to share their activities with friends and family.  The Facebook, My Space and other social networking sites allow them to do this.

• Some people are less concerned about their privacy and activities than others, or their “friends” are, which results in inappropriate pictures and comments being placed on social networking sites.

• Employers, colleges and now perhaps insurance companies are using the content on social networking sites to evaluate people and make decisions.

This pattern of “investigating” or obtaining reputational information has extended to companies.  In today’s B2B environment it is common for people meeting for the first time to have conducted a “background check” of the other person by looking at their LinkedIn page, pipl, zoominfo, and/or a web site.  In addition, buyers and buying committees now take the time to review comments about new products, latest releases and companies before meeting with salespeople.  This background information allows the buyer to winnow down the short list to 2 or 3, condensing the process and saving time and money.  The buyer can also gain added knowledge about the products and vendor, providing an edge if there is price negotiation in the purchase process.

As the CMO, are you comfortable with your company’s reputation?  When is the last time you Googled your company or newest product?  Are you tracking and responding to what is being said about you in blogs, comments and other postings?  If not, why not?

Contact us to help answer these questions.

RHM  – 12/1/09