I am in the process of writing an article on comment platforms, what I am calling Web 2.0 services like Digg.com, Flickr, YouTube, etc. These are all the places you can post news, photos, videos etc. and people rank and comment on them.
I strongly advise PR people to monitor these sites, to see what is being said about their companies and products. It gets more tricky, however, when PR people want to actively intervene, posting a comment, for example. Recent kerfluffles on Wikipedia, Digg.com and other places where PR people are strongly advised to "look don't touch" make it even more important to approach these places carefully.
If you have a success or failure story about your PR activities on these various comment platforms, please drop me a line at ealbrycht at gmail dot com or leave a comment below in the next few days. Thanks!
Elizabeth,
I personally don't buy the wholesale "look but don't touch" argument. There is a responsibility on those communities to decide whether and how they want people with a vested interest to participate. Wikipedia has perfectly clear guidelines on this - all created collaboratively its editors - with recommendations on how companies can address anything that is inaccurate, without editing it directly.
I think it's actually about transparency - look, find out what kind of touching is allowed, and then make sure people know who's touching them.
Posted by: Niall Cook | September 14, 2006 at 04:55 PM
Elizabeth - I don't buy Digg, del.icio.us. Way too easy to game, way too easy to abuse, way too generalised. Places for digital groupies.
Posted by: Dennis Howlett | September 14, 2006 at 07:26 PM