I find it ironic that Saturday saw the publication of David Armano's fantastic piece about the "conversation economy" at BusinessWeek.com AND this piece (which ran in the print edition under a banner reading "Crowd Control") that paints a picture of bloggers and other citizen content creators as attack dogs against which corporations need to defend themselves. And who think little of damaging a brand just for the sport of it.
Their five point playbook for "Managing the Menace of Online Mobs," imparts generally sound (even commonsensical) advice, despite its inflammatory headline and us-versus-them advice that businesses "strike back quickly."
But the playbook and article both miss a key point: that sometimes the consumers are right, the criticism is well founded and the businesses in question need to recognize it for what it is. Sometimes online backlash is a bona fide sign that you need to fix a problem, rather than simply an invitation to engage in a shouting match with your dissatisfied customers.
