Blogs and corporate reputations

Julian Smith from Jupiter Research on BBC website confirms that 'blogging and other forms of 'consumer media' are increasingly important in shaping perceptions of companies. His report illustrates how individuals can influence corporate reputation. This report talks about Dell, but there are other examples of influential 'blogs; ipod and the Neistat Brothers, Microsoft and Scobleizer (who has now co-written Naked Conversations) being examples. Although to date 'blogs have been written by people who are very interested in technology, I expect that new forms of reputation systems (like the ratings we give each other on Ebay) will only increase the impact of consumer opinion in future. Howard Rheingold talks of this in his book Smart Mobs.