Corporate America Embraces ORM

To paraphrase Warren Buffet, it takes years to build a reputation and only minutes to ruin it. This has long been the rallying cry for performance marketers pitching Online Reputation Management (ORM). According to a recent published report in AdWeek, the message is resonating.
This summer, much maligned oil producer BP drastically increased its Search advertising spend from around $60,000 a month to over $3.6 million in June. Of course, this investment in ORM was in response to the devastating Gulf oil spill. The bulk of BP's initial spending on advertising after the disaster was targeted toward traditional mediums. The company was forced to adjust its strategy upon realizing that people were actively seeking information on BP and openly expressing disdain for BP. BP wasn’t controlling their brand message effectively. They weren’t being proactive.
Had a robust ORM platform been in place for BP ahead of the spill, negative user posts on blogs, social media networks and websites would have been better monitored. Though the disaster still would have occurred, the aftermath in search space wouldn’t have been as far-reaching nor would the investment to clean up BP’s online reputation been as costly.