Article written by Pierre Zarokian of Reputation Stars.
Today’s business needs to manage both its PR and marketing efforts, and likely has to contract out if the resources aren’t available in house. That’s completely different from the past, when companies learned about their consumer through product testing and market research groups. Today’s type of consumer brings his frustrations to social sites like Facebook or personal blogs. She may tweet about it or join a hash tag conversation. Even that public outlet was mostly harmless. It made consumers feel better, but did little damage to a company’s reputation. Even so, the .sucks URL suffix threatens to completely alter the business of reputation management.
Now that the .sucks domain names are on their way officially, companies and businesses will need to determine if owning potentially harmful Web properties is worth the cost, or if they want to leave their brand to fate. There’s a small time frame approaching wherein well-known brands and a-listers are able to invest in their .sucks Web property, after which availability is going to be available for everyone else. Of course, these businesses posses much more ambitious marketing plans and a lot more data on these problems.
However, the significant cost, in addition to slowed entry into the program for the general public, will mean that smaller sized companies and groups can expect to be out of luck when they cannot cover the harsh expenses in order to keep a website functioning. We are headed for an entirely different kind of trolling. Patent trolls that stifle innovation, comment trolls that derail conversation and soon “domain trolls” will manipulate results and slander the names of businesses and individuals.
Will you shell out money for ICANN protection?
Does your business have a backup plan if consumers open a “.sucks” name about you?
Article was submitted by Pierre Zarokian of Reputation Stars. They provided reputation management services.