Your Customer is the Editor in Chief. Controversy is Good. - Walter Sabo

Controversy is goodamp8226 Consider the volume of media Youamp8217re annoyed if you find out that someone has a cable box with 1500 channels and youamp8217re still stuck with a measly 1000amp8226 There are 41 hours of online video posted every minute 999 of those will receive fewer than 300 lifetime viewsamp8226 You can hear over 35 radio stations in your car and thousands on line Satellite radio has Howard Stern plus 150 other stations airing something And Howard Stern did I mention Howard Stern Howard Stern is the reason satellite radio is a multibillion dollar businessControversy contrarianism crazy talk takes the subject of conversation above ambient hum and turns it into buzz Our brand is part of a controversy now what1 Let EVERYONE at your company participate in blog comments make daily videos produce live video webcasts Different employees will connect with different constituencies2 Call the whiners Nothing is as effective as a decision maker at a brand picking up the phone the phone of course how quaint and speaking directly to people who have concerns with your product3 Put your message in the hands of skilled online influencers Video WebStars On average your online video commercial message webisode will pull 300 views A WebStaramp8217s average is 300000 in a day Our company HITVIEWS works with top brands to place their product and messaging inside WebStar videos to touch the conversation flow Donamp8217t try this yourself it is handson and if you do it wrong the online conversation will turn ugly We prevent uglyThe Genius of FOXHITVIEWS made an arrangement with multiple WebStars to create over 36 videos for FOX shows LIE TO ME FRINGE and GLEEAt one point there was a negative newspaper article about one of the videos Since it was appearing in an Australian newspaper I decided to call FOX quickly and let them know there would be a controversial articleWilliam Bradford SVP of Program Marketing responded withamp8220Weamp8217re FOX we love controversyamp8221 End of conversationFOX has a big payroll popular movies and TV shows and a giant lot in LA Things seem to be going fine In fact their second biggest TV hit MARRIED WITH CHILDREN started its 11 years in prime time with a boycott by some angry person in Michigan who was offended by the show FOX embraced this and did not change a thing about the showamp8220Corporate Communicationsamp8221 requires overhaulWhen controversy could be met with a press conference a deferential letter or a private meeting with protesters at which free concert tickets were gifted corporate communications served a nice role Today no single person PR firm or siloed department can cope with thousands or millions of comments spreading worldwide online about your brandYet most companies require outgoing corporate messages to be sourced by one department or one person They canamp8217t keep up Old corporate infrastructure shoves you out of the Internet conversationCorporate Communications is such a fearbased function that it actually prevents companies from doing good things For example there are moribund companies that think their endorsement of its partnerships is so valuable they must be denied These companies will work with an outside firm have a GREAT experience everyone looks good all goals are achieved and then amp8220corporate communicationsamp8221 refuses to issue a positive quote on behalf of the outside companyThe fact that a VP has to take a positive endorsement request to Corporate Communications is symptomatic of deep diseaseamp8226 The solution is to encourage every employee to be proactive online The MOMENT a video blog entry news article appears about your company every single employee should feel compelled to write comments make response videos get in direct contact with the consumerYou may be thinking that amp8220we canamp8217t have all of those people speaking for the companyamp8221 Youamp8217re not They are speaking for themselves and moving the conversation in your favor Thanks to moments of controversy customers actually want to talk about your company If your team shows up for the conversation you winWalter Sabo is the founder and creator of Hitviews HITVIEWS is a company serving brands that wish to reach millions of customers using online video created by WebStars Walter can be reached at walterhitviewscomRead all Walter39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at HITVIEWS ProCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerMediaBizBloggers is an openthought leadership blog platform for media marketing and advertising professionals companies and organizations To contribute contact Jackmediadvisorygroupcom The opinions expressed in MediaBizBloggerscom are not those of Media Advisory Group its employees or other MediaBizBloggerscom contributors Media Advisory Group accepts no responsibility for the views of MediaBizBloggers authors

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Your Customer is the Editor in Chief. Controversy is Good. - Walter Sabo

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Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

Your Customer is the Editor in Chief. Controversy is Good. - Walter Sabo

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Hispanic Leadership Roundtable: Inclusion, Mentorship, and Building the Next Generation (Video) - By Juan Ayala

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