The ideal result would be a combination of content produced by the brand intermixed with positive content from other sources. Negative content can hurt a brand given the large number of people that turn to the search engines for information. So it is not uncommon for companies to make an effort to remove such content or actively “push” it down in the search results by promoting positive content using simple tools such our CompanyPond and PeoplePond services or hiring reputation management firms.

Admittedly, we were quite surprised at the lack of brand control these large Fortune 100 companies have over their own brands. Most of the issues can easily be averted with standard Online Reputation management practices.

This study is very interesting as it brings up some familiar questions about “controlling” one’s brands online. First, is it really possible to control how your brand appears online given the ease and freedom the marketplace has to create piles of content about your brand without your assistance or knowledge. And secondly, given this ease and freedom, how expensive and effective would it be to provide a viable motivation for people outside the organization to create and/or promote positive content about your brand? What risk exposures come with such a strategy?

24% of the bad items found seem to be opinions of a single person, versus fact or standard public knowledge.

With so many people available to create positive content around a brand, the above finding seems painfully ironic.