Online Brand Defense: What Campaigns Can Learn from the Obama Attack

By now, we’ve all seen and heard about the false rumor released about Barack Obama attending a madrassa in Indonesia published online by the conservative Insight magazine. The amazing thing is that the article was published online and was allowed to run rampant all over the blogosphere for several days before the rumor was finally killed off. In our work with online communities that discuss politics, this rumor spread like wildfire with many, many conservative posters slamming Senator Obama and his campaign. Online Community sites like Hannity.com, Slate.com, and even AARP.org had many members publicizing the rumor for several days.

Once the mainstream media picked up the story, it had additional power online.

Yet, there was no one online to debunk the rumor for Senator Obama’s campaign.

As we see it (and we admit we’re biased), organizations must be prepared to deal with the inevitable attacks that take place online. In the case of presidential campaigns, they need a team that is established in the main online communities of the web as well as familiar with the bloggers out there who want to dethrone a candidate if they can. There must be a plan to deal with the negative publicity that is a part of online life today. It is no different than what we advise companies to do.

The question is whether the Communications Directors for these campaigns understand this as well as the Brand Managers who understand why brand defense is so important online today.

Want to learn more about how Impact Interactions helps organizations defend themselves online? Contact us today.

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