Reputation Management & You!

[nytimez]

If it actually matters to you at all, then you can do the leg work to find supporting evidence to prove or disprove what has been stated and come to a reasonable conclusion to share with the group.

Hey, look - I found evidence of an ancient Disney theme park on Neptune. You do the legwork and prove me wrong.

 

[Micca]

This whole concept is a losing proposition as far as social networking goes.
If you have problems with your product, hiring people to make it all go away won't work. If the whole-grain hamburger buns served at WDW CS places suck, all the "blue sky/magic" verbiage on the planet isn't going to make the burgers taste any better, and consumers still won't like them.

To use an Aladdin metaphor: The Genie is out of the bottle.

 

[Kronk N Tink]

[sarcasm] C'mon Disney always has our best health and experience in mind and while a buisness knows it can always get the most profit out of providing the best guest experience not by getting substandard products like bad whole wheat buns. I'm sure that if they don't quite taste the same it must be because they're the healthiest buns ever. [/sarcasm]

 

[Donut23]

My comments were not related to Disney employees who only represent themselves and who honestly share their opinions and knowledge. Posting on DISboards, MiceChat, and other boards on their own time, such people (including Cheshire Figment) provide valuable insight about Disney and help others get the most out of Disney vacations. Thank you all!

My comments were about shills. If a company pays people to promote an agenda and disparage other posters, while misrepresenting themselves, that's unethical.

If a company pays someone to post on discussion boards, that's fine. But then identify that person as an "ambassador" to the board (or something along those lines), and have that person provide valuable information with dignity.

I hope Disney does not employ shills. If they've done so in the past, as has been speculated, then I hope that has stopped.

A few years ago, cannot remember dates, USA Today travel section had a pretty scathing article about the shills the cruiselines use. Apparently they would provide "compensation" for writing complimentary notes on cruise media sites. The compensation was not always $$$, often free or greatly reduced $$$ cruises. The cruiseline answer...."well everyone is doing it".

I remember that didn't work for me at the end of high school when I told my parents "well, everyone else is going to Ocean City for the week".


I obviously do not understand the ways of big business. For me, I would take the payoffs and restoraton management fees and simply...... return the quality of the product - as they offered in the past.

Know what - people will notice when they arrive anyway. My friends who went about 18 months ago said....."Disney sure does know how to separate you from your money for an experience not as spectacular as promised". We can't even convince them to return with us using our castmember discounts for rooms!


I remember last year when the Lights of Winter announcement was made on the little Disney Social Media site. Many of us were writing comments there.....and Disney was editing our posts to remove the negative or apparently in some cases, the entire note (according to some on the DIS). I guess that was a tough lesson Disney learned about the new social media when we don't like the decisions Disney makes. Especially negative comments on a disney-controlled site.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

In a recent news story, the Golden Beach Hotel, located in Blackpool, England, ousted a couple from the hotel after accusing them of posting a negative review on TripAdvisor:

http://travel.usatoday.com/hotels/p...-writing-negative-tripadvisor-review/114889/1

89 of the 167 TripAdvisor reviews of the hotel rate it as "Terrible" (the lowest of the 5 categories). It makes me wonder if any of the 17 "Excellent" ratings for the hotel are legitimate.

 

[mousermerf]

Maaa-nip-ulation!

Disney can call their parks shiny-and-new, by employing shills to post amid me-and-you!

 

[yitbos96bb]

Latest news on the web.. Disney has hired numerous "Reputation Management" experts to repair the public perception of the Disney Parks brand, in particular in response to negative criticism of the Parks and Resorts online.

Disney feels that negative statements shared online are having an effect on revenues and stopping people from booking vacations. Their own internal research supports this.

In an attempt to "manage" the situation, Disney's experts have suggested an aggressive campaign to counter negative criticism with a wealth of positive word of mouth by any means necessary - cultivated, drummed up, fabricated, or otherwise. To this end, they created the "Memories" marketing campaign to get guests to post positively about their past experiences. In theory the number of positives drummed up by the company will far outweigh the number of negatives being routinely posted on the internet.

In the past, as the Memories marketing ironically points out, Disney relied on quality, innovation, and expansion within the Parks and Resorts to garner positive word of mouth. Now, marketing funds are instead being directed to hire people to request you tell a positive story or share a positive image - anywhere it feels negativity lurks on the internet to be countered.

Any, you know... what are they called.... sources (that's it) on this?

I have my doubts on this, or rather on the reason given. Even the most popular Disney sites are not visited by enough people to have the kind of impact you are suggesting.

 

[Galen_50]

For what I have seen on the news and heard on the radio, posted on message boards is not what a reputation manager does. They watch the internet for inacurrate information or information posted on the internet that is not true and posted just to damage the client. Alot of doctors and hospitals use them to watch for this. With word of mouth being very important, and most people believing everything they read on the internet, reputations can be damaged very easily by someone who has a grudge against them. A Reputation Manager is not going to be looking for someone that said they had a bad time or the employees where unfriendly. They are going to be looking for a sight that is posting lies trying to hurt the company, such as people are dying on Tower of Terror and Disney is hiding it. Or that they are smuggling kids in from Cuba, hiding them in the tunnels and making them work for bread and water. Things that are being put on the internet to intentionally hurt the company and no other reason. And unfortantly, there are people that would believe this stuff.

 

[doconeill]

Well, now this isn't any fun.. the first big leak in the dam has decided to redact:

http://micechat.com/forums/walt-dis...roject-white-wash-aka-let-memories-begin.html

What he had said was all true though.

So, the Reputation Managers are already at work...

There are two ways of managing "reputation" in the current environs - address each issue and show the steps being taken to prevent it from happening in the future (and following through - a step often forgotten), or create "plants" who inhabit the social corners of the internet and shill.

It's like all the sites you get hits on when looking up a restaurant. You are sometimes lucky to find an actual web site for the restaurant, as instead you'll get a 100 links to "info" sites where people rate the restaurants. You can't believe the ratings though...

 

[Donut23]

Curious -

Here is the text of an Intern job description for a 6 month position open in Florida from "Disney Careers".

Nice to know we will be, at least......"monitored".




Role Description

We’re looking to hire a talented, self-motivated individual for a six month internship that will support multiple lines of business (Weddings, Meetings, Travel Industry, Disney Institute, Youth Programs, etc) from a social media & marketing perspective.

The intern will act as a fully integrated member of the Marketing Services team and will focus primarily on new/emerging social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others. This is a full-time paid internship, and we will work with you and your school to support academic credit, if applicable.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Collect and share insights and experiences while with various Lines of Business through social and interactive media: Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, New and emerging media • Unprecedented access to marketing meetings, brainstorm sessions, ad shoots, and special events
• Work closely with each Line of Business to better understand their market/business and recommend potential social media solutions that would fit their particular business model
• Monitor social media for specific trends/news/learnings relating to each Line of Business and how they might be able to leverage for their business • Conduct media outreach for PR programs
• Assist with execution of national Marketing/PR programs

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

Curious -

Here is the text of an Intern job description for a 6 month position open in Florida from "Disney Careers".

Nice to know we will be, at least......"monitored".




Role Description

We’re looking to hire a talented, self-motivated individual for a six month internship that will support multiple lines of business (Weddings, Meetings, Travel Industry, Disney Institute, Youth Programs, etc) from a social media & marketing perspective.

The intern will act as a fully integrated member of the Marketing Services team and will focus primarily on new/emerging social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others. This is a full-time paid internship, and we will work with you and your school to support academic credit, if applicable.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Collect and share insights and experiences while with various Lines of Business through social and interactive media: Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, New and emerging media • Unprecedented access to marketing meetings, brainstorm sessions, ad shoots, and special events
• Work closely with each Line of Business to better understand their market/business and recommend potential social media solutions that would fit their particular business model
• Monitor social media for specific trends/news/learnings relating to each Line of Business and how they might be able to leverage for their business • Conduct media outreach for PR programs
• Assist with execution of national Marketing/PR programs

Disney Institute?

 

[DC7800]

Disney Institute?

While Disney Institute the resort is of course no more, there are still some business-oriented training/educational programs under the Disney Institute banner. Not really the same thing as the courses once offered at the Institute itself.

 

[Donut23]

Disney Institute?

Intern for PR.

 

[nytimez]

While Disney Institute the resort is of course no more, there are still some business-oriented training/educational programs under the Disney Institute banner. Not really the same thing as the courses once offered at the Institute itself.

I believe they also run the backstage tours as well.

 

[doconeill]

I believe they also run the backstage tours as well.

Yes, last I knew they still operate most of the tours, including VIP tours, and are still a business unit.

They do corporate level courses still.

 

[Orlando313]

I've taken one of the Disney Institute courses for People Management. It's a great class, and from what I hear from coworkers, their other offerings for corporate training are excellent. I had a great time at my class because we got to go backstage and into the parks before opening. I was unaware that they also did the tours.

I need to forward that internship posting to my sister, who needs a job.

 

[Donut23]

I've taken one of the Disney Institute courses for People Management. It's a great class, and from what I hear from coworkers, their other offerings for corporate training are excellent. I had a great time at my class because we got to go backstage and into the parks before opening. I was unaware that they also did the tours.

I need to forward that internship posting to my sister, who needs a job.

Intern jobs can often be......unpaid.

 

[mrsklamc]

I have wondered previously if people on the budget board were being paid to post when they would repeatedly ignore a poster's desires and budget to insist a poster's needs would be best served staying onsite.

 

[chartle]

I have wondered previously if people on the budget board were being paid to post when they would repeatedly ignore a poster's desires and budget to insist a poster's needs would be best served staying onsite.

Or they are just Disney fanboys/fangirls and would never ever think of staying off property and think anyone who does is not right in the head.

 

[nytimez]

Or they are just Disney fanboys/fangirls and would never ever think of staying off property and think anyone who does is not right in the head.

I'd be inclined to believe that.

I wouldn't be surprised to find moles one message boards... but I just don't see it as cost-effective to pay people full-time salaries to hang out on chat boards and try to convince people to stay on-site... especially when plenty of people here already do that for free.

Heck, I tell people how much I enjoy AKL/AKV and why that led to my DVC ownership there... so I guess that makes me one of the fanboys. Ha.