Online reputation management (ORM)…another acronym for the business of the Web. This means many Big Brothers out there watching what is being said. Time for consumers to be afraid? Rattle the privacy rights sabre? Feel a little opressed. Not at all. In fact, bloggers and social media users and the creators of User Generated Media should be tickled. ORM and the number of companies signing up for ORM services signals the start of a significant advance in corporate thinking. It means corporations are listening. Taking notice.

Most importantly, ORM is the first Web service that will help corporations, governments and organizations to learn the new corporate conversation skills they need to learn to survive in the future. By engaging an ORM application, organizations gain a new set of eyes and ears. Consumers may finally be heard in the way they want to be heard. Additionally, marketers will now be able to market “outside-in” rather than the “inside-out” approach of the last 50 years that hailed the “we say so” thinking of marketers.

ORM services and Webware applications will enable companies to gain a better sense of shareholder views (both retail and institutional), customer feedback on products and better attract potential employees. Marketing campaigns can be planned better and target markets and the channels to reach them better organized, realizing budget savings and better return on the marketing investment. ORM metrics can be tied in with Web analytics to draw better pictures of market shifts. Couple this with Google releasing competitors Web stats, businesses will really be challenged, yet have massive new opportunities.

The industry segment for ORM is very new. There are perhaps no more than 8 players and no one owns the market yet. The race is on and there will be varying levels of tools and services. Some will be completely DIY, while others will be solely “human” monitored and others a mix with value-adds through consulting. This is the new threat to traditional PR agencies who will need to further develop their practices - managing online crises and communications programs is not the same as traditional media. It is fraught with ways a crisis management program can go wrong - and the resulting feedback from the Web consumer can be worse than the original crisis.

But more importantly is that ORM tools and applications, and the fact companies are beginning to recognize the value, means that companies, whether they realize it or not, are tacitly acknowledging the need to learn how to better converse with their market. Going beyond just shopping carts and microsites and engagement tools like White Papers and reports. This is about the beginnings of a whole new conversation…perhaps a new seat on the corporate executive? The Chief Conversation Officer.