Companies depend on word of mouth to sell their products. They know if you are happy with an item you will tell some of their friends and family which can create more business for them. They also know, more importantly, if you are not happy with a product you will tell everyone. To that end, citizen journalism is helping to spread the word on bad products via the web. Everyday people are capturing their experiences on camera and relaying them via blogs.

Perhaps you've seen the video of the unhappy Apple customer smashing his computer on video. If this does not scream bad publicity I do not know what would. Result? Apple made the customer happy by giving him a new computer.

Several websites are now allowing everyday people to upload videos of product reviews they have done. This can be great for companies. People can go on these websites and find out if a product they are looking to buy really is worth the money. In the same token this can be devastating to a company if there are several negative reviews. When I am searching for information about a new product I will pass it by if I see more than a few bad reviews. This can be said for many consumers researching an item. We do not want to waste our hard earned cash on something that others have had bad experiences with.

Citizen journalism can be a great way for everyday people to get the word out about a new company or product. The public can get an honest review, and the company can get some free publicity. Or the company can feel the wrath of the mob by bad reviews of their services, or products. Today, companies have to offer great products and services. They need to stand behind their customer service. If they do not someone is going to make sure everyone they can tell is aware of the problems they have had.

There are some interesting stories of the companies that have had bad PR from a citizen journalist. The first one that comes to my mind is AOL. A customer tried to cancel service with them. He recorded the experience for all to see. The world was able to see how the company tried to stop him from canceling over and over again. With all the problems others had already been having this just made it worse. AOL has been voted as one of the companies offering terrible customer service. This does not look good to a potential customer. When choosing a new company many people do their research first and customer service is a number one priority.

Before a customer would have bought the product, or tried the service not knowing anything about it. Today with citizen journalism playing such a huge part the customer can find out everything they want to know before they make a purchase. Companies are realizing how big a bad review can be when it is displayed on a website like You Tube. Citizen journalism is not limited to phone and video only. It can include blogs people write about the product or service. Almost everyone has a blog and writes about how their day went. If their day happened to include a bad trip to the store everyone who reads it will know. Word of mouth is huge when it comes to business. If someone has a bad experience with something they will tell others. Then in return the others will keep telling others.

Of course...I'd be remiss if I didn't close this post by saying, if you're on the wrong end of this equation...I can help. ;-)

1) Quit screwing your customers;
2) Quit doing things that make your custiomers *think* you're screwing them; and
3) Call me for the details on how to minimize the impact of angry citizen journalists who feel they have been wronged.