Squidoo : show

People are talking about your brand whether you want them to or not. The question is: what are you going to do about it?

What's this about? Brands in Public lets consumers see what people all around the world are saying about a brand. And it lets the people who run those brands participate and lead those discussions if they choose.

What are the pages marked UNOFFICIAL? Like a Google search on "BMW" or "Little Miss Match", most of the pages in Brands in Public aren't controlled or authorized by the brands in question. Those pages are marked unofficial and they are nothing more than an automated stream of tweets, comments, videos and other discussions from around the web, collated to make them easy to monitor.

The key difference on the other pages is this: the brand has stepped forward, paid our $400 a month fee and taken the page over, theirs to curate and fill with goodness.

What does it mean to take a page over? You don't get to censor the conversation. The automated feeds (the right hand column) stays just as it is. The feed is the feed.

The left hand side, though, that's up to you. On this page, you can LEAD the conversation going forward. You can answer your critics, highlight your fans, contribute questions or quizzes or point to your official website or blog.

What can I add to my Brands in Public page? Oh boy. What can't you. If you're a brand manager in the know, or a smart community organizer for your company, it's easy to imagine that you would start conversations, run polls, host Quizzes and Duels, moderate comments, stage contests, spotlight great customers, do followups, point to your official blog posts, and generally post timely updates to the people who are listening. Use your BIP dashboard as a watercooler that collects all the great stuff happening about your brand, helps drive traffic to your other sites or blogs, and if you want, makes it easy for you to connect with your fans.

What's the big analogy? We know you have a big analogy! Try this: the web is like a large bowl of slightly melted toffee, and there's a squirrel... no, try again. It's a cocktail party. The web is a big cocktail party. There are people talking about your brand, all over, all the time. What Brands in Public does is take important brands and highlight them and the conversations that are going on. We do that for lots of brands, regardless of sponsorship. However, if your brand chooses to sponsor the page, that's like being at the cocktail party, giving you a chance to chime in, to clarify, to suggest new topics and even to offer a drink now and then.

We don't want there to be a page about our brand. Will you take it down? Sure, if you ask nicely. Up to you. Your fans might be disappointed though.

How do I sign up? Now that's a question we like to hear. Go visit this page. That page will let you introduce yourself via email to the smart team at BzzAgent who is handling all the sales of Brands in Public.

Special offer for nonprofits! Because we love what you stand for, we're offering free Brands in Public pages for selected non profits. At the beginning of every month, Squidoo will select non profits for free inclusion in the BrandsinPublic.com project. No guarantees, but if we choose you, we'll drop you an email with details. Just check out the site and then go to the Charity Request Form and answer the simple questions.



*Brands in Public is a joint Squidoo and BzzAgent mashup project. All brands are trademarks of their respective owners. Batteries not included.