You've probably heard by now that 'your brand is no longer yours', the assertion's based on simple math.
In the era of blogs, discussion boards, Facebook, Twitter, and other Web 2.0 tools, virtually everyone can get online and talk about your company and its offerings.
As a result, the amount of information your marketing and PR departments can generate is only a small percentage of the total volume of content on the Internet about your firm.
What's more, if some of the external voices become as popular, or perish the thought, more popular than your official voice, then they're going to show up high in organic (as opposed to paid) search results. For example, I just typed "Hummer" into Google.
The second result is the Wikipedia entry about the vehicle, and the fourth one is a site full of user-submitted photos that are not likely to please the brand's owner.
To read the entire article please follow the link below:http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/hbr/mcafee/2009/11/the-illusion-of-brand-control.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE Andrew McAfee studies the ways that information technology (IT) affects businesses and business as a whole. His 
research investigates how IT changes the way companies perform, organize themselves, and compete. He coined the phrase "Enterprise 2.0" in a spring 2006 Sloan Management Review article to describe the use of Web 2.0 tools and approaches by businesses. He also began blogging at that time, both about Enterprise 2.0 and about his other research. 
