Imagine my surprise when I typed “badvocates” into Google and found a blog titled badvocates by Craig Ritchie. The reason I am surprised is that we coined the term badvocates last year in May. Weber Shandwick conducted research on what drives advocacy and badvocacy worldwide…who are these people who champion or detract from companies, causes and organizations. The badvocates are the advocates with their thumbs down. His blog has a tag line that says “You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry. And own a blog. Or a webcam. ” He also has a cute UN-smiley face….>:( for badvocates. Our research found that badvocates spread negative word-of-mouth faster and to more people. Don’t get on their bad side! That’s okay if Craig wants to borrow the term. We believe in open sourcing.
I guess that makes Craig a badvocate advocate!
Imagine my surprise to see this blog post! I will certainly attribute the first online posting of the term “Badvocate” to you and your company, but the CRM experts at Carlson Marketing have been talking about Badvocates for quite a while now. Maybe someone picked it up from you! I’m just glad you’re not a Badvocates.com badvocate. Is this getting confusing?
Craig, thanks for the note. I guess we caught you surprised. You have a great site as I mentioned above. Keep it up. lgr