allaboutadvocacy.com

Advocate Sleuthing

As a follow-up to Leslie’s Pay Dirt post - about how important it is for organizations to know, understand and engage their advocates and badvocates - I thought I’d share some data from our Risky Business: Reputations Online survey we conducted with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Our study suggests that executives are taking on the job of advocacy intelligence. In the 30 days prior to taking our survey, one-quarter of global executives searched online for information about their supporters and/or detractors. While this is not a majority level, it is a rather large proportion when you consider how busy a typical executive’s life has been during the past year and how much pressure he or she is under to just “make the numbers.” The finding that one-in-four found it an important enough task to take time to do an advocate/badvocate search underscores the recognition of the opportunities and risks.

Adding to the import of the activity is our finding that it’s not a task delegated to junior staff: 29% of CEOs/Chairs took it upon themselves to do such a search. With CEO approval ratings at rock-bottom levels and badvocates piling up, these top executives are finding it critical to know who their friends and foes are.