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Using Avatars to Combat Badvocacy

I just read an interesting article about badvocates. I love seeing how the concept of badvocacy has grown over the years. Weber Shandwick invented the term and it has taken off. The article was on Mashable and one of the pieces of advice on dealing with badvocates was particularly compelling. I thought I would include here in case you are ever in danger of facing a badvocacy firestorm. [Another option is to review Weber Shandwick's book on badvocacy.]

The article quoted a woman who handled the Intuit Small Business community. She told the author that  engaging and displaying human avatars changed sentiment from 65% negative towards QuickBooks to only 35% negative. “My avatar was always a picture of one of my children and me during that time. I regularly told folks that it was easy to say ‘f**k you’ to Intuit the brand, but really hard to swear at the mommy and the baby. Especially when the mommy was helping,” she said.

Pick out your avatar today.

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