Let’s be honest. Spin is essential to a Brand’s reputation. While it may have a poor reputation, spin is not the sadistic misuse of naive consumer content. Consumers are far from naive, if their content has anything to say about it. Spin recognizes that while you can’t be in control of the content, you can impact where the content is going.
Spin is listening to what consumers say online and responding with the targeted information that consumers want. Spin is putting a positive twist on UGC (user generated content). Successful spin keeps the big players on the court and in the game. (Just ask the NBA sultan of spin and former Rookie of the year, Chris Paul). Spin is about more than balls–you have to be a team player. Monitoring and managing spin is important in the uber market created by the worldwide web. Successful Brands and Companies engage with consumers online rather than lose influence in the conversation.
They listen to the user generated content (UGC), evaluate the impact on their brand, and spin the results back to the consumer. If the spin has merit, the consumer content will receive the spin. The consumer will play with it. If the spin doesn’t respond to the UGC, if it’s strictly the company talking to itself—well, a bad spin in the social media can spiral out of control.