BP attempts reputation management, purchases keywords on Google & Yahoo

While BP struggles with the citizens of the Gulf Coast to survive the America’s worst environmental disaster, BP is also attempting to stage a reputation management onslaught with the help of Google and Yahoo, via purchased keywords.

When American’s type in these keywords, “oil spill” on Google or Yahoo, each of their page one results will direct one’s attention to BP’s “Gulf of Mexico response”, their official page spinning BP’s version of their attempts in controlling this epic spill.

Google and Yahoo have become an immediate and easily accessible resource for American consumers to search for related information in any crisis situation.

While a host of companies resort to this strategy in crisis situation, BP and its CEO, Tony Hayward,  have received harsh criticism from many outsiders, as well as President Obama, who have openly condemned BP’s reputation management move as questionable.

Reputation management has become a vital and integral part of any company’s online marketing strategy, with the rapid transparency that can expose one’s weak spots or outright blunders. In their book, Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, authors Andy Beal & Judy Strauss point out that social media has radically changed how companies need to engage in PR.

And BP is not the only major oil company that appreciates the need for reputation management and PR. This video from Chevron shows how important their spin is and this video shows clearly why.