[John Scott]

I hear people talk about brand management a lot. Usually they mention it as a justification to pay some blogger to post something entirely superficially positive on their blog, often on a blog that has no credibility and is full of other paid posts.

That's not brand management. Brand management, in my opinion, is dealing with the criticism that comes up on the Internet, in forums and blogs. Not "paying to make it go away" but by responding to it personally or having a representative respond to it, in an honest way.

Let's say you own xyzhosting.com, and somebody posts that xyzhosting.com sucks because the servers were down for an hour.

Now you can go pay some shills to post nice stuff about you, but it ain't going to carry any weight.

Was the server down? If it was, then make right. What was the cause? Was the cause addressed to prevent a recurrence? Then post that. And if somebody is complaining, admit that their complaints are legitimate and win them back by being honest and by making good, for example by offering them a refund and free hosting to make up for your mistake.

That, in my opinion, is brand management. Not paid posts on paid post blogs that carry no weight.