Systems and methods for consumer-generated media reputation management

Abstract

TruCast is a method for management, by way of gathering, storing, analyzing, tracking, sorting, determining the relevance of, visualizing, and responding to all available consumer generated media. Some examples of consumer generated media include web logs or “blogs”, mobile phone blogs or “mo-blogs”, forums, electronic discussion messages, Usenet, message boards, BBS emulating services, product review and discussion web sites, online retail sites that support customer comments, social networks, media repositories, and digital libraries. Any web hosted system for the persistent public storage of human commentary is a potential target for this method. The system is comprised of a coordinated software and hardware system designed to perform management, collection, storage, analysis, workflow, visualization, and response tasks upon this media. This system permits a unified interface to manage, target, and accelerate interactions within this space, facilitating public relations, marketing, advertising, consumer outreach, political debate, and other modes of directed discourse.

1 . A method for reputation management comprising:
 collecting consumer generated media content using a plurality of robots to parse web site code into XML encoded text;   presenting an interactive graphical user interface to a user contain consumer generated media content; and   replying to the consumer generated media in the graphical user interface, wherein when submitted, a robot, programmed to interact with the predefined consumer generated media website as a user, posts the response.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 filtering collected consumer generated media using a predefined fuzzy logic comparison between existing stored content and incoming collected content.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 determining the conceptual relevance of at least one collected consumer generated media post.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , further comprising:
 prompting a user with at least one collected consumer generated media post; and   inputting a conceptual category.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising:
 statistically analyzing user inputted conceptual categorization; and   automatically, using the statistical analysis, determining a conceptual category for at least one collected consumer generated media post.   
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 outputting a visualization to a user interface to present at least one of statistical, relational and graphical information to a user.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , further comprising:
 forwarding at least one collected consumer generated media post to a user interface, in order to facilitate the writing of a response.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 displaying a user interface configured to access a response page from which at least one collected consumer generated media post was received;   navigating at least one field;   assigning each of the fields an identifier; and   dynamically creating a robot using prewritten code and inputting a response page location and at least one identifier from that location.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 forwarding a response through a supervisor.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising:
 tracking a location where a response was posted; and   transmitting an alert to a user interface.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein consumer generated media is a weblog. 
     
     
         12 . A method for responding to a site having consumer generated media comprising:
 configuring a software robot to interact with at least one field on a site;   providing the software robot with predefined authentication protocols;   responding to at least one collected consumer generated media post in a user interface; and   posting the response, using the robot to login into the site and post the response.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising:
 displaying a user interface configured to access a response page from which at least one collected consumer generated media post was received;   navigating at least one field;   assigning each of the fields an identifier; and   dynamically creating a robot using prewritten code and inputting a response page location and at least one identifier from that location.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , further comprising:
 forwarding a response through a supervisor.   
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 14 , further comprising:
 tracking a location where a response was posted; and   transmitting an alert to a user interface.   
     
     
         16 . A system for searching a plurality of data products, the system comprising:
 a database configured to store at least one collected consumer generated media post;   a display; and   a processor in data communication with the display and with the database, the processor comprising:
 a first component configured to collect consumer generated media content using a plurality of robots to parse website code into XML encoded text; 
 a second component configured to present an interactive graphical user interface to a user contain consumer generated media content; and 
 a third component configured to reply to the consumer generated media in the graphical user interface, wherein when submitted, a robot, programmed to interact with the predefined consumer generated media website as a user, posts the response; 
   wherein the components are located on at least one of a stand alone computer or a plurality of computers coupled to a network.   
     
     
         17 . The system of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 a fourth component configured to display a user interface and further configured to access a response page from which at least one collected consumer generated media post was received;   a fifth component configured to navigate at least one field;   a sixth component configured to assign each of the fields an identifier; and   a seventh component configured to dynamically create a robot using prewritten code and input a response page location and at least one identifier from that location.   
     
     
         18 . The system of  claim 17 , further comprising:
 an eighth component configured to forward a response through a supervisor.   
     
     
         19 . The system of  claim 18 , further comprising:
 a ninth component configured to track a location where a response was posted; and   a tenth component configured to transmit an alert to a user interface.   
     
     
         20 . A method for reputation management by interacting with consumer generated media stored in a digital location implemented by at least one computer, the method comprising:
 discovering consumer generated media using a plurality of keywords form a set of keywords configured to return consumer generated media embedded in a digital location;   collecting consumer generated media from a plurality of sources using a plurality of robots configured to collect media related to a predetermined topic;   testing the collected consumer generated media for conceptual relevance to the predetermined topic using the series of key words and storing a relevance factor;   determining a sentiment of the collected consumer generated media based on the semantics of the language in the collected consumer generated media;   outputting the collected consumer generated media to a user interface sorted based on the determined sentiment and the relevance factor; and   replying, using the user interface, to a selected subset of the collected consumer generated media further comprising:
 drafting a response in the user interface to the selected collected consumer generated media; 
 sending the response to an approval authority; and 
 posting the response on approval by the approval authority to the selected collected consumer generated media, wherein, a robot, programmed to determine the source of the media and further programmed to interact with the source of the consumer generated media website as a user, posts the response.