One new term dominating the social marketing field (in no small thanks to Pete Blackshaw of Clickz) is Search Moptimization which refers to the cleaning (or mopping) up of negative results against general or specific brand-related searches. Many brands are finding that hostile consumer-generated media is beginning to overtake organic search itself, something that has a huge impact on consumer awareness.

As a marketer how can you even attempt to combat the growing list of blog, video and podcast complaints about your company? Well for starters, attempt to fix the problem. bad customer service breeds bad social. Period. Of course, fixing company’s CS problems may not be within your means as a marketing guru, so instead a more convenient solution is to flood the net with productive, content.

Dell, as you may know, launched IdeaStorm, a thinktank where their customers can submit ideas to peer discussion and moderation. The hundreds of thousands of posts that consumers have generated have turned the top search results for “Dell Linux Walmart” from a list of vindictive bloggers complaining about the computer company’s policies regarding Linux, to a list of ideas consumers have to get Linux running Dells into Walmart Stores.

On the internet everything lives forever so it’s important to create positive media that will outlive the bad!

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