• BusinessWeek , Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11 AM

Bold Web publishers are diving feet first into the arena of public opinion, says BusinessWeek, as a growing number of marketers rely on the wisdom of crowds to help promote their brands. Of course, the flip side of depending on the public for publicity is that the tactic might backfire; so confident brand marketers need only apply.

EBay's StumbleUpon is one such service that allows users to recommend sites they've visited. It also recommends sites to its users based on the community's rating. Almost a year after its purchase, StumbleUpon's ad revenues have more than quadrupled. Advertisers are allowed to pay for inclusion in StumbleUpon's recommendations, but if the sponsored sites get poor ratings, they get yanked. Other sites also allow users to weigh in on ads. News Corp.'s MySpace lets users to comment on a brand's MySpace page while YouTube lets users rate any video, including commercials.

Why subject your brand to the scrutiny of a social media site? The easy answer: a community endorsement could propel your brand or campaign to the kind of prominence bought by a massively more expensive TV commercial for a fraction of the cost. In other words, good creative is good entertainment is good content. Period. Good content will always find its way to a big audience, so why not accelerate the process by letting users rate your ads?

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