November, 2009

06 Nov

Branding and Reputation Management With Social Media

By Reputation Management

Have you ever searched your name in Google, only to find less than desirable results popping up in the first ten results? The first ten organic results of any search are the ones that people will find the most relevant on the topic they are seeking. Consider your name as your personal brand. If your brand is a topic that holds negative items in the top ten search results, then your biggest goal should be to remove those negative results as quickly as possible.

One of the best ways to make sure that your brand gets positive focus on the internet is through branding and reputation management with social media. Web 2.0 technologies such as blogging, micro-blogging and social networking can be valuable tools in the effort to raise good items about your brand to the top of search results, thus bumping down any negative information. The best part is that most of these technologies can be utilized for little to no cost at all.

The first place to start in Web 2.0 reputation management is blogging. Let’s say that your brand is your name, and for example purposes, we’ll use John Smith. So what you will want to do is to get some blogs rolling with your name in the blog’s title and URL. If your name is relatively unique, you can probably acquire a domain name such as johnsmith.com, assuming that you do not already have this for your main website. If you do not, then I would suggest you purchase your name as a domain right away, which can be done for less than $15 per year. Along with your domain, you would also need to purchase hosting, which can be as little as $5 per month. Both can be acquired through companies such as GoDaddy.

Once you purchase your domain and hosting account, you can install a blogging application such as WordPress easily through your hosting services’ control panel. Then, you are able to start blogging. Two to three articles per week are enough to help your domain boost to the top of search results.

Now, let’s assume that you already are using your brand as a domain. There are other blogging options that you still can use in conjunction to having your own domain. Blogger, WordPress and Livejournal offer free blogging accounts that you can create with your brand in their URL, such as johnsmith.blogspot.com, johnsmith.wordpress.com and johnsmith.livejournal.com respectively. Combined with your main domain, if you create unique articles for each blog, you can gain the first four positions of major search engine results with these customized domains for your brand.

The next place to turn to is micro-blogging. Twitter is the most popular micro-blogging site. It allows you to create an account on which you post 140 character status updates as often as you please. Again, try to get your name as the user name to create a Twitter url such as twitter.com/johnsmith. Be sure to link your main domain and free blogs to this Twitter account, and make two to three “tweets” per day, and voila, another positive reference to your brand will ultimately emerge in the top search results.

After blogging and micro-blogging, there is a plethora of social networks that rank highly in search results. LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace are just a few of the many social networking avenues to turn to. Whenever you create accounts on these sites, be sure to use your name as the customized URL when available, and link these accounts to your main domain and blogs, then vice versa.

Finally, look at other highly ranked accounts that you can create with focus on your name. For example, if you write articles, authority article sites like EzineArticles will create a link with your name as an expert author, which tends to rank highly in search results. Services such as KnowEm UserName Check also help you find even more networks where you can use search for your name and see which networks have it available for the taking.

In conclusion, the more unique web sites and services that you start with your name as a user name, the more positive results you are getting indexed into search engines. With the right amount of focus on each of these avenues, in time, you will be able to put nothing but positive items in search results for your name and brand.

Blair Stover is a tax attorney, CPA, entrepreneur, and small business expert.

Published by Reputation Management in

05 Nov

Online Reputation Management Tips For Your Business

By Reputation Management

Online Reputation Management, or ORM, is a relatively new term that refers to the practice of regularly monitoring your business’s or brand name’s standing in the online community. Why is it important to monitor your business’s online image? The answer should be fairly obvious. Almost every member of today’s consumer market uses the internet on a daily basis to find out how and where to purchase the products and services they need. Thus, your business’s online reputation has a huge effect on your business’s actual, real-life success.

The challenge of online reputation management comes from the fact that online social media sites as well as the popularity of user generated content (UGC) make it difficult to control one’s online business reputation. Bad reviews and negative articles posted by competitors about your business can have a huge effect on your online reputation. Here are a few tips to help you combat negative reviews and project the reputation you want.

1. Social Media Profiles

Setting up effective profiles of your business on social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter is one of the most important parts of good online reputation management. Include your company’s history and mission statement, as well as company bios, avatars and logos, and any information that you want your business to be known for. Make all content in your business’s social media profiles relevant and useful, so that search engine spiders are able to find it easily. Remember that ORM is about influencing what others say about you, so give people plenty of good things to say in your social media profiles.

2. Participate in the online community

Having a good social media profile, or even multiple ones, is not enough. You have to interact with your customers and business community. This means returning people’s emails and answering comments, and encouraging and participating in forum discussions. Being active in your online community is a great way to expand your network of influence, giving you increased control of your online reputation.

3. Write. A lot.

Posting articles and blogs regularly is a huge part of ORM as well. Successful blogs and articles that get a lot of hits help you spread your brand name and improve your search engine results page rankings.

4. Monitor

After you’ve set up profiles, blogs, and written articles about your industry for different sites, check up on your company’s online standing on a regular basis. Do a Google search on your business and see what people are saying in popular online forums and social media sites.

Please visit http://www.bestrank.com for San Diego web design services and more internet marketing tips.

Published by Reputation Management in

02 Nov

Reputation Management – Your Online Reputation With Social Media is on the Line

By Reputation Management

Too many people are jumping into Internet Marketing without remembering the vast importance of constantly maintaining their online reputations. You see, the Internet doesn’t forget. Every website you create, every forum post that you make, every blog comment that you post, every blog posts that you write – and every other thing that you will ever do online, leaves a digital footprint that will never go away. Online reputation management is quickly becoming a very powerful business necessity.

Social media engagement on various social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and others must be implemented as an integral component of every business plan. It is no longer an optional concept. The numbers are unmistakable: if you want to grow your business, then you need to create personalized avenues of communication for your perspective customers. And there is no better way to do that currently than to remain actively engaged in social media marketing techniques.

You need to realize that every action that you take online is branding you. You are a business now. You are an entity. You need to give thought to developing your personal brand optimally with every move that you make.

Tips for maximizing the efficiency of your online reputation management endeavors:

* Set up your social networking sites with your own name. Using aliases, pen names or otherwise will not help establish your branding effectiveness. In other words, you need to create an interlinked “web” of these powerful social networks – that all point to you. This is profoundly important because it establishes your presence in the major search engines like Google.
* Try to get the exact same username set up for all of your social media engagement profiles. Similar is not close enough.
* When you add any type of content to your social networking sites, keep your online reputation management plan in mind. Don’t put out low-quality, irrelevant material. Remember: your digital footprint will last a lifetime – plus the lifetimes of your children, grandchildren, great grandchildren…

Facebook alone has more than 122,000,000 visitors each month. If you add in Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and others, you literally have multiple hundreds of millions of opportunities to gain targeted followers. As an Internet marketer, this is a virtual playground that cannot be ignored.

Take action starting today to develop a centralized presence across your own grouping of social media engagement sites. These social networking powerhouses are now about far more than casual communication amongst personal friends and family; they are avenues for creating success in your life. Start thinking about your plan for online reputation management right away. The effects are never-ending.

Demetrios Tzortzis is a social media expert whose systematic approach to online marketing has effectively helped thousands of people across the globe grow their business. Demetrios works as a coach and mentor to help businesses maximize their Internet presence through strategic online marketing and brand maximization.

Demetrios Tzortzis

Published by Reputation Management in

02 Nov

Put Your Best Face Forward: Networking and Reputation Management

By Reputation Management

Whether you meet people through online social networking or in-person networking events, your reputation is what makes or breaks you when it comes to business. You put yourself at risk for a negative reputation if you don’t take the steps to protect your reputation. Word-of-mouth spreads fast. It only takes one harsh word to a client or negative comment from a customer to put your business in jeopardy.

Even if staff members attend networking events on your behalf and talk negatively about your competition, it’s your company’s reputation at stake. As a business professional, you are a direct reflection of your company’s mission and code of ethics. That applies to both in-person networking and online social networking.

Social networking makes it easy for customers/clients to post both positive and negative comments related to your business. However, before you can protect your reputation you need to first understand how reputation management works. Reputation management tracks one person’s actions against another person’s opinion about those particular actions. Tracking can be as simple as setting up Google e-mail alerts, or as complex as using reputation management software.

How Can You Protect Your Business Reputation?
These are easy reputation management strategies that will ensure your business reputation remains intact:

•When setting up social networking profiles, always tie your business name and contact information into your profile. Add a personal picture or company logo – this helps brand your company so people know you are the original “ABC Real Estate Company.” Set up business profiles in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. This further protects your identity (especially when potential or current customers or colleagues search for you online)

•Use online tracking tools such as Google alerts or simply search for your company name online. Take an active role in online forum communities and spread a positive message about your business.

Remember to always say it with a smile – whether you post tweets on Twitter or shake hands with the mayor. Put your best face forward, and remember you are the voice and face behind your company’s reputation (even if you aren’t the business owner). Join your local chamber of commerce or business networking groups. By interacting one-on-one with fellow entrepreneurs, you will quickly earn a positive reputation within your community.

Stop Rumors in Their Tracks
If you hear a rumor circulating about you, don’t get angry and fire back with negative comments. The best way to stop a nasty rumor is to confront the source directly. For example, if a local newspaper misquotes a fact about you or your business, follow up with an immediate phone call to the media. You want to stop that rumor in its tracks before it spreads.

People believe what they read and bad publicity is the fastest way to ruin your business reputation. It doesn’t matter if you are a small business or a large corporation, don’t fall into the trap and think that “all publicity is good publicity.” Bad publicity can ruin your business reputation in mere seconds.

If you liked this article, tell all your friends about it. They’ll thank you for it. If you have a blog or website, you can link to it or even post it to your own site (don’t forget to mention www.meetingwave.com as the original source).

Jonathan Boyd has written countless articles for Meeting Wave, a free website to meet people offline, for social or business networking. Check out the MW blog at www.meetingwave.com/blog

Published by Reputation Management in

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