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Internet Reputation Management Complaints
By Reputation Management
Author: S.E. Fullen
I prefer a peaceful life. Do my errands in familiar places. Sometimes I like to try something new. Generally, all my needs are well met by the retailers I patronize offline and online. If there’s a glitch, I’m either patient and get what I need in the end, or just go to a different store that has the item. No big deal. I just want to pick up my stuff and go home.
That is not the world of the Global Mouthpiece that is the Internet.
The Web has so much potential for global commerce, bringing people together amicably, and an awesome resource for research and information. Unfortunately, this great tool is often identified instead by the worst faceless users in the world (some criminals), who spew mountains of hateful rhetoric for global publication every day. Ugly attacks and “Rantrums” against other people on the Web is way out of control, and is enabling public behavior that is openly uncivil, narcissistic, anti-social, and sometimes dangerous.
Really, there is a deep need for greater online regulation (never mind re-training in basic social skills), and a lot of retailers are quietly, politely, showing signs of getting proactively fed up.
One vocal online merchant says (and I totally paraphrase for his protection) that large and small retailers are increasingly and unnecessarily burdened with rude, undisciplined, and often abusive customers that cost way more than they should. Anger (sometimes enhanced by substance abuse?) can be stoked further by safe anonymity and what is often unregulated libel in Chat Rooms, Forums, Blogs, and online “Review” sites. Smaller business has been undeservedly damaged, or even ruined, by some of the more awful attacks from people who will destroy anything, and harm anyone, when they can’t have their way. Even the last word in a dispute is up for grabs.
Customer Review Sites: Like most things in life, they are fair in concept. But in practice, they’ve become vengeance attack zones designed to ruin innocent people and small businesses, plastering personal issues all over the internet, sometimes under false names. Nobody can justify a nasty third rate public rantrum under the guise of legitimate “review”. The only online reviews I trust are about the product, not broadcast 10-volume versions of silly complaints escalated into a federal case because some woooooookid@witless.com’s special underpants were backordered. Chillingly stupid.
Complaint sites and “Consumer Rip-Off” Forums: Granted if a pattern of bad business practices can be detected, published complaints may be helpful. But in most instances, entries are no more than public temper tantrums, and embellished versions of everyday disputes, with few options for rebuttal from accused companies. While there are a small percentage of fraudsters that deserve to be exposed, most businesses do not deserve to be attacked.
General Forums and Chat Rooms: Again what a great way for people to get together and share ideas and opinions! On the other hand, there are a few bloggers out there who are generating some serious rage because anonymity seems to protect them from legal backlash. Hey, if you’ve published something really egregious that’s appearing all over the place, any decent tech/lawyer team can easily locate you. No sympathy!
Unfortunately small internet businesses do take a constant barrage of nastygrams and published tantrums from difficult people who enjoy attacking reputations and livelihoods of innocent people far more talented than they are. Why? Because lime green crew socks are backordered a couple of weeks. Sorry, but given the potential for irreversible harm on the global Web, mere words can’t begin to describe a person of that ilk. If such shenanigans happened in a physical store or mall, many would be rightly tossed out the door.
Sure, there are occasional issues between consumers and businesses, but almost all can be reasonably resolved with cooperation from consumers who are sane, literate, and possess a few basic interpersonal skills. There is a world of good companies large and small whose people just want to do an honest business without fielding a daily barrage of broadcast hystrionics from self centered jerks.
I am sure anybody who cares to read this through will erupt into a state of enraged, inflated indignation, with fingers itching to hammer a keyboard response that will blow my mind with brilliance and righteousness, but REALLY. Don’t we all have vacuuming or laundry to do … or something?
Online Reputation Management is a terrible thing to lose
By Reputation Management
Posted by Deon Binneman
Please pass this on to all the PR and Medisa lecturers, they may find this provocative.
Online Reputation a terrible thing to lose
What has JCI, SARFU, Exxon, Thor Chemicals, Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson got in common? Their reputation got shattered by a single act of indiscretion. Reputations that were painstakingly built over many years and at great cost. No wonder that “Reputation Management” is the newest buzz phrase in management
circles.
The reason for this new and intensive focus is simple: A good image is a terrible thing to lose! It has been said that 30 years of hard work can be destroyed in 30 seconds. And, while that might seem melodramatic, don’t try soft selling its meaning to Exxon, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi-Cola, South Africa or Union Carbide who had a shadow cast over its operations since the Bhopal disaster where over 2000 people were killed due to a gas leak.
Ask Thor Chemicals or Staal en Beton, Pretoria. Grim reminders that crises can strike a Business at any time; and during these crises a Companys image and reputation can be damaged significantly. Often, this can be a result of not responding adequately to media enquiries. Understanding what Communication challenges may arise during crises or before one occurs is therefore critical.
So what constitutes a good reputation? This depends from organisation. There is no one reputation that works for an organisation that will work for another. Each organisation must find its own version, based on
the industry the company is in and what the customer requires. BUT one thing stands out “A Company with a good reputation is one in which the deliverable and the demands are in synch”. Companies whose reputations are aligned with corporate goals include Federal Express, which has a reputation for
reliability, Honda which has a reputation for quality and Disney whose fun, family-friendly reputation is a perfect fit for the companys products and services.
No Company, organisation or individual whose livelihood depends on public support can therefore afford to function without a reputation building and a crises communication plan, Yet, many organisations still have no such plans. Many companies say they need it but think that with positive thinking and hope the inevitable will never occur.
The reality is that Crises (and Reputation disasters) are often unavoidable. What is avoidable is being ill prepared. After all, Noah built the Ark before it rained. And, how is it possible that some companies find
opportunities in the time of crises, while others succumb to the danger.
The secret is that they have a well prepared Crises Communication and Management Plan and reputation management process in place and that all the staff, including those who will deal with the media are well trained, reputation conscious and ready to face the crises. For many years the PR profession propounded the importance of planning proactively for crises. Crisis management became a plan of action to be implemented quickly once a negative situation occurred.
Crisis Management however is now evolving into reputation management for a number of reasons:
Firstly, because this new phrase should attract more attention from top management. Chairmen and CEOs don’t often want to think about potential crisis situations. For many executives, a crisis is something that happens to someone else. It is a distant thought that can quickly be relegated to the back of the mind, replaced by concern for profit and productivity. After all that is the “business of business”. This is often caused by belief systems that have put boundaries on their thinking. A Failure to look systemically at things, to view issues in a new light. Some executives believe in denial. It will never happen to us, whilst others suffer from myopic thinking, believing that they can actually control everything, including the impact of non- reputational decisions. Others believe that if they have 5 star NOSA ratings and have complied with legal requirements such as the Occupational Health & Safety Act – that they have done what is required. So, the phrase “crisis management” may not sell well at the top. But every executive must be concerned about the reputation of the company or organization.
Second, more and more organizations are facing situations that have real potential for harming their reputations. The rapid change, the warp speed in which markets change, the quick way in which information can be communicated using the world wide web all play a part in increasing opportunity for
disasters. For instance : What happens to a company when a senior executive is arrested for fraud,
such as in the Old Mutual/Blank affair? What happens when an AIDS-infected employee is eating in your company cafeteria, and most employees refuse to come to work? In each case, the organisations reputation is at stake?
According to the Institute for Crisis Management in Louisville, KY, news stories on class action lawsuits against organisations went up 538% from 1991 to 1992. Coverage of business crimes rose 328%. Certainly, these incidents created crisis situations, but in the long run, it will be the public’s perception of reputation that mattered.
This is an important point, because the media are concentrating more on these types of stories. The June 1993 issue of Public Relations Journal (page 7) reported that news coverage of business crises in 1992 increased 45% over the previous year. Most medium- and large-market TV news departments now have special teams to dig into consumer complaints and expose business foul-ups. They salivate over stories such as the JCI fiasco, and the Thor Chemicals mercury poisoning or the Dow-Corning silicone scandal.
Perception is truth. And, even though most executives don’t like it, the media establishes the perception of your organization. And, unfortunately public opinion shift quickly, but reverse itself slowly as attitudes
die-hard. When there was a rumor a while ago that Nelson Mandela was ill, share prices dropped almost immediately.
So, in this new public relations discipline of reputation management, dealing with the media in an organized,
aggressive and timely fashion is mandatory. When your reputation is at stake because of a crisis that occurred one hour ago, it is not a good to call a meeting to discuss strategy. Second, the most important rule in defending, preserving or enhancing a reputation is that you work at it all year long, regardless of whether or not a crisis strikes.
The time to build a reputation is day by day. After all, would you like to be in a position where you have to alter or counteract unfavorable opinion, convince uninformed or uncommitted opinion, or reinforcing or conserving favorable opinion of your company? Of these three, changing hostile opinion, or neutralising it is the most difficult. Gathering latent opinion on your side is easier. It may take time, but ” latent” opinions contain fewer prejudices to overcome. Conserving your reputation is like dealing with old friends you want tokeep them.
On January 29, 1992, the New York Times reported that Dow-Cornings handling of the controversy that led to the Food and Drug Administrations call for a moratorium on breast implants could be compared to the Exxon Corporation response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Critics said that their mistakes included a lack of public action by its CEO, too little sympathy and compassion for women who said they were harmed,
and the failure to get the news out quickly. One consultant called it a classic textbook case of crisis mismanagement. He told the Times: ” It looks like the lawyers are in charge trying too limit their liability. But the damage is much worse to the corporation if they lose in a court of public opinion than if they lose in the court of law”. They obviously did not have a reputational management perspective.
Reputation Management is a trend, not a fad. It is also far more than just company image. Reputation will always supersede image. Can a company for have a good image but a bad reputation? You bet. Look at Apple Computer Inc., which coasted on its good image as long as it could until its reputation for not innovating and producing new products caught up with it.
The reasons have been set out above, but the philosophy is rather simple: Your image was not built in a day, but it can be destroyed in one. Every CEO, company president and corporate public relations executive should begin each day in a very basic way by remembering that Noah built the Ark before
it rained”.
Reputation management is a strategy that is used all year long, utilising a proactive approach, and being proactive is the best crisis preventative. Building a reservoir of goodwill not only greatly reduces the likelihood of corporate crisis, but positively enhances an organisations ability to enter, win and maintain its markets around the world. When Russia and China welcome McDonald’s, it is because reputation, not hamburgers, paved the way. And perhaps that is what Dow-Corning forgot : that credibility is more
important than legal positioning.
So what is Reputation Management?
Reputation management is a proactive and systematic approach to identifying issues that currently affect your company or will affect it within the next 12 to 36 months. Like it or not, your company’s policies and actions are shaped and developed in anticipation of, and reaction to, political, economic, social and technological forces. It is also a process of casting a look internally and examining processes, procedures, policies and issues that could impact and damage the company online reputation. It involves an in depth look at the quality of management, financial soundness, use of corporate assets, community and environmental responsibility, quality of products or services, value as a long term investment, innovativeness, and the ability to attract, develop and keep talented people.
How to build a good reputation
Building a good reputation starts in the boardroom, not with a news release. Your companys good name is based on the development of good policies, not reactive damage control of bad ones. It requires an allocation of your management time and budget and assigning them to your reputation asset. It recognizes that direct and indirect costs of continual reputation damage are unacceptable. It creates a culture where long-term reputation enhancement outweighs short-term expediency. It empowers everyone to ask: If we do this, will it hurt our reputation? It should be noted that Public relations is not reputation management.
Rather, it is an outgrowth of reputation policy. Think of public relations as a mirror on the wall in your home; it reflects what you are. Think of reputation management as the foundation of your house; if it is unsound, your house will tumble to the ground, mirror and all. Regardless of your organizations size, reputation is a senior management responsibility. That does not mean senior managers execute the tactics of reputation, but it does mean they are responsible for reputation policies and the people who work on reputation issues. Assuming the mantel of that responsibility requires an understanding of the foundations of reputation.
The basic foundation of reputation
1. Important decisions by stakeholders are invariably based on trust. Trust is a 2-way process that is based on consistency (After all you expect a Coke to taste the same each and every time), reliability and predictability. It is about being congruent in word and deed. Good reputations are therefore built on good actions and policies that earn stakeholder trust. Before there is any communications, there must be reputation substance. The techniques of modern public relations (or advertising or promotion) are useless and worthless in the absence of substance. Examine your own role as a stakeholder with other organizations, and you will realize that trust is at the core of your product choices. Johnson and Johnson reinforced that lesson in a very special and positive way when several people died after taking Tylenol that had been poisoned? We buy what we trust. And when you invest in a share, you buy what you trust.
Companies such as Waltons and Dimension Data have seen their names appear on the top of the Business Times list, because of their reputation.
2. There is no quick or easy way to have a good reputation. You earn a good reputation over time by working at it. If you want people to regard your organisation highly, that must be a priority to which you allocate time and money, one for which you plan and budget as you would for any aspect of your business. Pay attention to your name. It is written in management literature: ” which does not get inspected, will not be respected”.
3. A good reputation is everyones job, not just managements. The entire organisation must nurture reputation relationships, from the tealady to the distribution clerk. Every action of every person affects perceptions. A careless act by one person tears down the good efforts of many. There are no shortcuts. Everyone has to always ask: “If other people knew what we were doing, would we be able to withstand that scrutiny?”
4. You cannot have good external reputation unless you have a good internal reputation. Charity starts at home. There are multiple reputation stakeholders. First among equals are employees, the front-line troops of reputation. If the folks on the inside do not buy in, how can you expect external stakeholders to think your organization is credible? Your own employees will be vocal about their relationships with your organization – good or bad. If they do not trust you, they will tell everyone, severely damaging your reputation and likely hurting your business in the process. The employees of the organisation can be either negative or positive ambassadors.
5. It may take years to build a reputation but only a moment to destroy one. Just as your next customer order for products is dependent on the quality and timeliness of your last one, a reputation is, more than anything, a reflection of what is perceived right now. There is a saying in show business that ” Every night is opening night”. Yes, it is helpful to have earned a good reputation over time. That can be invaluable for the day trouble knocks at your door. But, you can never let up even for a minute-workout risking all you have built.
A reputation is priceless asset to be protected and managed at all times. “Buildings deteriorate, products malfunction, copyrights expire, but if properly managed, an organizations good name and reputation grow in value with each passing year,” says communications consultant Mary Ann Pires.
What It All Means
First and foremost is that organisations should ensure that the right policies and programs are in place.
You should be telling your organizations story but only once you have determined that there is congruence between internal and external messages. Understanding the need to do that and being able to lead an effective, properly targeted communications program to all stakeholders is the responsibility of every reputation manager.
You may as well assume that your organisation will surely face tough business issues that have tremendous implications for your reputation. You will not spill a million gallons of oil in the ocean, but you may have a
sludge dam that breaks. You will not make a product that causes breast cancer, but you may have an employee die due to hazardous chemical exposure. You will be forced to lay off workers when business is down. You will not sell products that make people sick, but you may sell a product that malfunctions and if you may face what the IBM advertisement example depicted: “If your failure rate is one in a million, what do you tell that one customer” . Each of these examples reflects, at the very least, a serious problem. If
mishandled, each represents a genuine business crisis and a serious threat to your organizations reputation.
Conclusion
There is a clear and present need for you to become sensitized to reputation management, to understand its importance to both your company and your career, and to become comfortable with what you should not expect from this function. It must become a priority, along side marketing, production, legal, financial, and sales issues, so reputation problems never even arise.
A Reputation is like a fragile vase. You can glue a broken reputation back together again, but it will never look the same as it did before you damaged it. What are you doing to preserve, maintain or enhance your companys good name. What do you intend doing in the next 12 months to improve your reputation, your departments or your organisations reputation. Those are the issues. Those are the choices. The ball is now in your court
ACTION JOURNAL
Companies attempting to improve their reputation should adopt one or more of the following steps:
Plan to enhance, build, sustain or maintain their reputation. Assess and rethink from the ground up not only how, what, where and to whom you want to communicate internally as well as externally, but also how to best manage the entire reputational process. The first step in the process is research. You have to find out what your reputation is before you can begin to influence it. Start with a clean slate. Have an in depth look at internal issues including a reputational management audit. Review external impacts and reconcile the two. Prepare a white paper that deals with an objective look at all aspects of the reputation building process.
Remember the effective solution of problems is dependant on a thorough diagnosis.. In the absence of a proper diagnosis, the wrong solutions may be applied. All companies conduct a legal financial audit every year. Why not conduct a reputational audit? Turn the company inside out and address all the factors that contribute to the consumers perceptions of the company.
Set operating standards for the behaviors expected of all personnel. Walk the walk if you talk the talk. Some organisations pay lip service to the reputational management process. If senior executives don’t believe in
and consistently practice reputation building, neither will the troops. Educate management and the workforce through training workshops and using every available internal medium to build awareness of the process.
Remember awareness always precedes behavior change. Sell the message, not the program. Remember it must be an ongoing effort. One-time or sporadic communications accomplish little and may be counterproductive. As with any communication, the key to success is repetition and reinforcement.
The Author: Deon Binneman, CPRP,RAPP is the owner of DB Consulting, a Johannesburg based
management and Public Relations consultancy
Don’t Ruin your Internet Reputation Management With a Small Mistake
By Reputation Management
Author: Axel Meierhoefer
This article focuses on the importance of trust in business. I did some research and found the following: In the social sciences, the subtleties of trust are a subject of ongoing research. In sociology the degree to which one party trusts another is a measure of belief in the honesty, benevolence and competence of the other party. Based on the most recent research, a failure in trust may be forgiven more easily if it is interpreted as a failure of competence rather than a lack of benevolence or honesty. You can exchange competence for skill or knowledge in most cases. Only if it can be shown that you knew about something and still didn’t use your knowledge, would trust be at least as much violated, if not more, because it goes to honesty in such a case. Many of today’s businesses, especially when they are relatively new struggle to gain reputation, new customers, revenues and ultimately profits. In this environment and with more and more competition in global markets, we need to do everything we can to hold on to those customers we have and who trust us. The size of the business doe snot really matter. The way we handle mistakes is what decides if we keep customers and clients, even grow our base, or if we loose them. The definition gave us an idea about what trust really means, let’s look at some stories sent to me in an email regarding the impact of trust on developing and keeping your business:
He writes: “Over the past few days, I’ve had a chance to see just how skeptical people can be and how seemingly little things will cause people–especially new people –to question doing business with us.
It was quite eye-opening and bears some contemplation–for us. The first experience was a phone conversation with a subscriber. He was inquiring about one of our programs and it gave us a chance to get to know each other a little.
He mentioned that he was feeling better about our company after speaking with me. When I asked why he hadn’t before, he mentioned a Tele-seminar we had done last year. He had heard about it too late to attend live, but when he emailed me about a recording, I told him to stand by as it was going to be available soon.
Apparently, when we announced the availability of the audio file to our readers, he missed it. And in the process he felt that we had not followed through. It was perceived as a small breech of trust–but enough to cause a seed of doubt. I was glad for the opportunity to clear it up.
There was another event that occurred this week that further showed me just how careful you have to be when you do not yet have a relationship of trust.
One of our new members related to me that she was disappointed in a couple of things. It seems that during our Open House Conference call, I had stated there would be time for some questions and answers. And there were via the webcast. Participants could– and did–send in questions which we answered. But I forgot to leave a Q&A time for those on the telephone. Once again, my error caused doubt in her mind.
And this same person was troubled that a link sent to her was not hot-linked and seemingly invalid. We now had two strikes against us.
These are two of my friend’s experiences about trust and building your business. We have experienced similar things in our business. The connection to my class about diversity and pluralism comes in when we look at what the value of relationships is in different countries. The term created by Trompenaars & Hamptden-Turner talks about specific versus diffuse cultures. They say:
In specific cultures a manager segregates out the tasks relationship he or she has with subordinates and insulates this from other dealings. In diffuse cultures the life space and everything that happens in it permeates everything. If you would draw this difference in a graphic, a specific representative of a culture would have a relatively small core in the center of a circle that represents his or her private life. That’s the area they would keep away form others and don’t talk much about, other then with very close friends, spouses and family members. All the rest of the circle would be considered the public life, which is divided into a number of parts. Each part has relationships but they don’t really impact the inner core and relationships can exist in each part of the public life without touching or influencing each other.
If you drew the same circle (same size) for a member of a diffuse culture, the vast majority of the inner area of the circle would be considered the private life. Just a very small ring on the outside is public life. That causes almost every aspect of life to influence both public and private life.
As you might imagine, if a person form a specific culture meets or interacts with a person of a diffuse culture, the private life of the diffuse culture person is almost always touched. That makes the relationship much different. If one doesn’t know about these differences, mistakes are easily made and people can get hurt, not only physically, but also emotionally. Trust can get broken. The stories Michael Angier was referring to are more for people of the specific type, where the facts determine the relationship that forms. With people form diffuse cultures, you need to form the relationship first and then these small hick-ups don’t play a huge role in maintaining trust.
In the book an interesting experiment is described. Workers in different countries are asked if they would help to paint their bosses house. People form the USA, UK, Switzerland, and most northern European countries said “No”. These regions are known for their differences in culture. People form diffuse cultures, like China, Nepal, and several African countries (to name a few) would actually paint their bosses house. They see this as part of the relationship and commitment to their work, the company and the boss as a person. It touches their personal life and standing. They also trust that their help will be seen as a positive thing when their work at their employer is evaluated.
The Japanese respondents didn’t want to paint their bosses house, not because that wouldn’t be typical in their culture, but because nobody in Japan paints houses. The researchers went back to the Japanese participants in the survey and asked them why they answered the way they did. The surprising (and funny) reply was: “Houses in Japan are never painted” – just showing that you need to be careful what you are asking to gain empirical data. In reality they would probably do it if it would be something that could realistically happen. Japanese workers are famous for their loyalty to country, company, and authorities. That makes developing relationships so much more important, especially in diffuse cultures.
Trust is of fundamental importance in all cultures. If we have a good level of awareness regarding our environment, we will no what to do and not to do. This will also allow us to predict the consequences. Michael Angier wouldn’t loose or almost loose a client because he didn’t announce a posting or article, or didn’t allow for some Q&A sessions in a diffuse culture. Those that tune in and listen to him would have developed a trusting relationship to him before they would every spend considerable time in a tele-seminar. What his American clients, coming from a specific culture deemed a failure of trust or a strike against him would be forgiven because he probably had done many many more important things to gain the trust of his listeners and participants.
Small mistakes can drive people away and we all want to avoid them. When dealing with different cultures, being aware of how trust is build and how it can be lost is equally important if we want to be successful, especially in a more and more global marketplace.
Internet Reputation Management
By Reputation Management
Internet Reputation Management for Internet Marketers
Author: Cynthia Mosher
Building a name for yourself is essential to success in today’s internet business world. People want to do business with and offer their money to people they feel they can trust. These ten steps will go a long way to helping you build a reputation of trust with your visitors.
1. Present a Real Face
Showing your web site is a legitimate physical business you will boost your site’s credibility. The simplest way to do this is by providing a physical address and telephone number for voicemail contact. It also helps to post a picture of yourself or your office and place a list of memberships you belong to such as the chamber of commerce and professional organizations for your business field.
2. Provide Authority
Give authority site links to research and information you present. Even if the reader does not check your information, seeing the respected source of your statement instills trust in your information and your site. And just the opposite – don’t link to outside sites that are not credible. Your site becomes less credible by association.
3. Highlight Your Staff
People like to know who runs things behind the scenes. Offer brief “about us” information for your staff, even if it’s just you and your partner, freelancer, or virtual assistant.
4. Share Your Experience and Expertise
Are you an expert on some topic? Make that known on your site, in your About Us page and wherever appropriate in articles and resources. List your education and accomplishments in specific areas of knowledge and training.
5. Be Reachable
People like to feel there’s a real person there to communicate with. Give a personal email address and answer promptly. Provide a physical address, telephone number and fax number if you can. A customer help desk is a good addition for a busy site too. But most importantly, respond to their needs as soon as possible.
6. Present a Well Designed Site
Lots of people judge a website by its cover. Provide a professional look but keep it user friendly and consistent. Your design should be appropriate for your business and inviting to internet users of varying experience.
7. Keep it Simple
That snazzy flash page may dazzle some but for many others it will simply be overboard and they will click on by. Use the basics that load quickly and perform well for all internet users and don’t require them to update their computer software to view your pages. People are looking for information and they want it quickly and easily and don’t want to upgrade to get it.
8. Provide New Content Regularly
A site with the same content your visitor saw last month or even last week will give a feeling of absence or abandonment. Keep things current. Place new content weekly if you can. A blog is a great way to do this and you can schedule the content delivery to make it easy.
9. Keep Ads to a Minimum
Advertising should be for products or services you stand behind and should not constitute a large part of your site’s presentation. Featuring a new product or service every month or even every week can be fine. Just don’t bombard your reader with ads. It conveys a feel of your selling interest superseding your sincere interest in your customer
10. Present Clean, Error-free, Functioning Content
Spelling mistakes and broken links are a real turn-off. As an internet business owner you rely mostly on the written word to convey information and professionalism about you and your business. It is important that you present the best you can for your visitors and that it be functional and accessible when they need it.
Use these ten steps to establish your business online. Not only will you gain trust and respect online, you will gather a devoted audience that will spread the word. That’s the best advertising that no money can buy.
Be There Or Be Talked About: Internet Reputation Management
By Reputation Management
Author: Penny Sansevieri
A few weeks ago I had an author call me in a blind panic – someone had reviewed her book online and it wasn’t good, in fact it was downright nasty. She was horrified, and the worst part, there was very little she could do. It wasn’t someone we, the publisher, or the author had ever worked with before, nor had anyone ever contacted her, how she got the book is anyone’s guess, but she did, and she hated it.
The price for online exposure can sometimes be high, but this story brings back the clear truth: regardless of whether or not you market yourself on the ‘Net, somewhere, somehow, you’ll wind up on there. Whether it’s through a review or some other posting, you’ll end up on the Internet and as a vigilant marketer you’ll want to know who’s saying what about you. Whether it’s good or bad, you can still manage it. Also, you want to keep an eye on what people are saying about your topic.
So how do you win the online reputation game? Here are some tips you might want to consider. Keep in mind that in all the years I’ve been online, I’ve not known a lot of folks to go through a negative posting, in fact, it’s generally the opposite. Most of the time those who choose to review a book or comment on a service do so positively, but even positive postings need to be monitored. Why? Well, there’s a lot you can do with them, and these tips will show you how.
1) First, monitoring your reputation online doesn’t have to cost you anything. You can do this very simply with tools that are already available to you for free. Google and Yahoo both have monitoring tools. They’re super simple to use, all you do is go to the links, sign up for them and plug in the keywords you want to monitor. Keep in mind that you’re not only doing this just to monitor who’s talking or writing about you, but to keep track of what’s being said about your topic, so you can both keep track of new developments and engage in conversations with other bloggers. These include http://alerts.yahoo.com and http://www.google.com/alerts
2) Use RSS feeds to help keep track of conversations on the Internet that involve you, your topic, or your book. You can go to any of these sites to create these custom RSS feeds: Technorati, blogpulse, google news, spaces.live, feedster, icerocket and google’s Blogsearch.
3) Using http://MonitorThis.com you can keep track of your keywords across 22 different search engines. Keep in mind that you’ll need an RSS Feedreader to monitor the feeds that come in.
4) Online groups might be another place to look. If you haven’t signed up for any groups related to your topic, now might be a good time. Check out the groups at yahoo, aol, msn and google.
5) It’s probably not a wise move to spend your days chasing down every blogger that posts on your topic, so before you decide to connect with a blogger, head on over to http://www.alexa.com to get some site stats first. That way you can make sure that before you go the effort of contacting the blogger, he or she has a wider audience than just mom and Aunt Viola.
Now that you have your monitors in place, what’s next? Let’s look at how you can constructively use this information. First you’ll want to have a blog. Why? You’ll want to use this as a forum to address news on your topic or on you. And don’t wait until you need to post something to start a blog, start one as soon as possible so you’re up and running.
A blog will humanize your site and help you create a relationship with your readers, then whenever your monitors alert you to a new topic, a new review, or a new mention of you, you can respond by offering your own twist, insight or feedback. In the case of the negative review, the author decided to address the thing we all fear most: what if someone hates your book? She posted a blog and got so many positive responses they virtually canceled out whatever the reviewer said.
Next, if you find someone has commented on you, your book or your topic, I recommend connecting with them, offering your insight, or thanking him or her for any positive reviews or mentions you received.
Aside from monitoring, blogging, and online networking, another sure-fire way to protect your reputation online is to have a lot of positive feedback, reviews, features, or mentions. Why? Just like the author who blogged on her review, the good cancels out the bad. The Internet is very self-correcting that way, so get out there and get yourself some great “press,” it’ll pay off not just in the case of a reputation, but also when someone is searching for information on your topic.
And finally, if you’re sitting on a controversial topic, it might not make sense to spend your days policing the Internet. People will say what they say and the ‘Net has given many a voice even as they remain in obscurity. That said, remember the golden rule of PR: there’s no such thing as bad publicity.
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