How to keep your online reputation pristine

From Courtney – Orlando, Florida

Thanks for the info about this topic. I think our company has done a decent job of watch review sites, but always can use additional help. We specialize in Barcode Scanners for the Small/Medium size business. A lot of our customers do NOT need the $3000 scanner, but choose our for their simple business needs. We look forward to continuing our customer service reputation, and will do "Whatever it Takes" Look us up at http://www.commxperts.com/shop

Courtney Barnette
Vice President of Sales

From Jonathan Moody, London UK

Great article – this is what our clients are doing already. You really need a company specialized in locating and analyzing your consumer-generated media in blogs, forums, newgroups, microblogs, social networks, usenets etc, unless CGM about your brands / products / services is restricted to a few social media. Then you can extract real insight and engagement. See the following paper in the Journal of Online Research:

http://ijor.mypublicsquare.com/view/sense-and-online

Jon Moody
ASOMO (www.asomo.net)
London UK

From Maria Elena

I agree and am glad that this subject is getting some attention. The internet continues to be utilized to research not only companies, reviews of their services and prices. It is also utilized to research people who are considering doing business with you, associating with you or even hiring you. The brand of your company and your small business depends on the brand of each of your people that are " belly to belly" with the customer. Now, negative posts from employees on their "myspace page" about your company; or bad behavior or derogatory comments that you make regarding an issue being discussed on a blog can be easily found an become a part of your first impression. Even people who share your name, your personal moniker, can taint your brand because of their past experiences, website photos and comments. People are googling you when they meet you and taking what they find on the internet about you, or that they think is about you, in formulating their first impression of you.
1. Sign up for google alerts to know what's being said, when it's said.
2. Check out what's already been listed about you on zoominfo.
3. Search your name – in quotations and without quotations. Ladies, search your maiden name, too.
4. Raise your name to the top of google and search listings. There are some low priced services for this.
5. Start posting comments on Amazon.com books with your full name. Post on books that you wanted to be associated with. Subjects that you want to be considered an expert on. Amazon.com postings place high in the search engine listings.
6. Search out popular blogs on subjects that you want to be known for or that you want your business expertise highlighted. Comment on those blogs. Popular blogs post higher in searches, too.
7. Create a great, bullet point bio. Place it on LinkedIn, Ziggs, Biznik, Ryze, Naymze, and Ecademy. You can do this for free on these social (business focused) networking sites. They also provide the ability for you to upgrade – for a fee.
8. Put up to date contact info on Plaxo. It's free also. For a fee, you can be a part of Plaxo pulse which will keep you connected with those who want to know about changes in your position or things you comment or blog about.
9. Blogging will also post you higher and nothing controls what other people say about you better than you saying it yourself and providing them a forum to make comments, be valued and feel heard. Haven't blogged before? Start simple and easy with a Tumbler blog. Then move up to a wordpress or typepad blogs.
10. Post links of popular blogs on your website. Showing a little "link love" will also post you higher.

Wonder if this "bootstrapping" activities to get you to the top of the search engines works? Just google me – Maria Elena Duron and see.

From Melanie Harries, London, UK

This article just goes to show that you cannot ignore the growing influence of online opinion. Not only do shoppers trust word-of-mouth recommendations over corporate advertising these days, but you also get more detailed and up-to-date views from user comments.
For vendors, it's important to have a list of their top 10 or 20 most influential sites, and to keep an eye on them regularly, and respond responsibly and quickly as in the examples in this piece. Larger brands and high-profile individuals may prefer to employ a monitoring service to do this for them – but make sure it's a service that does more than just report. The good services will give you a measure of the influence of one story over another, so that you can prioritize your responses, and also understand how a posting or story can affect your overall reputation score.
Melanie Harries
Reputica (www.reputica.com)
London