One’s online image is an extremely important thing. This is as true of individuals as it is of companies. If your image gets sullied you may end up losing your customers, partners and even friends. This is something that should be common sense but every so often is ignored much to one’s own detriment and peril.
Online reputation management has to do with actively promoting one’s online presence, while constantly monitoring the search results. The moment one sees something negative; one must try and deal with it immediately. The way to doing this is multi pronged.
Optimize Your Online Presence
Use your name or that of your company as much as you can on the Internet. The more mention there is of your personal website or that of the company , Google will notice it and your name will come up quite prominently on their searches in terms of the number of times it gets mentioned.
Your Web Presence Should Be Diverse
Try and find mention in the Google top ten search results for keywords you and your company have synergy with. The thing is that rather than completely getting rid of negative content about you, the endeavor should be to balance it with lots of good content.
Seek Professional Help
There are companies that specialize in helping you manage your online reputation. These companies will track the Internet for bad comments and contain its fall out. They would also be able to advise you on how to build your online reputation in consonance with a pre-decided strategy. Potential customers or employers will use online research to make up their minds about you or your products and services. Bad reviews and complaints can put paid to your best efforts to present yourself in a favorable light.
This is where online reputation management will help you highlight and accentuate positive content and push negative content to remote recesses of the Internet. On an individual level the basic things you can do is to Google your name from time to time and set up a Google alert. This will let you know how you are faring and also whether your efforts are bearing fruit or do you need to correct your course.
The world has come a long way from the days when your reputation was pretty much in your own hands. Not anymore. It’s more like it is at the mercy of the search engines! But the good news is that one can do something about it. The crux of the matter is that good news about you has to travel faster and wider than the bad. You manage to get that right, you are not only going to be right; you will thrive.
Not doing anything is not an option at all, for like it or not the World Wide Web has taken over all important functions pertaining to trade, commerce, banking, entertainment , socializing et al. The virtual world is the real world now, and we better have a good reputation in it.
About the Author
Tina is a freelance writer who writes on different topics such as travelling, beaches and social media. She has published more than 500 articles about various topics, including role of guest blogs and social media role in daily life. Her famous articles includes article on Online reputation management. She loves to travel and make new friends.