The internet is a mysterious and complex beast. For any business operating online it is worth keeping a sharp eye on what the internet is and isn’t saying about you, after all you can work so hard to make your company an online success then without you knowing it could all come crashing down- why? Because you didn’t pick up on the negative vibes circulating the net or the complaints being posted on various blogs. On the other hand, however, you may be gaining some very valuable reviews but no one knows about it… well in both cases reputation management can help.

Reputation management is essentially a form of public relations and can be used by anyone, business or not, to:

Why is it important?

Word of mouth is one of the most influential methods of marketing and on the internet it can spread like wildfire. Using reputation management techniques you can bolster your online presence, minimise any negative press from catching on and allow for a quick response to anything bad that does pop up.

Monitoring your company online.

The list of places to monitor your brand is endless really. The first place to start is of course the search engines. A company name search in the main search engines (Google, Yahoo! & MSN) quite obviously allows you to see what and who is being ranked for your company name; you don’t want any undesirables being listed now do you?

Directories, such as DMoz & Thomson,  can date very quickly so keeping an eye on your company profile within these databases will ensure that customers are seeing completely up to date information about you.

There could very well be a conversation about your company happening this very minute on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. You need to monitor these conversations and join in if necessary.

Bloggers can be your best friend or worst enemy, keep an eye on what people are saying about your brand by monitoring the blogosphere. Keeping an eye on blog search engines such as Technorati, Zuula Blog Search and Blog Pulse will help you see if any bloggers are talking about your company.

A helpful tool for companies looking to monitor their company online is Google Alerts, it is a service that will alert you every time your chosen keyword (in this case it would be your company name perhaps) is mentioned, alerts can be emailed or appear in a Google Reader. Backtype is another free service which will alert you of any comments made on a blog post which mention your company name. YackTrack is another excellent tool that will track ‘chatter’ about your company.

Building your online reputation

The above sum says it all, if you are going out of your way to share unbiased and honest information and provide advice that is of benefit to others, which is not completely self promotional, then people will respond in a positive way.

Although it seems like common sense stuff, putting it into action can be tricky business. Referring back to the aforementioned social networking sites, these can be an excellent place to get started. Use them to talk about how good your product or service is, they are an excellent way to communicate with your market. Be warned though, don’t talk sales or jargon to them, create a conversation with them that they want to have- perhaps tell them about new products, offer advice when needed, respond to any comments posted and try to create a personality for your company.

Creating a blog is another excellent way to talk to your market about your products and services, use it as a place to talk about any exciting news going on in the company and to shout about the good work the company and employees have been doing. Bring personality to the blog by getting employees involved in writing posts and commenting, when people start engaging with your blog it really turns into a social media tool in itself.

Has your company been mentioned in an online article or has a member of staff wrote an outstanding blog or article? Then spread it around the internet with the use of bookmarking sites and social news websites. On these websites you can bookmark, or refer to a specific article you enjoy and share it with other users of the website, DoshDosh provide an excellent list of social news websites that will do the trick.

User generated content is king, customers believe and rely on reviews from customers and blog, seek out niche industry review sites, put together a profile and encourage your customers to write reviews, however, as we will discuss in the next part of the post these review sites can also be abused and require monitoring.

Protecting your company online

All this company and brand monitoring may eventually lead to the discovery of some negative press, hopefully not but sometimes you can’t avoid someone somewhere who has a chip in their shoulder and wants to tell everyone about it. 360innovate have been the subject of such negativity and we know its not nice.

The best way to handle negative press is to utilise all the social media tools you used to promote your reputation. In some cases an apology may be required in others a public statement- no matter what has been said some form of response is required.

Act fast by responding to the person, company or website that is the source of the negative comments or actions, if necessary post a statement on your blog or website. Be honest and open in any reponse that you post, and if the negativity relates to any aspect of your product or customer service then any worried customers to contact you. Following up this statement with a courtesy call or email will also help clear the air and demonstrate to your existing customers that they are the priority.

As a rule of thumb it takes three good pieces of publicity to combat one piece, so get working on generating three positive stories or actions that your company can do to bury any harmful stories.

Above all ensure you run a honest company with integrity, look after your customers and they will look after you… the rest should be easy!