How to Protect Your Online Reputation: Best Practices, Tools and Strategies
By Ehud J Furman
The days of leading a secret private life out of the public eye went out of style when the use of the Internet became the norm for gathering pertinent information about people or companies. Your digital footprint goes before you, and for that reason, it's more important than ever to be on guard 24/7 because everything you do or say can have either a positive or a negative effect on your online reputation. However, even by diligently trying to maintain a positive reputation, no one is immune to what other people might say or write that can affect your online image. In this day and age, your online reputation is taken into account when it comes to searching for a job, seeking business partners or associates or promoting a product, brand or company. In fact, the latest studies show that when showing up for a business interview, there is a 78% chance that the person sitting across from you has already checked out your business and personal reputation online by simply entering your name into a search engine. HR professionals, recruiters, insurance companies and potential business partners check personal websites, search engine results and even social media networking sites for instances of your name appearing. If your image online fluctuates, so will the confidence of your company's shareholders, your business partners, employees and of course, your valuable clientele.
Defensively Guarding your Online Reputation
Other than understanding that whatever someone does or says might end up on the Internet and effect your credibility, it is vital to take the first step in protecting yourself by being proactive in relationship to your online reputation. Begin by doing a Google search for your name or company and see what type of listings show up on the first and second pages. Repeat this analysis on a regular basis so that if something negative does pop up, you'll be the first to know. By careful and diligent monitoring of your name online, you can avoid letting other people's comments or events put a smudge on your image. Conversely, by aggressively spreading the positive links connected to your name it is possible to actually strengthen your current image.
Tools to Manage Your Presence Online
After conducting a careful evaluation of where your name or the name of your company or brand stands in a Google search, set up alerts that will notify you of every new instance that your name appears on the Internet. Check each listing and use the good ones to promote yourself or your product by spreading them to multiple sites. Negative mentions require a very careful and sensitive approach that will neutralize them while you take immediate steps to protect your name from damage. While there are online reputation companies that have experience in handling these types of situations, the basic elements of any plan to save a reputation involves getting the faulty or damaging information removed (or at least hidden) from the Internet and, in conjunction, posting positive articles to counter-balance the negative. Intensifying the promotion of your positive online image has the effect of pushing the negative remarks into the background. There are several ways to do this, which include:
• Frequent uploads of quality content regarding you or your product including blog posts, comments on the sites of others in a similar field of business, white papers.
• Attract new visitors to your website or blog through SEO tools such as pertinent key words, links and optimized copy.
• Increase your Internet real estate through the use of social media marketing, press releases and carefully placed articles.
• Tag yourself or your product in photos from professional conventions, important meetings or well-designed advertising.
The Benefits of Positive Publishing
An important concept of overcoming a soiled Internet image is to bury the false or slanted comments with loads of positive content. There are many places on the Internet that you can use to do this, but it takes a high degree of consistency and professional writing to bring about the desired effect. Publish your name, your brand, your client's positive comments, awards, media attention and good product reviews. Take advantage of good words and spread them across the Internet through the use of social media sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Reddit. Make a Facebook page for you, your company or your product and build up a community of friends whom you can engage in discussions regarding positive experiences and share new product information.
Honestly Evaluate Your Online Image
Remember that a credible and trustworthy image requires non-stop maintenance. Spend time critiquing the picture that the Internet paints of you and make sure you're satisfied with it. By putting yourself in the shoes of the outsider you can honestly evaluate and create an online image that will attract reputable and trustworthy business associates.
Ehud Furman is the CEO of Veribo.
Veribo is a pioneer in the field of online reputation management and understands the value of maintaining and promoting a positive online reputation. It takes advantage of its own proprietary technology and IT to accurately and actively pursue its clients' interests through careful and diligent monitoring and timely management of digital assets. A solid and trustworthy online presence is an important asset that increases business opportunities while building client trust, both of which result in increased individual and corporate value. The Veribo Internet professionals have successfully improved the online reputation of more than 100,000 clients located in some 20 countries and, in addition, Veribo offers its unique online reputation repair services to its international partners.
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