Online Reputation Management

Kristin KeithBe Found Online Sept. 30, 2009

Game planNew RulesWhy You Should CareBusiness Rep ManPersonal Rep ManQ&A

New RulesYou do not control your reputation, or

message, or brand image. On or offline.The only thing you can control is what

you say, do, or contribute. Same in the real world.

No one cares how large or how old your business is. They care about what you do or say.

New RulesTalking like a robot or a corporate drone

doesn’t work. Being real does. People want to see the real you regardless.Your marketing plans (and the future of your

career/business) depend on putting your best out there online.◦ 63% of a company’s market value is attributable to

reputation*Remember: Your grandma can see all of this.

Literally.

*Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, Beal & Strauss.

The Good NewsIf you do a good deed, the Internet

shows that.◦Help customers on Twitter◦Provide superior service that gets a great

shoutout on Yelp!◦Create a website or a blog that gets raves

and builds a community◦Promote multimedia assets under your name

(a personalized YouTube video or Flickr page)

Why You Should CarePotential and current customers, employees,

employers, business partners, friends, family, and romantic relationships all use this to evaluate you.

This type of conversation always happened; you just never saw it.◦ 78% of executive recruiters use search engines to

learn more about candidates; 35% have eliminated candidates based on what they found.*

*Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, Beal & Strauss.

Business

For BusinessesA few spots to consider:

◦Page one of Google or Yahoo!◦Google Alerts◦General buzz (online news, forwarded info

you may receive)◦Info on:

Message boards/forums Twitter Blogs and blog comments

Monitor and RespondRSS reader

◦Free RSS reader services such as Moreover, Digg, Backpulse, Twitter, Google blog, Technorati

Additional paid monitoring services available◦Techrigy or Radian6

Content CrowdPutting out positive content

◦Social media (can use a service like Knowem.com to reserve names) Official Twitter feed (tools like Tweetdeck work

well for tracking and responding)◦Blog, updated subdomains for website◦Encourage customers to use Yelp! and

monitor regularly to respond

Content CrowdFocus on your own website

◦ Start a blog and house it under a subdomain-http://blog.kkisawesome.com

◦ Add additional pages under separate subdomains for Google love (customer service, contact, etc.) http://customerservice.kkisawesome.com http://contactus.kkisawesome.com

◦ If your customers cannot contact you quickly and easily online, your reputation will suffer.

Responding to Negative If you have issues with a site like RipoffReport.com or

PissedConsumer.com, best to update your website for customer service or add extra portal (GetSatisfaction.com)

Responding to Yelp! or Google Local reviews

◦http://www.yelp.com/business/review_response

Personal

How To Promote Your Personal Online Rep

Create a website/write a blog under your name◦ Buy your domain name and link content to it

Social networking. Clean it up. Add more value.◦ First: Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Profile

(www.google.com/profile)◦ Then: Video (YouTube, Vimeo), Blog (Tumblr, Wordpress)

Microblog (Twitter)

FAQsWhat if page one of Google looks crazy

and it’s NOT ME?◦Update your Google profile, LinkedIn profile,

and Facebook page◦Add your photo and personal website to as

many outlets as possible◦Make it easy for people to distinguish what is

you and what isn’t

FAQsWhat if I need to remove something

that’s less than flattering?◦If it’s something you own, just remove it. ◦If it’s something you don’t own, contact the

owner and ask them nicely to remove it. If they are unwilling or unable to remove, then

double check your privacy settings.

Site list RSS readers/sites for setting up realtime monitoring:

◦ www.moreover.com (news sources and blogs for your industry) Can also check Yahoo! news (news.yahoo.com/rss) or

Topix (topix.com/dir)◦ www.twitter.com (RSS reader for individual feeds and

mentions of your name)◦ www.blogpulse.com (for blog comments)◦ http://blogsearch.google.com (Google blog search)◦ www.digg.com (Digg search)◦ www.flickr.com and www.delicious.com (photo sharing and

bookmarking) Can use pixsy.com for RSS

◦ www.technorati.com (blog ranking)

Site listPaid monitoring systems (good for more

complex reporting and realtime monitoring)◦ www.techrigy.com◦ www.radian6.com

Google alerts◦ Set them up for news, blogs, web and video (or a

combo of all)Consider setting up RSS for multiple sets of

keywords and misspellings◦ Nike shoes, Big Mac, etc.

Checklist◦ Get a handle on your online rep right now◦ Setup monitoring tools and start reading daily◦ If there are weak areas, start working on them

Customer service? Competition dominating your online space? Lack of buzz overall?

◦ Build on where you are strong Provide valuable info or resources to your community

in these areas◦ Figure out a plan for defense against future issues

Not if, but when

Questions? Interested in more help?Contact me!

◦kristin.keith@befoundonline.com◦847.508.6215 (mobile) or 800.288.1426 (work)◦www.befoundonline.com