Every single moment, someone or the other is talking about you, your product, your services, your business, your competitors or your industry. They may be complimenting about a particular aspect of your business, appreciating certain things or generating hype for your business. There are also people who do not think too high about your service. They are cribbing, complaining or criticizing about your service or your product.

Let us say a much-hyped movie is on the verge of release. A lot of money, time and efforts have been spent in creating the magnum opus, and an equal amount of money has been spent on publicity. Can you imagine how much it can hurt both the distributors and creative team when the pre-release hype is countered by negative posts and scathing amount of criticism. A lot of people who read negative posts and information are bound to stay away from the movie affecting its business.

Not just a movie, but every conceivable product or service has its online reputation at stake thanks to the open platform offered by the web 2.O tradition. A blog post or a couple of comments posted online can either be a windfall for your business or topple it down like a pack of cards. There is also a term for this phenomenon-it is called customer generated media or CGM. To tackle the negativity generated by the consumer generated media, you need to take resort of online reputation management.

Online reputation management involves the method of tracking or monitoring every hour. Make sure you track everything that involves your product or service, right from product lines and employees to marketing strategies and competitors. You can go to morever.com; a website gives information on your industry and the latest developments and news in your industry.

You can collate all possible keywords that a user usually searches on in terms of your product or service. You can then set up ‘alerts’ (Google Alerts or Yahoo Alerts) for all of these keywords so that you are alerted when something about your company is posted online with the listed keywords in the ‘alerts’. You can also go to monitorthis.com which helps you keep track of a single keyword across different search engine feeds simultaneously.

Based on your keyword searches, you can make custom RSS fees from places like Technorati.com, Topblogging, Google News, Yahoo News and such others sites. It is even better to maintain all feeds into one RSS Reader like Google Reader, My Yahoo, Netvibes, Pageflakes, Bloglines, Newsgator etc. Find out some of the different forum sites or message boards that talk about your product or service and then closely track whatever is being written about. Similarly you can also track message groups like Yahoo Groups, Google Groups, MSN groups, AOL groups etc.

For online reputation management, you can also keep a track on some of the web pages through tools like watchthat.com and websitewatcher.com. You have to make sure you monitor every keyword and every page of the website that has anything even remote written about you. Monitoring and keeping a close watch of anything associated with your business is the one of the most important steps in online reputation management.

So, you spend time, money and effort ensuring the reputation of your company is exactly what you want it to be. But, have you considered your online reputation?

Online Reputation Management is becoming a buzz phrase in the online world as companies realise the damage that can be done to their reputation at the click of a mouse.

Imagine, you have completed a sales presentation to a prospective client – you have told them just how darn good you are and why you are the company for the job.

Now imagine that same customer leaves your meeting with a warm and fuzzy feeling but decide they should carry out a bit of Internet Research to find out as much about you as they can. Lo and behold, they turn up some less than complimentary comments about your product or service on a few forums and blogs.

Ah, the beauty of the freedom of speech. That is all well and good when people are saying complimentary things, but imagine the damage when they are not. A disgruntled employee, a less than satisfied customer or maybe a serial complainer, could all be at the root of the problem.

It is a known fact that PR is more effective as a selling tool than Advertising, why? The reason is PR is deemed to be impartial. Large corporations have even taken to adopting this practice with their TV advertising – for example the very large Supermarket who instead of telling you what good value for money their goods are, have decided to employ the services of a much loved British Comedienne to do what? Sell? No, bake bread on TV. There is no “strap line”, no “sales pitch”, they have not taken this decision without doing some research into human buying behaviour!

With this in mind, how powerful do you think negative information about your goods or service will be when deemed to be ‘impartial’?

But don’t for one moment think that this situation is limited to big businesses. You only have to look at the number of ‘review’ websites there are now to see that it can affect all size of businesses.

Remember the old adage “a happy customer will tell 2 people, an unhappy one will tell 10 times that number!” well, add the Internet into the equation at 10 times could easily become 1000 times on the information super highway!

Those companies with deep pockets are taking their online reputation management very seriously indeed. Nicky Nelson of Crystal Clear Website Marketing and Crystal Clear Virtual Assistants says; “We have noticed an increase in the number of enquiries for both Online Reputation Management, and Internet Research. Often the research we are asked to carry out is simply to determine what the online community is saying about the client who has employed our services. The outcome of which determines whether or not they require our Online Reputation Management Services!”

So, do you know what people are saying about your company, your products or your services? If not, then maybe you should!

For more information please visit www.ccseo.co.uk

Everyone, everywhere, has a reputation. This could be an individual or a business one; it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you know what your reputation is. Is it good, or are there some black marks there lurking about? Maybe you’ve had a horrible reputation in the past and are trying to change this into a good reputation. These are all possible scenarios.

Some people may wonder what the quality of their reputation has to do with anything. Reputation can make or break a person’s individual being or a company’s business. The better the reputation, the more people and consumers alike will respond positively.

In the ways of the consumer this can be construed as them being a repeat customer. A repeat customer has formed a union, a loyalty to the particular business based upon their previous experiences there. The better the experience, the more profitable it is for everyone and everything involved.

If an individual’s reputation is poor, then there is a lack of trust from those around him. People who feel this lack of trust believe they cannot rely on you; these same thoughts and emotions are just as prevalent in a consumer world. You just may not see them as clearly because, once a dissatisfied customer leaves, there is the chance that you won’t see them again.

A company’s reputation can be partially judged by searching the internet and seeing what people have to say. Checking with the Better Business Bureau or Chamber of Commerce are also very good ways to determine company reliability. What would you think if you saw a construction vehicle, parked at a bar late into the night? Would you wonder about the quality of their work or their reliability, not only as an individual but as an employee? Many companies have strict policies re the use of a company vehicle, and reputation plays a big part in the reason for this.

Another form of reputation is how you may stand out against your competitors or other individuals. The more you stand out in a positive aspect, the more you are positively noticed. The more positive notices you generate, the more business you generate. This simple idea works in all walks of life, in numerous situations.

I would rather go to a company that has a good reputation, even if I will spend more, rather than experience bad service elsewhere. This is also true in daily life; if help is something I need from an individual, I am not just going to go across the street and ask for help. No, I will think about those I know that could help and would be willing to help. Good help, attitude, service, ethics, all win in the end - making more happy people.