| Online Reputation Management, or ORM, is a relatively | | | | want your business to be known for. Make all content |
| new term that refers to the practice of regularly | | | | in your business's social media profiles relevant and |
| monitoring your business's or brand name's standing in | | | | useful, so that search engine spiders are able to find it |
| the online community. Why is it important to monitor | | | | easily. Remember that ORM is about influencing what |
| your business's online image? The answer should be | | | | others say about you, so give people plenty of good |
| fairly obvious. Almost every member of today's | | | | things to say in your social media profiles. |
| consumer market uses the internet on a daily basis to | | | | 2. Participate in the online community |
| find out how and where to purchase the products and | | | | Having a good social media profile, or even multiple |
| services they need. Thus, your business's online | | | | ones, is not enough. You have to interact with your |
| reputation has a huge effect on your business's actual, | | | | customers and business community. This means |
| real-life success. | | | | returning people's emails and answering comments, |
| The challenge of online reputation management comes | | | | and encouraging and participating in forum discussions. |
| from the fact that online social media sites as well as | | | | Being active in your online community is a great way |
| the popularity of user generated content (UGC) make | | | | to expand your network of influence, giving you |
| it difficult to control one's online business reputation. Bad | | | | increased control of your online reputation. |
| reviews and negative articles posted by competitors | | | | 3. Write. A lot. |
| about your business can have a huge effect on your | | | | Posting articles and blogs regularly is a huge part of |
| online reputation. Here are a few tips to help you | | | | ORM as well. Successful blogs and articles that get a |
| combat negative reviews and project the reputation | | | | lot of hits help you spread your brand name and |
| you want. | | | | improve your search engine results page rankings. |
| 1. Social Media Profiles | | | | 4. Monitor |
| Setting up effective profiles of your business on social | | | | After you've set up profiles, blogs, and written articles |
| media sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and | | | | about your industry for different sites, check up on |
| Twitter is one of the most important parts of good | | | | your company's online standing on a regular basis. Do |
| online reputation management. Include your company's | | | | a Google search on your business and see what |
| history and mission statement, as well as company | | | | people are saying in popular online forums and social |
| bios, avatars and logos, and any information that you | | | | media sites. |