| The social media explosion has been a boon to small | | | | notify you when your firm is being discussed. Another |
| firms trying to get a foothold with a larger audience. | | | | easy-to-use tool is Google Reader, a news |
| With that online exposure, however, there are | | | | aggregator which collects specific headlines from |
| sometimes unexpected results. An important part of | | | | syndicated web content into condensed reports for |
| creating an online presence is keeping tabs on how | | | | you to scan. |
| others online perceive your brand. Here are three easy | | | | In the event your firm is mentioned in a negative |
| ways to monitor your firm's online presence. | | | | context, you have the option of contacting them to do |
| Read Your Own Website | | | | damage control. A good customer service strategy |
| Just as some of us never check our own voicemail | | | | includes how online complaints will be handled. If you're |
| greetings, some firms build a webpage and never go | | | | not tracking what others are saying, however, negative |
| back to see how it performs. If you haven't read your | | | | comments could be costing you potential new |
| own website since you last updated it, it's time to get | | | | business and seriously damaging your online reputation. |
| into the habit. Broken links and other webpage errors | | | | What's Your Social Media Reputation? |
| quickly give your firm a black eye with your potential | | | | There are also great tools specifically intended to track |
| audience. | | | | what's being blogged, tweeted and otherwise posted |
| Schedule regular visits to your website, or assign the | | | | on social networking sites about your firm. Twitter |
| job to someone in your firm. There are free tools such | | | | Search can tell you instantly what's being tweeted and |
| as one from Website Goodies that let you check all | | | | you can set up an RSS feed to notify you. Pay |
| your links at once. Ensuring that your website always | | | | services like Trackur will monitor your entire social |
| gets the reader where she wants to go should be the | | | | media presence automatically. You can also set up |
| first building block in your strategy for monitoring your | | | | RSS feeds at free services like Flickr and Digg to |
| online presence. | | | | keep your finger on your social media pulse. |
| When in Doubt, Google | | | | Your online reputation can either be one of your most |
| Another important part of your online brand is what | | | | important branding assets or a PR nightmare. Before |
| others are saying about you. Online search engines | | | | you can respond to criticism or build on the |
| such as Google and Bing make it easy for potential | | | | recommendations of others, however, you must know |
| clients to read online comments about your firm. | | | | what's being said about your company online. Set up a |
| Shouldn't you know what's being said, as well? | | | | system for regularly monitoring online comments about |
| Your next tool for tracking your online presence should | | | | your firm. By doing so, you can successfully manage |
| be a regular search of your firm's name on the major | | | | your company's Internet presence. |
| search engines. You can set up Google Alerts to | | | | |