| There are many reasons people use Internet | | | | can be about anything related to your company or |
| marketing or search engine optimization. One of them | | | | product, the idea is to have them point back to your |
| includes the improvement of their online reputation. | | | | company website and push its value up on search |
| The term "online reputation management", or ORM, is | | | | engines. |
| defined, as the practice of consistent research and | | | | Second, you will want to create a social media profile. |
| analysis of one's personal or professional, business or | | | | Using social media is one of the most powerful and |
| industry reputation as represented by the content | | | | yet easy ways to help improve your online reputation. |
| across all types of online media. It is also sometimes | | | | The top four social media sites have high authority in |
| referred to as online reputation monitoring. | | | | search engines that therefore affects your rankings. |
| Those in marketing know and understand the value of | | | | What are the big four media sites you should be |
| branding and image. Combine this with the influence of | | | | participating in? They include: |
| consumer's decisions based on the Internet and one | | | | Facebook |
| can see what businesses are using the Internet to | | | | Twitter |
| market themselves. For instance research has shown | | | | Linked-In |
| that brands with the highest 'social media activity', | | | | MySpace |
| including reviews, have seen an increase in revenue by | | | | Once these simple steps have been put into place, the |
| as much as 18%. And today, over 51% of consumers | | | | second step is to begin monitoring and participating. |
| are using the Internet before making a purchase in a | | | | Creating an account with social media groups isn't |
| shop to educate themselves on a company or | | | | enough; there are rules of engagement. You have to |
| product. | | | | participate in a way that adds credibility to your profile. |
| Consumers love to gather information. Therefore it is | | | | Participating isn't just about talking about your company |
| important that when they search for your company or | | | | and how wonderful it is, but truly engaging others in |
| brand name, they find it in the search engines. This is | | | | conversation, making meaningful exchanges and |
| where SEO is tied into reputation management. | | | | contributions. Doing this requires time and effort that is |
| Search engines do not automatically give credence to | | | | ongoing. |
| one company over another due to assets or value. It's | | | | Last, you will need to monitor your results. You can set |
| all about who understands how to get online visibility. | | | | up Google and Yahoo alerts which will catch mentions |
| So let's say you are Company A and want to improve | | | | of your company and product name online and let you |
| the name of your company and become more visible | | | | know who is talking about you and where. You can |
| on the Internet. What strategy would you take to | | | | track everything from the name of your company to |
| assist you with your online reputation management? | | | | key employee names. |
| To start you would want to combine a series of | | | | You can also monitor, if you are not already, your |
| marketing, public relations and search engine marketing | | | | website statistics. You will want to determine whether |
| efforts. Having your website and company name | | | | your website(s) are showing up with more frequency |
| highly visible and in important keyword positions is good | | | | based on keywords and your name brand or product |
| for publicity. If you are a company that is highly visible | | | | names on the search engines. You can monitor |
| but for all the wrong reasons, such as bad press, it is | | | | everything from your corporate site to product or |
| important to replace this with good press. A good SEO | | | | affiliate sites. |
| company will help you push out negative reviews in | | | | Online reputation management doesn't have to be |
| search engines and replace them with positive ones. | | | | difficult and yet it is quite effective. With a little work |
| What are some strategies an SEO company will take | | | | and a little monitoring, you can help your company's |
| to help your company in addition to monitoring results? | | | | reputation move in the direction you choose along with |
| First they will help you set up a blog and then provide | | | | improving its visibility. |
| you with articles with important keywords. The articles | | | | |