Don’t be caught off guard by negative reports about you, your company or the products and services you offer. Likewise, don’t fail to take advantage of the positive buzz that the online community generates on your behalf.
Failure to track and react to the negative as soon as it appears limits your opportunities to control the damage while not tracking and leveraging the latter can be a waste of golden opportunities. It’s one thing when we say something nice about ourselves, it’s exponentially more powerful when it’s said by an unbiased 3rd party.
The web presents us with a wonderful array of tracking tools and services. Google Alert is one such service that will track whatever topics you specify for you. They offer a limited free service as well as more robust personal and professional paid offerings. Do-it-yourselfers can achieve the same results by merely searching on their name or product names at Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN Search and whatever other search engines you feel are relevant. Don’t forget to search news services, blogs and social book marking sites.
A few resources to use in tracking your reputation online:
- News :: Google News
- Blogs :: Google Blog Search, Technorati
- Social bookmarking :: Digg, del.icio.us
Don’t be the last to know when someone says something bad, or good, about you on the web. Be proactive, not reactive in managing your and your company’s reputation.
