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A few weeks ago I had an author call me in a blind panic - somebody had evaluated her book online and it wasn't great, in reality, it was downright nasty. She was frightened this would damage her online reputation, and the worst part, there was really little she could do.
It wasn't someone we, the publisher, or the author had actually ever worked with before, nor had anybody ever called her, how she got the book is anybody's guess, however she did, and she hated it.
The price for online exposure can often be high, but this story brings back the clear fact: no matter whether you market yourself on the 'Net, somewhere, in some way, you'll wind up on there.
Whether it's through an evaluation or some other posting, you'll wind up on the Internet and as a watchful marketer you'll want to know who's saying what about you. Whether it's excellent or bad, you can still handle it.
Likewise, you want to keep an eye on what individuals are saying about your company. So how do you win the online reputation video game? Here are some ideas you may want to think about.
The majority of the time those who pick to review a company or comment on a service do so positively, but even positive posts require to be kept an eye on. Why? Well, there's a lot you can do with them, and these tips will show you how.
1) First, remember that you're not only doing this simply to monitor who's talking or blogging about you, but to keep an eye on what's being stated about your subject, so you can both keep track of new advancements and engage in conversations with others.
2) Use RSS feeds to help monitor conversations on the Internet that involve you, your subject, or your book. You can go to any of these sites to create these custom-made RSS feeds: Technorati, blogpulse, google news, spaces.live, feedster, icerocket and google's Blogsearch.
3) Using MonitorThis.com you can keep track of your keywords across 22 different search engines. Bear in mind that you'll need an RSS Feedreader to keep an eye on the feeds that been available in.
4) Online groups might be another place to look. If you have not signed up for any groups connected to your topic, now might be a great time.
Have a look at the groups at yahoo, aol, msn and google.
5) It's probably not a wise to spend your days ferreting out every commentor that publishes about you, so before you decide to get in touch with a blog writer, head on over to http://www.alexa.com to get some website stats initially.
That way you can make certain that prior to you go the effort of calling the blogger, he or she has a broader audience than just mama and Aunt Viola. Now that you have your screens in place, what's next?
Let's look at how you can constructively use this information. First you'll want to have a blog. Why? You'll want to use this as a forum to address news on your subject or on you. And do not wait up until you need to post something to begin a blog, begin one as quickly as possible so you're up and running.
A blog site will humanize your site and assist you develop a relationship with your readers, then whenever your monitors inform you to a new subject, a new evaluation, or a brand-new mention of you, you can respond by providing your own twist, insight or feedback.
When it comes to the negative review, the author chose to deal with the important things we all fear most: what if somebody hates your company? She published a blog and got so many favorable responses they virtually counteracted whatever the reviewer said.
Next, if you discover someone has talked about you, your company or your subject, I suggest connecting with them, providing your insight, or thanking him or her for any favorable reviews or mentions you got.
Aside from monitoring, blogging, and online networking, another foolproof method to safeguard your reputation online is to have a lot of positive feedback, evaluations, features.
Why? Much like the author who blogged on her review, the excellent cancels out the bad. The Internet is really self-correcting that method, so get out there and obtain some fantastic "press," it'll settle not just when it comes to a reputation, but likewise when someone is searching for information on your topic.
And finally, it may not make sense to spend your days policing the Internet.
There are services that will do that for you, monitoring the internet constantly, spreading the good news about you and your company and addressing the negative reputation you might get from bad reviews. This can free your time and remove the stress of worrying that someone is hurting your business.
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