In the discussion about how to maintain a good online reputation, the CEO of reputation.com said that it is not just what you put online yourself. Someone may take your photo, upload it and tag it with your name. There you are, and it lives on the web forever. This is a little scary.

When my kids were teenagers and just beginning to drive, they would often chafe at the restrictions placed on them by angrily asking why I didn’t trust them. Parents everywhere have used this response, “It’s not you I am worried about. It is all the other nutty drivers out there!” It seems that we now need to worry about online reputation in much the same way.

Perusing my twitter stream a little while later, I ran across a tweet from @SteveMartinToGo, about an embarrassing piece in another online piece. It alleges that he, Steve Martin, jumped up on a table to sing to Sir Elton John. However, according to his tweet, he was not even there! “Lorne, trusting wife and I agree, where were we when this happened? http://tiny.cc/9runy Could it be they MADE THIS UP? Nah.” Later he tweets that this must be the only embarrassing event in the last 10 years that has not been filmed and placed on Youtube!

Steve Martin is monitoring his online reputation, but he is an actor, comedian, writer, and generally famous guy. What could possibly be out there about me that is untrue? I Googled myself for science. On a site I won’t name, my age is listed as 70. Hm. Not exactly a malicious lie, and my sons will tell you I am as old as dirt, but 70? Untrue.

Monitoring online reputation was also equated with monitoring your credit report. If you have had the misfortune of having a mistake on your credit report, you know the hassles involved in getting it fixed. It is especially maddening when the mistake is not the result of anything you have done. It is difficult and time consuming, and you can get the feeling that the people that can fix it, don’t really care to make it right. How much more of a challenge to repair an online reputation slammed by someone with too much time on their hands.

I have focused on personal online reputation management so far, but all this and more applies to businesses reputations online. Look for more reputation ramblings in a future post.

Have you Googled your name lately? What have you found that surprised you?

Photo Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1132146

Regina Sillitti is Project Coordinator for Dinkum Interactive. She has worked in programming, design, business analysis and quality assurance. Her background in design and data processing give her a unique perspective on client - tech translation. You can reach her at regina@dinkuminteractive.com, or find her on Twitter, @ReginaSillitti.

Online reputation management is becoming increasingly important to businesses of all sizes. A recent article in the Philadelphia Business Journal offers a great reminder that successful companies are proactive when it comes to protecting their brand on the net.

Comcast Protects Xfinity

Web Addresses Ready for Any Comcast Brand Displeasure (Note: Requires Subscription) describes a perfect example of the best defense is a good offense.  As Comcast rolls out its Xfinity service, Wilmington Delaware’s Corporation Service Company (CSC) has registered the majority of website addresses that would interest any disgruntled customer intent on sticking it to the man. Addresses ending in .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz and .tv for each of four names — xfinitysucks, xfinitytvsucks, xfinityinternetsucks and xfinityvoicesucks have all been registered. While CSC bills itself as as “your single source to secure, promote and protect brands,” the company could just as easily be a nefarious organization looking to damage Comcast or any other company.

Philadelphia Companies In Need of Protection (?)

Whether it’s foreign fraudsters, bored teenagers or customers that have had an uncustomary bad experience, smart businesses should take all reasonable precautions to protect their brand on the internet. After some thought, I took a few moments to find a few Philadelphia-area businesses that may need to protect themselves:

TastyKakeSucks.com
AstraZenecaSucks.com
AnthropologieSucks.com
PepBoysSucks.com
DietzandWatsonSucks.com

While these are intended only as an example, companies that deal directly with the public should take steps to avoid some neer-do-well ruining their hard work.

How Can an Online Reputation Be Protected?

It’s safe to say that protecting your online reputation will be a continual process, however creating a basic plan and sticking to it will help keep you out of trouble and minimize any damage. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Create a Plan – It doesn’t have to be an equivalent to the Normandy invasion, but a plan will keep you focused on what needs to be done.
2. Protect Your Domain – Register the .com, .net, .org, and .info versions of your primary domain name
3. Listen to What’s Being Said About You – Start by setting up a Google Alert to identify online mentions and listening using social media. You can learn more about it in a prior post .
4. Respond to Criticism When Appropriate – Face it, sometimes we screw up. Businesses, like humans, are imperfect. With this said, don’t feel as though every complaint warrants a response; they don’t. However, if a negative comment of significance is made, first try to resolve the issue and second ask them to amend their comment once satisfied.
5. Bury Bad Stuff When Necessary – Sometimes customers cannot be satisfied no matter what you do. If that bad comment or disparaging video bubbles on to the first page in Google, bury it with a competing post or video that will move the negative item off the first page.

OK, you may have noticed that I did not mention buying every version of your domain name appended by the term “sucks” – You got me there… Unless you serve hundreds of thousands of people and have more money than God, it probably won’t pay. But if you’re Comcast, it might.

How do you protect your online reputation? Have you heard any online reputation management horror stories? Please share them in the comments.

Bill Rowland

As a result, I’ve had the opportunity to read quite a few blog posts about business resolutions for the coming year. So I thought that I’d pick a few favorites to share and offer a brief comment; most are online marketing-centric, but they all apply to business in general too:

1. Improve Results Tracking and Measurement – Many businesses track metrics like sales, leads generated and cost per sale, but rarely tie them directly to marketing activities. Tracking results is great, but what do they mean to the business? Make an effort to understand what marketing activities are productive and which are less so.
2. Increase Planning – Planning is perhaps the most influential step in marketing success. Often requiring estimation and guess work, many feel that marketing planning ranks up there with a root canal. This doesn’t have to be the case; understanding that plans are not set in stone and can change is important to overcome this perception. A quarterly performance and planning session can do wonders to help stay focuses on marketing success.
3. Perform a Website Review – Too many businesses spend the time and effort to develop a good web presence, only to let it whither on the vine. What do dead Links, dated material and a broken layout say to users interested in your business? “I don’t care,” “I’m not professional,” “Don’t buy from me.” A quick internal website review is good; having an online marketing company offer a more complete review would be even better.
4. Monitor Online Brand Mentions – Regardless of whether a business actively participates in social media, they should at least listen to what others are saying. Free / low cost tools like Google Alerts or Trackur are a good place to start.
5. Integrate Marketing Efforts – Communicating a consistent message across all platforms is low-hanging fruit. Strong, cohesive messaging gives prospects a much better feeling for a company and its products. Examples could include:a. Including a website URL in printed advertising
   b. Referencing a social media presence in an email
   c. Mentioning an online presence  in a telephone voicemail system
   
6. Reevaluate Goals, Strategies & Tactics – Online marketing planning is a continuous process and requires regular review. Stepping back to review progress and make necessary adjustments only makes sense.
7. Experiment – The tried and true marketing activities are proven, but the continually changing nature of business makes it necessary to keep an eye out for emerging opportunities. Every productive marketing activity was new and experimental at one time. Consider several low risk, high reward marketing experiments.

Ok. So 7 is a bit more than “a few,” but I think that these all apply. I could have popped out at least a dozen more, but these are some of the high points. What do you think about these resolutions? Do they make sense? What do you need to do going into 2010?

Bill Rowland

What is Google Real Time Search?

We live in a society that has a constant thirst for information. Whether you love it or hate it, the “always connected,” 24/7 nature of modern life continues to manifest itself in many ways. In my opinion, Real Time Search is an extension of this. A perfect example is last year’s Miracle on the Hudson; I first heard about the dramatic events via Twitter after it took the traditional media some time to report on the crash.

Essentially, Real time search is the inclusion of fresh, up-to-the-minute information from sources like Twitter, FriendFeed, Blogs and other forms of social media.

As with anything new, there is a great deal of noise about the implications of Real Time Search. Frankly, it’s all speculation but here are some of the high points:

What Does Real Time Search Look Like?

For the purpose of brevity, we’ll look at the results provided by Google. Real Time Search results can be found embedded in the Search Engine Results Pages for topics that generate significant real time interest. Recently, Tiger Woods (sigh) has been of great interest:

In addition, users can navigate to see real time results using Google’s search options:

Step # 1: Select “Show Options”

Step # 2: Select “Latest” from the publication options

Step # 3: Review the results as they update in real time

Benefits of Real Time Search

Rapid Delivery of News – User will have access to real time news and opinion.

Improved Search Engine Relevancy – While some focus on the benefits that Real Time Search offers the end user, others believe that the biggest benefits will be to the search engines themselves. Kevin Newcomb offered his opinion on Real Time Search last October.

Elimination of a Filter – Whether it’s traditional media or new media, there is always a filter between those reporting events and users. Real time search removes this intermediary to provide raw data.

Problems with Real Time Search

Irrelevant & Inaccurate Information – For all the benefits of speed, the downside is quality. There has always been a fire hose of online data and the inclusion of real time data dramatically increases the flow through the hose. The trick will be how to harness that flow to create usable information.

SPAM Magnet – With the tremendous interest in Real Time Search, many will be considering new ways in which to exploit it. At least initially, it may not be overly useful as Google, Yahoo! and others tweak their results to get a better idea of its use.

Elimination of a Filter – Yes, the elimination of a filter can be a negative too. Data is not useful until it is used to create information and filters help us do that. For example, CNN, Google, or an industry-expert blogger all act to help us separate the wheat from the chaff to find the information that is meaningful to us.

Implications for Business

The roll out of Real Time Search will impact companies that maintain an internet presence in a variety of ways. Among them are:

Real Time Search Will Shape Search Results – Search engines have used social media sources to assess the relevancy and value of information on the web; the integration of Real Time Search into search engine results will continue this trend.

Social Media Should Not Be Ignored – The inclusion of Real Time Search is only the most recent shift by Google to increase the importance of social media in its assessment of value and relevancy. Those businesses interested in successfully marketing themselves online must at least consider whether social media would be a productive tactic in its online marketing plan.

Online Reputation Management Is Now More Important – With the removal of filters, anyone can say anything about a company. Users can heap praise and criticism, whether warranted or not, on any firm at a moment’s notice. To some degree, businesses can insulate themselves from these negative effects by developing a level of social proof and trust, however it’s all businesses should take steps to monitor their online reputation.

Conclusion

Real Time Search is an interesting and exciting development, which will have a dramatic impact on businesses with an online presence. While the dust has yet to settle, it’s clear that businesses interested in being successful online must critically evaluate the impact of Real Time Search.  What do you see as the potential impacts of Real Time Search. How will it impact your company?

Bill Rowland