Online Reputation - Does That Matter You ?

31 Places to Monitor Your Reputation Online

With the explosion of Social Media in the last 1 year, there’s a lot of new places that marketers and business people need to start monitoring their reputation on. From search engines to forums to social news sites, knowing who’s talking about your company, its executives, your products or services online, is every more important. Social media, whether marketers like it or not, is here and it’s where Word of Mouth Marketing is starting and it also affects Search Engine results. So with that in mind, I compiled a list of places to keep an eye on. Feel free to comment, I’ll add places if I’ve glaringly omitted a site.

Search Engines
Search Engines are the foremost place you should be looking at managing your reputation. Who’s ranking for your company name, executive names, product or services? Your own website should be, if its not, its wise to figure out why you aren’t and another person is. You should also be concerned about who is ranking around you, the classic example is a search for the brand term “Starbucks.”

1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. Live
4. Ask
5. 2^nd Tiers (Lycos, LookSmart, Clusty, etc.)

Directories
The directories, although they can be outdated, are still a place to make sure you are being represented in the proper way. When directories list your site, sometimes they misspell things, or get a description of a site completely wrong. If you paid to have your site included, make sure the submission is exactly how you want to be represented.

1. DMOZ
2. Best of The Web
3. Yahoo
4. Industry Specific Directories

Social News Sites
One of the newest places that you need to keep an eye on for how your company, services and products are being represented. Although there isn’t much you can do to correct inaccurate information on these services, you should be aware it is out there and where its’ being reported.

1. Netscape
2. Newsvine
3. Reddit
4. Digg

Bookmarking Sites
It’s great when people can bookmark your website’s pages and share them. It’s a headache when they tag them wrong, or put in a wrong description and you start receiving traffic from them for all the wrong reasons. Like Social News Sites, there’s not a lot you can do to correct these errors, but knowing about them is half the battle, and knowing allows you to prepare how to handle the inaccuracies.

1. Delicious
2. Blue Dot
3. Diigo
4. Furl

Social Networks
Have you secured your company’s MySpace page yet? Yes, as silly as it sounds, a MySpace or Facebook page for your company would be a smart move. It would stop impostors, and you could get the added benefit of being able to spread the “true” news to a whole network of very interested “Friends”.

1. MySpace
2. Facebook

Photo Sharing Sites
Photo sharing sites are a great place to share your logos, product pictures, and even photos of events your company is sponsoring. It is also a place you need to monitor for your company’s name, products and services. Like bookmarking sites, tags and descriptions can be added to photos, and although you cannot do much to change someone else’s perception, it’s about being aware of its inaccurate presence.

1. Flickr
2. Photobucket
3. Picasa

Blogosphere
The wild, wild west of the internet, where a bad name can be created with one blog post, otherwise known as the Blogosphere. The most recent example of this is Jennifer Laycock’s incident with the National Pork Board. Within hours, the blogosphere went wild with this story. There have been other incidents like the Kryptonite Bike Lock incident, Microsoft’s giving laptops to bloggers, and Edelman & Walmart’s Flogging come right to the forefront of my mind. You need to keep an eye on the blogosphere, set up feeds to check what’s being posted about you, or look to see what kind of “buzz” is around your reputation.

Be aware, and come up with a game plan how to fix your problem if one creeps up. Also making sure to “claim” your site/blog/name on services like Technorati and MyBlogLog are essential. The last thing you want is an impostor getting a hold of your brand and doing damage.

1. Technorati
2. Blogpulse
3. Google BlogSearch
4. Ask Blogsearch
5. MyBlogLog

Other Sites
There’s a few other places that you should be aware of that don’t particularly fall into a “category”, but are equally important because of either the weight of their “perceived” authority or the viral effects and ability to spread news.

1. Forums
2. Message Boards
3. Wikipedia
4. StumbleUpon

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/886195/7807038

Regards

Yogesh Huja

In sight of working towards better online world ….do input your thoughts on safety & code of usage in virtual world.

Social & business networking sites are all the rage now. Connecting with friends, colleagues and new people has become so simple with these sites that it’s the new place to hang out. And just like you keep some things in mind to stay safe when you hang out with people in a café or a mall, you need to know a few things to be safe on social networking (SN) & Business Networking (BN) sites as well.

1. The more information you put about yourself, the more vulnerable you could be. So choose what you want to put up. But some things are better not put up at all. Your address, phone numbers, and bank account or credit card numbers, for example. If someone asks you for it, don’t give it out without giving any thought to it. If you are uncomfortable about sharing some information, don’t share it.

2. If all your friends are on some cool new SN site, that does not mean that you have to join in blindly too. Explore how it works, and the level of security and privacy allowed. Check the privacy policies of the sites you sign up for so that you know whom to report if any online abuse occurs.

3. Be sure to read through the policies and understand how the information you have put up is likely to be used. How does the site handle referrals? Can the IDs of your friends be given out to others, which could include potential spammers?

4. Can all and sundry visit your site, or do you have options to control access? Start with controlled access to your information and that too only to people you know, and when you are comfortable with how the site works, you can explore loosening some of the controls.

5. Saving a photograph from the Web is as easy as a right-click. A miscreant can easily change it using any photo-editing tool. So think twice before you put up your pics on an SN site. At the same point paid BN sites are still a place to stay ….recommending ecademy as one.

6. Do not believe everything people post on their web sites. They may not be what they claim to be. So if you don’t know them, it’s best to avoid getting friendly with them.

7. Flirting is fun, but can land you in trouble. Think twice about flirting with strangers and refrain from discussing about sex online. Remember sexual offenders scout SN sites and chatrooms looking for prey. Spoting the light of Nigerian Credit Card fraud ….it is becoming common in BN sites now a days.

8. Be careful if a new online friend wants to meet you. Make sure you meet him in a public place during the day and take along a friend or family member along with you. Concept of rating the users in BN sites is one key factor to know the person better before meeting. Read his/her testimonials , recomendations & much more.

9. If you ever feel threatened by anyone or anything online, discuss it with friends, family or colleagues and inform the police if required. There are options in website even where you can report to webmaster.

10. Do not always run applications and fun stuff being circulated on the SN site. They could be viruses or Trojans which could harm your computer or the data on it.

Its important to form a better world where people work towards online reputation building , so do contribute & make world better by speaking to one.

Regards
Yogesh Huja
Mo: +91-11-9810560650
Skype: huja_yogesh
Managing Director - MobileX
Tel:             +91-124-4373221        Extn 20,21
A Division Of Swaran Soft Support Solutions Pvt Ltd
www.mobilex.in ; www.swaransoft.com