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Reputation management is something many companies struggle with nowadays. Freedom of speech implies that people have the right to express their opinion on many things, and the ease of online publication makes the Internet the first place to look for information about people, facts, products etc. What does this mean for you? People are already talking about you, somewhere.
From what was a relatively meaningless collection of static web pages at the end of the 20th century, the Internet has turned into the source we rely on to make decisions, buy products or find relevant information. It’s right to say that our world is now online-centric and everything happens on the web has real life consequences.
How can you make sure nobody is damaging your reputation? Even though people can express their view (according to certain limitations), there are limits that cannot be crossed, and false information spread on the internet is a real crime. In order to monitor your reputation online, you can benefit from two techniques you can start applying today.
Google Alert is definitely the fastest and cheapest way to keep track of your reputation on the web. Simply enter a specific search query, for example “Name of your company” or “name of your product”, or even “your name and surname”, and you will get notifications when Google crawls a new web page mentioning those terms.
This is actually something very useful in general, for example this allows you keep track of positive reviews, customers feedback etc. You can fully customise your query, your notification frequency and the amount of pages you are shown. In case of internet defamation, this tool allows to act quickly and reduce potential damage.
Most of online conversations are switching from web pages to social networks. Are people saying negative things about you on Facebook? Twitter?
Expecially when the amount of data is too big to be analysed individually, social media analytics tools and companies can help you understand more about the online sentiment on your brand. Go to Simone Tornabene’s Social Media Analytics Platform List for a comprehensive account of their main features.
Do you have any direct experience with online reputation management tools?
