The article cited below brings up the not-so-old saying, “You are what Google says you are”. What this phrase means is that you do not personally have control of how people perceive you and Google, or other search engines, can be very influential in effecting how people perceive you. If search results are keeping you from being hired–you’ve run into a major problem.

Search reputation management, then, is the process of monitoring and managing one’s “reputation” across the SERPs. For branded search queries, are there one or more results that could be potentially damaging to your organization? We’re looking here for results that could preclude your organization from making the consideration short-list; perhaps even prevent you from wrapping up a deal you thought was done.

When you find such examples, it’s time to take action. Not necessarily to respond directly to the online “detractor,” but to create a message of your own that would be identified as more relevant and useful for the particular search query.

An online reputation is extremely important, and it is important to defend it against others who might want to unfairly malign you or your company.

http://searchenginewatch.com/3641105

Social networking has many different uses. It can be a highly beneficial way of staying in cotnact with your existing customers and even improving customer retention rate or it is obviously an ideal way to stay in touch with friends and colleagues, or to catch up with people that you haven’t seen in years. Facebook is the prime example of such sites but it is only one in a long line of them, albeit the largest and the one that has just announced reaching the 500 million registration mark since it was first opened just 6 years ago.

More specific networks like LinkedIn can be used as a powerful tool to help you connect professionally with individuals and organisations. It has been used successfully by job hunting candidates in order to find themselves new work or further their career. It has also been used by prospective employers as a means to find the best candidate for a job, and an increasing number of employers are using sites like both LinkedIn and even Facebook to check on potential candidates. This is why reputation management programs should incorporate some social networking.

Develop a profile with sites like those mentioned above and always ensure that you know exactly what is being posted about you on social networks, other websites, and even blogs. You may not be able to control what other people are writing about you but you can certainly control what you write and publish about yourself so use this to your advantage.

Have you been subject of nasty or defamatory comments online?

Do you actively manage your reputation (your brand, if you like)?

There are many risks when a business or person decides to put information about themselves online. Of course, the benefits often outweigh the risks, which is why people and businesses do it, but this does not mean that the risks and negatives simply disappear. Instead of ignoring the negative aspects of interacting online, we ought to pay special attention to them in an attempt to solve the problems.

A recent Microsoft survey found that many employers are concerned with online reputations and use information found in search engines to make important decisions about who they would employ. This does not mean that a bad online reputation precludes you from finding employment, but it certainly does not help.

The rise of social media has quite a lot to do with the damaging of the online reputation. Whether it is a business or an individual, social networking allows individuals to damage online reputations pretty easily.

The use of social media has skyrocketed, according to surveys linked in this article. They claim social media is up 230% since 2007, a pretty amazing figure.

The love affair between Internet-connected Americans and social networks continues, with two-thirds claiming to visit sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace, up about 230% from the 20% penetration in 2007, and 43% are visiting these sites more than once a day, according to a new report by Experian Simmons.Multiple visits are up 28% compared with last year, the Simmons New Media study determined.

“The rise of social networking tracks closely with that of Facebook. As of April 26, 2010, 46% of the U.S. online adult population reported having visited Facebook in the past 30 days,” said the report.

People primarily logon to stay in touch with friends, followed by for fun and to communicate with family, according to the study. Career- and job-related reasons were low on the list: 19% said they used the sites to keep in touch with professional contacts; 9% wanted to make new professional contacts; 6% sought professional development; and 5% said it was part of their job, the report found.

If the rise of social media continues, it will reshape how industry professionals handle online reputation problems.

Mention the word microblogging to most Internet users and the majority of them will throw the word Twitter back at you. It is without doubt the largest and most populous of all the microblogging platforms on the Internet but it isn’t the only one out there and the nature of microblogging is such that even the busier marketer or business owner should be able to dedicate some time to creating such short posts in order to add to a number of these platforms.

FriendFeed is another microblogging platform although rather than relying on a simple interface and offering users a reasonably simple and manageable method of updating their account with short posts, FriendFeed has definitely plumped for the more information laden approach; some of the more sceptical among us may consider it information overload but it does offer the unique benefit of being able tointegrate with various other social networking and social media sites such as Facebook but also including Twitter and many others.

You can change the desing layout of your home page and display, and you can add text, audio, and even visual posts to your timeline. As with other social networks, you can of course add friends and other connections and then use the network in order to develop new connections.

Marketers need to be aware that outbound links are nofollow but you can generate new sources of traffic and you can develop a new profile that includes your own name and your company name to assist in online reputation management.

Yahoo just released a survey concerning Internet safety that is really quite interesting. The survey is being released in conjunction with Internet Safety Month, which is in June. The survey made use of 2,003 respondents who were questioned in April, 2010.

One issue to which they did not show much attention was online reputation management. This is an integral part of Internet safety. Predators online will often communicate with a minor and then spend hours looking for pictures, addresses, and additional information about those minors. If that information is easily found on a search engine, like Google, it is far more likely that predators are going to find it.

Social networks can be used for any of a number of reasons from securing new business and winning new contracts to promoting new products to your existing client base. They can be used to generate new business, retain existing customers, and even to virally make new connections with the friends, family, and colleagues of your customers but the first step in this is to determine your goals and to use the most appropriate networks to help you achieve them. With so many to choose from this can seem daunting but it doesn’t need to be.

Location centric social networks such as FourSquare are an innovative way to promote local businesses and venues. They are particularly engaging for clients that use mobile GPS devices such as mobile phones and they encourage your customers to spread the word for you.

LinkedIn and Naymz are two of the most popular social networks for businesses, but there are a great many others. Social networks that are dedicated to start ups, entrepreneurs, web designers, and marketers exist in abundance and these can be great for developing working partnerships with other professionals, services, and businesses.

Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace can be used for a variety of purposes but offer tools that are especially useful in communications and Internet reputation management. Encourage your visitors to follow you on these networks and you can use the opportunity to increase the profit life of your customers. You may also develop new fans, and therefore new potential business, from the networks of your customers.

The efficacy of online reputation management is being proven each passing day, as companies large and small figure out how damaging online libel can be. The Internet is notoriously chaotic–it is governed by very few laws. More than any other sphere of media, the Internet can destroy a person or company’s reputation.

A company which has made all of its clients happy for many years can have its online reputation destroyed in a matter of seconds by an online blogger. Posting on forums, review sites, or creating a blog to attack that business can be done in less than 5 minutes–and all of these things could be incredibly damaging to the company’s future. Underhanded rivals or recently-fired employees often understand this and utilize it to exact revenge. Sometimes a dissatisfied customer goes online and makes a hyperbolic statement about the business–unwittingly doing far more damage that they really intended. In any case, online libel should be taken seriously by business owners before it becomes a problem for them, because afterward they won’t have a choice.

This brief blog post is a wonderful example of how Internet defamation can be self-inflicted. You’ll have to click the link below in order to see the images, but it is a the search results from a program, made by two guys, that search social networking profiles. In the images we see people claiming to play hooky, i.e. skip work. The author says of this:

Most online reputation management issues are self-inflicted. Before you hit that “publish” button, think about whether you’d be upset if what you’re about to say ever made it in front of your spouse/parents/kids/boss/pastor.

This is the truth. We must remember that anything we put on the Internet is basically made public, or it could be made public in the future. All it takes is your pastor or employer to do a social networking search, like this one, for your name and find out that you played hooky last friday.

http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/05/hey-everyone-im-about-to-ruin-my-online-reputation.html

1 – LinkedIn

LinkedIn is probably the biggest network that is dedicated to professional users. If you’re looking to make friends and start an online relationship then this isn’t really the site for you. However, if you’re looking for a new career, are setting up a new business, or want to find the best advice then this is a great site that will almost certainly deliver the results you want. The only slight problem with the site is that a paid membership is required for some of the more advanced (and often beneficial) features.

2 – E.Factor

E.Factor is geared towards budding and experienced entrepreneurs. It is more than a social networking website alone because it provides everything including a network of nearly a million users, a network of investors and angels, regular low price entrepreneur related events, and reduced rates on hotels, flights, and even car hire. A single membership can go a long way and while the membership list is slightly smaller than other similar sites it is definitely growing and one to watch out for.

3 – Cympitch

Cympitch is another social networking that combines numerous elements for entrepreneurs and this one is designed especially for the UK market. It is billed as being the social network for “connecting UK entrepreneurs and early stage investors” so is similar to E.Factor in its goals and its uses. You can also use the site to receive quotes and therefore give them, and seek the advice that many entrepreneurs need.