Online Reputation Management

Have you Googled yourself lately?

Presented by: 

Charlene Burke

 

As defined by Merriam-Webster Dictionary:  a. overall quality or character as seen or judged by people in     general. b. recognition by other people of some characteristic or     ability, i.e. has the reputation of being clever. c. a place in public esteem or regard: good name, i.e. trying to     protect his reputation.

Reputation

 Countering negative search results on the Web.      Preventing a crisis from developing into a disaster.

Don’t have a reputation? Now is the time to start one.           Why? Because if you don’t control your online

reputation – your customers and competitors will

           

Online Reputation Management

90% of people trust online reviews83% of companies will experience a cataclysmic event that will affect share prices81% of people do online research30% of people provide feedback on websites87% of people believe that a CEO’s reputation affects the company78% of executive recruiters Google someone before they are interviewed35% of those executive recruiters rejected a candidate after searching for that person online

Statistics taken from The Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey released April 2009, Execunetclient survey of executives 2008, and Pew Internet & American Life Project report May 2008.

Reasons You Should Care

 

What is said is not always obvious...

The ProcessMonitor

Respond

Engage

Before you can take steps to build a better reputation, monitor your existing online presence.   Know what people are saying about your company, your product, your service.

Know what they’re not saying – it is possible to ‘be online’ yet not have a true presence.

MONITOR

The website is up but you have no listings on directories, city sites or review sites.

There are no mentions of the company, the product/service, the principals (CEO, Owner, etc.)

There are no reviews, no discussions, nothing!

Now is the time to build a reputation, one that you can control.

What If … There Is Nothing To Monitor?

Contact existing customers for testimonials, get permission to publish on the website – add a Review Tab for these.

Encourage happy customers to write reviews on appropriate sites: Local City sites,Yelp, Epinions, Google, Amazon, etc.

Write News Releases and post them on free release sites: introduce Owner/CEO, highlight an accomplishment (landing a customer, speaking at a conference)

Building a Reputation - No Cost

• Company Name • Brand Name

 • Product

 • Key Executives

 • Competition

 • Industry Phrases

Now…What to Monitor...

Rescue My Rep – http://rescuemyrep.com

For individual business owners and providers of online reputation management services. Submits your business information to 5 locations per month, while providing up-to-date reports of what’s being said about you online.

Build a Reputation – For Fee

RescueMyRep.com

• Detailed reports showing where the merchant is listed or mentioned online

• Syndication of your business profile across internet yellow pages, local search, social networking, regional and category specific sites includes the submission of correct information to sites such as directories, search engine listings, review sites, etc.

• Listing of the sites we will be submitting to located on each report that is updated each month

• Notifications of report activity sent via email or text message

• Ability to request new reports at any time

• Reviews management – ability to respond directly and publicly to reviews

• Full-featured business profile that can be updated at any time

• Competitive analysis – see how you rank against known competitors and businesses with high online visibility

Google Alerts - google.com/alerts Yahoo Alerts - alerts.yahoo.com Alltop.com – an aggregator of top news and topics Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn Network Activity

Local news sites

Industry news sites (manufacturing, healthcare, etc.)

Back to the Free: Where to Monitor...

Address the Cause... Once a negative mention has been identified, deal with it:     Is there merit to the mention?         No? Provide facts and ask for corrections         Yes? Fix the issues, offer to discuss Always be ready to respond Be honest, be transparent, LISTEN 

Respond

Facebook Fan Page perfect for engaging customers and prospects

Online Campaigns using:    Newsletters - engage with email list   Social Media – engage with customers and prospects   Article Marketing – general info w/back links adds credibility    Implementation will vary with strategy

Engage and Encourage

How to Build aReputation Monitoring

DASHBOARD

A system  

to monitor indexed keywords 

from multiple channels  

in an organized system of feeds.

FYI: The browser used is FireFox; IE usesdifferent methods to build a viewing module.

What is the Dashboard?

A tabbed iGoogle dashboard,customizable and suitable for

professional monitoring.

This is what it will look like:

Create a Google www.google.com account if you don’t already have one.

Step 1 - Create Google Account

Open a new Excel document. Create six tabs, for the following reputation monitoring

categories: “Brand,” “Product,” “Personnel,” “Competition,” “Industry Phrases” & “Intent Words.” You’re going to make a Big List of Keywords to monitor.

Step 2 - Set up Big Keyword List Excel Doc

"Brand" Tab Paste 'correct' (the way you say it) brand

name variations into the "Brand" tab.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Brand" Tab Go to MSN Keyword Mutation Detection Tool.

http://adlab.microsoft.com/Keyword-Mutation-Detection/

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

Type in or paste the first brand name keyword on your list. Click Go. The tool will return common misspellings or alternative spellings of your keyword. Use for each "Brand" keyword and paste them into the Big List.

"Brand" Tab Another great place to find brand name variations is

from Web site Analytics. For Google Analytics, click on Traffic

Sources. Then click on Key words.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Brand" Tab View traffic from paid and non paid brand search

keywords. Select non-paid for organic.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

Paste in any brand keywords noted from analytics into the Big List.

"Brand" Tab    And most importantly, try stream of

consciousness brainstorming! Don't be afraid to get silly. 

  Add these brand name keywords to the

Big List.  Now it’s safe to say that we have most brand

keyword variations.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Products" Tab  Repeat this process for every product

to populate the Products Tab of the Excel Big List.

  It will be time consuming, but take the time

and it will be well worth the effort.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Personnel" Tab   “Personnel” refers to executives, public

spokespeople or anyone else you would like to monitor. There’s no need to go crazy with misspellings unless someone’s name is complicated. Just be sure to call “Mike” “Michael” and other obvious nicknames.  

  Add these personnel name keywords to

the Big List.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Competition" Tab   Monitoring your competition is extremely

useful, especially for defending your own brands and products. Keep an eye on competitive brands by the same segments by which we monitor our own: “Brand,” “Product,”  “Personnel,” etc…

  Add these competition keywords to the

Big List.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Industry" TabIndustry phrases are found through the research

process. To cover your bases, go to the External Google Keyword Tool

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal Use this Google PPC inventory tool to find other related keywords so

commonly searched for that they can be considered an “industry category” word.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Industry" TabType in as many categories as you can about your clients

business. Make sure to check the ‘Use Synonyms’ box.Click Get Keyword Ideas.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Industry" TabClick on Sort by average volume. Add the top 3-5 to the

keyword bucket. They’re your industry category words for the Big List.

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list:

"Intent" TabThe final tab for the dashboard is for “Intent”

phrases. Think about different ways a customer will say “you’re

great,” “you suck” or ask for information with longer phrases.  There’s no need to go crazy with variations on the same keywords (singular, plural, etc…).

Step 3 - Build Big Keyword list (last page):

Now set the Big Keyword List aside. Within Google, create your own iGoogle homepage. (Make sure you’re logged into Google and go to http://www.google.com/ig.) If you already use iGoogle, don’t worry - you will not lose any of your personalized settings. You’ll simply be adding new tabs in iGoogle, corresponding to the Big List tabs in the Excel document.

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Add a New iGoogle Tab. Name the tab "Brand"

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Create New iGoogle Tabs to Match the Big List Excel Tabs

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Now you'll set up your keyword feed subscriptions.

Set Up First Google Alert. Go to Google Alerts www.google.com/alerts and click New Alert.

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Type or paste in your first keyword. Choose “comprehensive” meaning all Google channels. Choose the “feed” and “as it happens” options. Click Create Alert You have to set these up one at a time for EVERY word on all tabs.

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Right click and copy the link location of the of orange RSS button

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

To get around a Google bug in some browsers, 'clean' the URL you just copied by opening new FireFox tab.

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Paste in URL copied from RSS button. Hit “return” on your computer’s keyboard.

Copy the ‘clean’ url…..

Now, navigate to your iGoogle page, Brand tab

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard

Click on Add Stuff

Click on Add Feed or Gadget 

Paste the 'clean' url into the box and hit enter.

The beginnings of your new reputation monitoring gadget in iGoogle.

Step 4 - Building the Dashboard(last page)

One by one, add all the words on the Big List to the appropriate iGoogle tab.

FYI, there are nifty gadget settings, available by clicking on any gadget’s little down facing triangle. Customize your settings.

Step 5 – Edit Dashboard

Increase the number of feed Alerts displayed

Step 5 – Edit Dashboard (last page)

Navigate to http://search.twitter.com. Search for your keyword in Twitter Search.

TWITTER

No need to clean in Firefox, just click on ‘Feed for this query’

TWITTER

Add to Google homepage (iGoogle)

Technorati, www.technorati.com, is a blog search service where posts are indexed that sometimes Google does not pick up. Not every blog is in Google blog search. You can subscribe to the search but not each post.

Technorati

BoardReader, www.boardreader.com, is a useful search utility for boards and forums. It can pick up keyword mentions that Google does not see. 

 Search BoardReader for a keyword. Select ‘show tools’ then select RSS button

BoardReader

The BoardReader results are on the iGoogle dashboard now too.

You know the rest!

Your reputation monitoring dashboard is starting to take shape.

So there you have it!

Don’t click on every link, hover cursor over to get text abstract, follow if relevant.

Set up critical keywords as email alerts for archiving and fast notification. Just remember to subscribe to the keyword twice, once by feed and once by Google Email Alert.

iGoogle is just one feed reader. Use the reader of your choice if you already have a comfort level.

iGoogle can be customized graphically with Artist Themes and Developers Tools. Have fun and make it your own!

Some Final Tips

Having a proactive reputation management process enables you to participate in the conversation about your company, your product, your service. When issues arise they can be addressed directly and effectively. Remember 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'. The more 'branded content' in the search results, the more diluted any negative content will be.

In Summary

   

 Let's tackle some issues that have happened

and can happen to our clients. 

 

Some Recent Reputation Issues

Questions