Reputation management and monitoring should be an ongoing part of your marketing and PR strategy. Be Visible, Get Found and make sure that what people find and read online about you, your company and your brand is POSITIVE. You can’t stop the ‘conversation’ from happening, but you can influence it … and you can impact what people find when they Google your name or your brand.
Search engines truly have become reputation managers. You are your Google results, regardless of what the reality may be. First impressions really do count and if your first one isn’t a good one, it’s likely to be your last. Do not leave what the search engines say about you and your brand to chance. Proactive brand managers practice defensive visibility and ranking strategies that help influence what potential customers, employers, mentors and the media see when they search for information about a company and its brands.
Use these strategies to encourage positive results in your search engine results.
- Have one or more active websites that feature you or your company’s name in their domain names;
- Publish a blog. Search engines love original content that is freshened regularly;
- Create profiles on social networking sites to claim your name and brand and build your online reputation;
- Claim your domain name before someone else does, even if you are not using it as your primary domain.