Reputation management is one of those things that everyone online needs to think about. Without a reputation management strategy, you may find yourself in the throes of a heated battle that gets out of hand. I’ve seen it happen to others and it could happen to you too.
When you do business online, you are bound to make enemies. In fact, even off line, enemies can hurt your business. The off line world has built-in protections, though, for slander and libel that may not be applicable online. That’s because it so easy for people to put up a website in a fake name and remain anonymous even while they slander you and ruin your good reputation.
Online, the battle over reputation management is to have more positive comments about you than negative comments. For that reason, I recommend being in as many places as you can, posting, making friends, and building your online reputation – one network, one click, and one relationship at a time. Here are some tools to help you do that:
- Social networks like LinkedIn, MySpace, and Facebook. Don’t just join one. Join as many as you can, and stay active.
- Social bookmarking. Again, use as many social bookmarking sites as you can and make sure that you bookmark other people’s web pages as well as a few choice ones of your own. Social bookmarking is another form of networking.
- Forums. Join a few forums and stay active in those as well.
- Blogging. You should own at least one blog, but don’t just rely on that. Visit a few other people’s blogs too and comment on them.
- Article marketing. Write articles and distribute them online to as many article directories as you can.
- Websites. Own some. Preferably more than one. Get your name on them so your reputation is positive.
To manage your reputation online you need to be in as many places as you can be. Often. Meet people, build relationships, and keep your commitments.
