William Leake has an article out on Search Engine Watch entitled Using SEO for Reputation Management
Jessica Bowman has an article on Search Engine Land – Search Engine Reputation Management: Setting & Managing Expectations
Here are two articles that are of interest.
ViperChill outlines 8 types of reputation management issues
Mike Grehan takes a look at search and the changing face of public relations
If you’re involved in the hiring process the chances are you will do an online search using the applicants names before deciding whether you want to proceed. I know I do this. The chance exists that you might pull up some dirt on them or that you will gain some additional insight into them. I have come up with some strange stuff!! An article entitled ‘Your Google reputation could cost you a job ‘ takes an in-depth look at this. Its to your advantage to use every tool available when you look at hiring an new employee.
In the midst of the Australian Open, the first grand slam of the new tennis season, and there has been no mention of the match fixing scandal that broke last year. When the news first broke there were many search result bashing the lack of regulation from the ATP, ITF, and WTA, many for tennis at least. These results have all but vanished in 2008. Of course this could be due to the fact that although tennis is a great sport it doesn’t get nearly as much news coverage as other major sports such as the NFL, NBA, or soccer (abroad); Maybe the governing bodies of tennis employed an online reputation management firm to clean up the results. either way tennis’ reputation, online at least, has been restored.
If your are involved in online reputation management the chances are that you will have come across the Ripoff Report. This site achieves high rankings in Google and can be nearly impossible to move. Andy Beal looks at the Ripoff Report and the implications it can have on reputation management campaigns. He sites an article by Chris Bennett who gives a detailed report on his dealings with the Ripoff Report. Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz also gives his viewpoint on the Ripoff Report. The main conclusions from these posts speculate whether Google should take action against some of their questionable tactics.
I thought I would compile a list of online reputation management software tools you can look at:
Trackur – coming soon
Am I missing any?
I’ve found that reputation management campaigns can take a long time to bear fruit – especially in the Google SERPs. Matt Siltala looks at this topic in his post ‘The Most Important Part of Business That People Give Up On The Quickest.
In many cases you need to do much of the work and then take a chill pill and wait for results. The problem is how do you communicate this with your clients who are so eager to see immediate changes? I’ve found that setting realistic expectations is probably the most important factor. Another important factor involves giving regular communications showing that things are moving in the right direction. Still if the campaign lasts for a year it can be a challenge. How do you deal with this?
A couple of weeks ago a co-worker came to me and asked why I had an image of a man and woman in a compromising position on my Facebook profile. I had a look and sure enough a ‘friend’ had posted the picture on my wall. After the laughter had died down I started wondering about which of my ‘real friends’ would have seen it an what they would have thought of me! Anyway Jeniffer Laycock has written an article exploring this topic and how social networking can hurt you reputation.
Another article in a similar vein is by Matt Bailey which looks at social media in relation to reputation management.
Managing a company’s reputation takes work, as it is usually the result of bad products, practices, mistakes, or vocal critics. However, personal reputation may take an even bigger brush to cover, especially with the broad range of social media outlets. I have a funny feeling that personal reputation management will be a lucrative business in the near future. Read more
Online Reputation Management to continue to thrive according to this search engine marketing prediction for 2008.
Michael Gray examines Lane Hartwell, Richter Scales and reputation management in this article.