Don’t Leave Your Online Reputation To Chance!
A poor online review can negatively impact your business. Make sure you are on top of a problem with your clients before it’s too late.
Online reputation management doesn’t require a full-time schedule or even a significant time commitment. However, it does require you being focused on a few core tasks. If you can just follow a few easy steps, you can be on your way to a better online presence.
Do a search on yourself Do a Google search for your name and also a search for your name in Google Images. Do set up a Google alert on your name to keep track of any new content. You can have notifications mailed to you once a day, so as not to overwhelm your inbox.
Buy your domain name. This costs $12 a year to do on sites like GoDaddy. Opinions vary on how much effort, and money, you should put into this. You can write a short bio of yourself, a story from your life, and include your CV. This is also a place to post interesting articles and your own commentary about them.
Put all your content in one place. There are a number of sites that let you do this now, including Tumblr, WordPress and About.me. You can also “apply” your domain name to these sites, which means that anyone who goes to patrickambron.com will be routed to your Tumblr page or your WordPress page. That’s convenient because Tumblr and WordPress offer nicely designed templates where you can set up what looks like a professionally designed website without having to hire a designer.
Join social networks. Even if you don’t feel like you have time to be active on these sites, do join them and take the time to fully fill out the profiles. As most of us know, the major sites are Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+.
Optimize your presence on these sites. Do fill these sites out as fully as you can, customizing the URL when you can and repeating your name where appropriate. For instance, on LinkedIn you can scroll down to where it says “public profile” on your profile page, and edit the URL. Instead of saying something like: http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=38547383&locale=en_US&trk=thdh, you can set the URL to read http://www.linkedin.com/in/johndoe
Also be sure to use your full name and not a nickname or slogan you think is catchy. Another important trick: Most websites give you the option of linking to other social media sites. Do this. It will make your online presence stronger.
Keep private things private, while assuming nothing is truly private. All the experts say you should never post any pictures of yourself that you don’t want the world to see. What about my friend who posts frequent Facebook shots and videos of her adorable one- and four-year-olds, sometimes naked and playing in the bathtub? An alternative is to construct two Facebook profiles, one for outsiders that emphasizes your educational and professional accomplishments and another for your intimate circles, with the most private settings you can find.
If someone else posts a picture of you on Facebook that you find embarrassing, remove the “tag” that identifies it as you. Also don’t hesitate to ask others to take down pictures of yourself that you think could compromise your reputation.
If you would like to learn more about you online reputation, that make sure to signing up for our free webinar by clicking here.