Everybodysagenius’s Weblog

Hey Everybody,

My friend and coworker Scott Rowe and I have been working on a quick article regarding online reputation management and some of the free tools that exist to monitor it. This is a growing area of interest as the tools for online publication are becoming easier, faster and more wide spread by the day. Upset customers can ruin your brand equity overnight. I thought that I would share it with everybody.  Enjoy:

Consumers and their opinions can make or break your brand. This has always been the case. Historically, companies have had to depend on focus groups, surveys or annual consumer preference studies to understand people’s opinions of their brand and products. Now, the world moves faster. Brand equity can be destroyed overnight. The Internet has dramatically changed the way people interact and discuss brands.
Beyond giving every consumer a near instant voice, the Internet has also provided companies many free tools to monitor, manage and interact with consumers. The knowledge gained from using these tools can dramatically improve your company’s awareness of coming trends and crowning concerns. It can also allow for you to quickly respond to problems.

Here are some free tools that you can start using today to help manage your company’s reputation in the digital space.

Google Alerts is one of the most common tools available. This service allows you to select the search terms you would like tracked as well as the type of content such as new, blogs, web, video and groups. You then select how often you wish to receive alerts and the email address you want them sent to. Then, whenever news on your selected search terms becomes available it is delivered to your e-mail inbox.

Twitter is a rapidly growing social networking site. Unlike blogs Twitterers (Twitter users) post quick entries in their feeds. Users can then choose to follow other Twitterers and comment on their postings. What makes Twitter different is the instant response of a Twitter post. You can get up-to-date information regarding conversations on this service by using the Twitter search tool located at search.twitter.com.

Technorati is a search engine specific to blogs. You can use the standard Technorati search to find blog posts about specific keywords or you can use the “watchlist” service. With a free account you can enter any number of key phrases in the system and see real-time listings of blog posts that contain that key phrases. You can also subscribe to these lists as RSS feeds and pull them into your preferred feed reader.

Search Engines are perhaps the most obvious option. Google, Yahoo and Live make up the vast majority of web searches performed on the Internet, so they should be the focus of your efforts. In all three of these search engines you can search for a variety of content types such as web, images and video. Google also allows you to search blogs as well.

Social Networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Friendster house millions of user profiles. Most of these users list their preferences and interests on their profiles. Services like Wink.com allow you to search across many of the social networks. This search can help you to establish what users enjoy your product and list it as an interest. These users have the potential to become brand ambassadors, spreading the good will of your company and product.

While all of these tools are can get you and your company started, there is a great deal more information that can be attained and managed from the Internet. With the right marketing partner these tools along with a variety of sophisticated solutions can create reports on current trends, help develop a strong marketing plan and help to engage and encourage your existing fan base online.

Thanks and I hope you enjoyed the article. Check out more industry tips and news at Bozell Thinking. Another new and interesting system for staying up to day is Alerts.com. Check it out and tell me what you think.

Will Flavell