What kind of first impression are you making online? You know that when you meet someone in “real life” you make first impression on them and they make one on you — good or bad. What if, people are searching your name or your business prior to meeting you so they can get a feeling for who you are and how you operate? What if, once they find you, they read not-so-flattering information about you? Information you had no idea was “out there” because you haven’t searched yourself. Are you monitoring your online reputation? If you’re not you should be and you should start right now!
It takes some time to monitor your online reputation, but you can set up automatic ways to help you monitor it.
Are You Monitoring Your Online Reputation?
- Go to Google.com and set up “alerts.” These alerts should be for your name, your business name, search terms you are using for SEO. Read these alerts daily and make note of the mentions you are getting. If it’s not what you want you need to dive deeper into what’s being said and why then do some course correcting.
- Own your own business domain name and even your own personal name. You need to have control of your name and your business name and own the domain. If you’re building a business and using a free platform and haven’t invested the (sometimes less than $20 to buy the domain) you are damaging your reputation.
- Own your content. Sure it’s easier to do all of your posting on an online ezine site or on Facebook or by doing LinkedIn articles, but you are building your home on rented ground and if those platforms go away, so too does your content. Invest in a websie and house your content there.
- Get social. Set up social media profiles, complete them fully and be active on them. The best way to know what people are saying about you is to be part of the conversation.
- Everything on the internet is public. No matter what your privacy settings, if someone is motivated, they can find your personal settings. If you don’t want clients to see you dancing on a table at a company retreat, don’t do that and certainly don’t put it on Facebook.
Check and monitor your online reputation regularly. Be in charge of it. Do you need help monitoring your reputation? Ask us how we can help.