Reputation management isn’t just about creating a great Google results page for your brand name. Although that’s a lot of it, it’s also very important to monitor what people are saying about your company online. Since virtually all of today’s information flows through the internet, and it has become the most widely used platform for sharing information globally, if anyone says anything about your company through a blog, social networking site, or any media outlet, you’ll eventually be able to find it on the internet.

And you need to know what people are saying about you as quickly as possible. Because information travels so fast in today’s world, you don’t have the luxury of waiting around until a bad review comes to you; you need to find bad reviews and negative mentions of your company as soon as possible. If you can jump on a problem quickly, the more time you’ll have to quell the situation or adjust your reputation management strategy accordingly. So it’s vitally important to the future of your company that you monitor the web for any mention of your brand (both good and bad), so you can use that information to improve your search rankings and keep your online reputation spotless.

3 Tools

Here are a few tools you can use as part of your reputation management strategy to monitor the internet and be alerted to mentions of your company as soon as possible:

1) Google Alerts

First and foremost, you need to understand and use Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a free tool you can customize to quickly find out when new instances of your company name appear on the internet. Once you have a Google account, you can go to www.google.com/alerts and set up a keyword you would like to get alerts on. Primarily, this should be the name of your company or brand. Then you can customize your alerts to fit the frequency and amount of information you want to be alerted to.

Google Alerts are sent to your email when Google detects a new instance of your company name, along with a link to the webpage where your company is mentioned. Once you have that information, you can use it to quell any potential PR and reputation issues or adjust your online reputation management strategy to account for the latest mention of your company.

2) Google Webmaster Tools and Analytics

Another way to track mentions of your company name and links to your company website is to use Google Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics. Both of these tools are free and allow you to look at your company website in different ways online. First, you can use Google analytics to monitor the traffic to your site. Drill down in the analytics to find out where your site traffic is coming from and use that information to track down links to your site, so you can evaluate the content of the site and incorporate it into your reputation management efforts.

Webmaster Tools has similar functionality and will show you the names of third-party websites that link to your company website. Links to your website can have both good and bad contexts, so it’s important to know who is linking to you and how they are using that link to your website.

3) Twitter

Another way to track mentions of your name online is through Twitter. The social media space is quickly becoming an area that needs to be closely monitored by all businesses who care about their reputation and Twitter offers an automated way to find mentions of your company name on their service. Both through the Twitter website and 3^rd party applications, you can set up a keywords search that will constantly search the Twittersphere for mentions of your company or brand and filter them into one neat list. As long as you are checking the feed from time to time, you’ll stay on top of any mentions of your company name and be able to respond, either with a thank you or with follow-up questions to help resolve confusion or misunderstandings about your company.

Monitor and Manage

Reputation management is more than just tracking down links. It’s about monitoring your actual reputation and the way people feel about your company. If you are able to efficiently monitor the web for instances of your company name, you’ll better be able to respond to complaints and criticism as well as build a better reputation management strategy overall.

It’s no surprise that over 90% of teens today have profiles on at least one social network, if not multiple networks. However, many teens seem to think that there is an expectation of privacy on social networks—which is simply not true. Everything you share on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Quorra, and more can be shared with the whole world, depending on your privacy settings and how careful you are about what you share. And what most teens don’t realize is that the information they are sharing now may harm them in the future as they try to get a job and apply for college. But here are four tips that might help teens better filter their online sharing and prevent a thoughtless action from creating negative consequences.

1) Know your settings

First and foremost, teens need to educate themselves about the privacy settings on their social networks. Most social platforms allow you to adjust who can and cannot see your private information. Although teens may want to put their cell phone number online for all their friends, making that information accessible to anyone can open them up to abuse, bullying, predators, and more.

Keep in mind that even if you set that type of information to “private” it can still be leaked to 3^rd parties by anyone who is your friend on that social network. So, just because it can’t be seen by strangers doesn’t mean it can’t be found. Privacy only adds a layer of difficulty to obtaining the information. You should still be careful about what information you choose to share online.

2) Trim your friends list

Even though strangers can’t access your personal information if you create high privacy settings, your friends still can. All it takes is for one of your friends to share your cell phone, address, or personal pictures with someone you don’t know for problems to begin. So, be careful about who you are friends with online. Remember, being friends with you online is a privilege, not a right. If you don’t feel comfortable sharing personal information with someone, don’t feel pressured to be their friend online.

3) If you don’t want to shout it from a rooftop, don’t share it

Anything you share on social networks can be shared publicly, so don’t share anything online that you wouldn’t want everyone at school to know. In addition, parents, school administrators, potential employers, and college admissions offices can check in on your social networking behaviors very easily and get a sense of the things you are doing and saying online. Again, if you don’t want anyone to know about it, don’t share it on social networks.

4) Think about the future

Social networks are now a tool that many employers, college admissions officers, and scholarship award givers use to gauge the integrity of teens. So always put your best foot forward online. If your profile picture shows you with a beer in your hand, colleges may not want you, and employers may not want to hire you. And if you brag about cheating on a test or fooling one of your high school teachers, that tells potential colleges that you are a disrespectful and lazy student. Think about the future, and keep in mind that what you share today could hurt you tomorrow.

Today, more and more of your lives are online, but knowing how to better manage your online reputation through social networks will help you stay safe and have the best chance at a bright future.

Reputational risk is a problem that many companies are just beginning to understand. Today’s web is both an easy place to create a reputation and to lose one. In some cases, all it takes is one single blogger to give your company a bad review, and you could face lose thousands (or millions) of dollars in potential business. That’s why large companies are starting to hire reputation management firms like ours to help them build a positive reputation online.

In fact, it’s become such a big business as of late, that AIG recently started selling “reputation insurance” so they can cash in on the growing trend. This special commercial insurance Miami will help companies pay the cost of reputation management when a crisis flares up. The problem is that this type of insurance perpetuates the myth that reputation management is only needed in a crisis and can be discarded once everything has blown over. The truth is that a real reputation management policy is an ongoing strategy that prevents crises from ever surfacing.

Why Should Reputation Management Be an Ongoing Strategy?

Many companies want to believe that reputation management is something that can be applied like a band-aid when things get rough. But that is a myth. In fact, here are 3 ways that an ongoing reputation management strategy is more beneficial than an insurance policy.

1. Crises never surface

Many companies wait until a crisis pops up before even thinking about reputation management. But you can avoid the negative press and publicity, as well as the loss of revenue, by creating a strong reputation management strategy now. Creating a strategy before a crisis starts helps prevent future crises from ever happening. Why deal with the aftermath of a reputation attack when you could avoid them altogether?

2. It’s more expensive to deal with an emergency

When you have a reputation crisis, it means damage has already been done to your company, and now you are simply trying to prevent more damage from being done. In such circumstances, reputation management professionals are brought in to “fix” the problem as quickly as possible. This type of emergency management is expensive. Think of it this way: taking the extra 5 seconds to put your seatbelt on before driving, helps protect you against grave bodily harm if you are ever in an accident. Wearing a seatbelt can save your life and prevent serious injury, and it only take a few seconds. Whereas, if you don’t wear a seatbelt, and your are involved in an accident, you could face death or a lifetime of disability, mounting doctor’s bills, and chronic pain—all of which could have been prevented if you’d taken 5 seconds to fasten your seatbelt. In this case, an ongoing reputation management strategy is your seatbelt. It’s painless and easy to implement now. But waiting until a crisis hits makes it much more expensive and can leave lasting harm to your company.

3. It’s comprehensive

Crisis management is very one-sided. After a reputation crisis, reputation management strategies focus only on solving the single crisis at hand but leave all other sides open for attack. If you start a reputation management strategy now, you’ll have time to shore up all avenues and venues for reputational attacks, and you won’t be putting fires out one by one. You’ll have already placed a protective rampart around your business.

Avoid the myth propagated by reputation insurance and start an online reputation management strategy now that will help you prevent future attacks and minimize their fallout.