Managing your reputation involves using tools and language to improve and/or control how the public views you, your company and those who work for your company. Reputation management can't simply be approached from a technology standpoint, or a communications standpoint. This means that you can't simply rely on blogs and/or the Internet for reputation management, and you can"t simply rely on press releases or well-planned events. Tools Reputation management and online reputation management require the use of certain tools to help repair, create or manage public perception. Those tools include blogs, social networking, SEO/SEM and more. Blogs Having a quality blog works in a couple of ways. It offers you a medium with which to talk directly to the public, without having to go through the newspapers, magazines, radio or television where your message can be distorted. You can link your blog to your Website, have as a link on your Website or have it as a completely separate Website. If you post regularly, not only will that benefit your search engine optimization (SEO), but it will communicate with your public without any outside interference. Being able to talk directly to your audience will greatly enhance your reputation management capabilities, because you can affect opinion with minimal effort. Social Networking Websites such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and others offer a way to create a community based around or involving your company. As another form of communication with your audience, social networking sites (also known as Web 2.0) can help you create positive public opinion based around open communication and shared experience. Quality reputation management doesn't just focus on force feeding messages, in a perfect world it involves encouraging other people to basically market your business for you. Social networking can be a tool that accomplishes just that, because it's based around shared experiences, shared opinions and so forth. It also doesn't require the resources that a national publicity campaign would. SEO/SEM Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are possibly the two most important tools for online reputation management. SEO and SEM utilize pay-per-click technology, keyword usage and even HTML coding to successfully keep your company's name and services in the top Google search lists. Keywords should target words related to your company. Communications Using your language properly is vitally important. Whether it's properly seeding your Web content with keywords or writing a persuasive and eye catching press release, writing your content effectively can mean the difference between molding public opinion and being ignored. It's important that you highlight exactly where you"d like your reputation management to go in terms of how you want to influence opinion. You can write a great press release, or have a Website with great content, but if you aren't making strong statements and giving positive information, you"ll be wasting your time. Outline your goals and try to see what your competition is doing. This may help to give you some ideas as to where you want your messaging to go. Reputation management can be a huge asset to your company and/or business, if the tools and language involved are used properly.
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