Online Reputation Management

Preventive Online Reputation Management

2009-06-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

This post is a guest post by Brennan Sayre who is President of The Sayre Group, a leading online reputation management and monitoring firm that also consults on public relations and social media.

The industry of online reputation management is becoming a hot one as numerous companies are now offering the service or starting brand new companies to focus on this. The reason the industry is growing is because there is a huge need to protect businesses and individuals online because of the rapid pace of growth on the internet as well as the introduction of consumer and user generated media. User and consumer generated media would be things such as customer reviews, blogs, and social media websites. These types of websites can help influence decisions in purchases or can be used to falsely destroy a company’s reputation. That is where online reputation management comes in. Online reputation management companies for the most part are only protecting clients from search engine results instead of doing what they should be doing and that is monitoring and keeping a pulse on the internet and the consumer.

Preventive online reputation management is what sets my company, The Sayre Group, and others apart as many other public relations professionals know once the rumor or damaging information gets out to the masses and goes viral it is next to impossible to stop. Having control over the message is key and to have control over the message you must be able to see everything that is happening in real time. The way we monitor is through custom programs as well as a danger algorithm which alerts us through over 100 key factors on when something may be a problem. We can see everything that is being said about your company on social websites like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter to major news organizations such as Fox News, CNN, and NBC News and we can even see all consumer reviews on over 10,000 product websites.

In years past businesses may not have needed an online reputation firm to protect them but as companies such as Dell, Dominos, and Kryptonite have seen it only takes a few Youtube videos or blog posts to destroy your company’s reputation and profits for the short-term and even with some the long-term. So in ending the internet has now become a very powerful and complex place that if managed right can be a great asset to your company but if you do not have someone monitoring and being able to act with strategic actions then it can be a very dangerous place for you and your company. As newspapers decline and bloggers take over it may even become more vital to high profile individuals and companies. So the real question is how much is you and your company’s reputation worth to you? If you are looking for this service by industry professionals who have had past Fortune 500 clients then contact The Sayre Group today.

Questions About Using a Site? Check Google

2007-03-05T10:54:00.000-08:00

I came across two different articles today commenting on the trustworthiness of websites based on opinions the author's formed after Googling the company / owner's name. This one from SFGate.com talks about new online bid tool BidRate.com and some of the questionable aspects of the website (a lot of the properties have the same name and the CEO has 2 different last names).

At the end of the article, the author states that a Google search was performed on the CEO and 3 things are mentioned - that he's listed as 29 years old, that he has pictures of 'hot' ladies on the space, and some quote is pulled from his wall that alludes to him being unethical ("If the Facts Don't Fit the Theory ... Change the Facts").

What is the author saying here? The guy is a partying youngster who likes to bend the rules, and more importantly, to stay away from BidRent.com. It's crazy how more and more of these instances keep appearing that show that people will Google the name of any company or person that they come into contact with, just to do a little "background check". I admit it - I do it all the time. I even Google incoming calls if I don't recognize the number.

It just goes to show how everyone that has a name, whether you are an individual or a company, must be aware of the effect your online footprint is having on you every day. Take notice of the top 10 results in the major search engines and become active in influencing them. Hire a Reputation Management firm if you have to - but take this seriously, your online reputation is MORE important than your word-of-mouth reputation. Anyone can Google you at any time to take a peek.

Online Reputation Management and SEO Help

2007-02-22T12:26:00.000-08:00

If you're looking for help managing your online reputation, visit the experts at Plus1 Media. For more information on search engine optimization, EnviSEO is a nice start.

Voltron Reputation - Defender of the Universe.com

2006-11-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

A new start-up company called Reputation Defender caught my attention today. They are a repuation management firm that is set on catering to the average student and / or adult who may be applying for jobs, monitoring their kids, dating online and the like. Reputation Defender's clients will likely be fairly easy to manage online, low-profile clients will generally only need a moderate amount of monitoring and will probably only have information running on them on the standard social media/UGC sites. So, good luck Reputation Defender, I'm sure you'll be successful.

The post at SearchViews that mentions the start-up had some good insights into the growing online reputation management industry. First and foremost, it is growing, and at a rapid pace. Now is the time where this concept is spreading into the mainstream, and many companies will soon find different niches and methodologies to employ to profit from it (they will also be providing a needed service of course). The post also talks about how software that effectively can monitor the loads of information out on the web for relevant personal data, with a highlight on user-generated content, will be a huge step forward for the company or companies that develop it.

There are already some out there who have similar products, but it will be interesting to see who takes off and what niches they break into . . . . will it be the average Joe (like with Reputation Defender), the celebrity, the sports stars, the politicians, the corporations? The list can go on and on. In reality, everyone and everything has a repuation, and those reputations are now online. I'd expect to see many more companies popping up in the near future.

But what is the best way to effectively manage an online reputation? Is it by contacting the site owners, the people operating the site that is showing undesirable or untruthful information about you and demading its removal? I don't personally think that's the best way to go about things. At least not as an initial approach. Online reputations should be planned out, practiced, and managed. You can accomplish that by creating and optimizing positive websites regarding your name our brand. You can have a low-budget PPC campaign going as well. Send out a press release, contribute frequently to a blog, get friends to post a page about you, etc. Get the information that you want people to see / read about you on the web, and practice good SEO techniques to ensure that's what they'll see. I think the startup that provides that to the industry will be more effective than a search and destroy outfit.

The more you plan ahead, the more you take time to create a good reputation for yourself, the less time and money you'll need to spend in the future to combat negative information. Combining that with simply realizing that the information you put out on the web can always find a way back to you will go a long way with most people's online reputations. The big corporations and the politicians of the world will always need some sort of PR / spin control in the online forum, just like they do in all forms of media, but the average individual? I think not. Hopefully the continued rise of the idea of even having an "online reputation" will lead to greater awareness about what it is and what it can mean for people and companies.

SEOMoz on ORM for Politicians

2006-11-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Not much to report this week as far as online rep management goes, but I did catch a cool post on SEOMoz about reputation management and politics. It definitely seems to be catching some steam (as I have mentioned on here previously). There are some good comments left by people in the SEO industry on the SEOMoz post - apparently many of them are a bit averse to jumping into the lovely world of politics. I for one look at it like an opportunity to take on a leading role in an area of SEO that has barely been explored. Plus, it's kinda exciting isn't it? More fun than blue widgets and AdSense publishing. Enjoy your mom's basement (or the large house you now live in thanks to SEO) you goddamn nerds!

This will undoubtedly be the last election we see in America where growing, fostering, and protecting their online reputation is not something that our politicians concern themsevles with. Much like the way that print, radio and TV all had their dawning in this realm, the internet, and more specifically the search engines, are coming to the battlefront come 2008.

Why Political Bloggers Will Control the Electoral College in '08

2006-10-25T08:27:00.000-07:00

Political blogs are a new medium that may have a significant effect on the upcoming Presidential election in 2008. Blogs started out as personal online journals. In the years prior to the last presidential election, blogs dedicated to politics began to appear. As the popularity increased, the writing began to be used as another tool in politics.

Recently, political blogs have become one of the most popular types on the internet. Most link to articles and add comments to support the bloggers position on an issue or about a particular candidate. They link to sources that can back up the position of the blogger with information or relevant statistics.

As blogs have become more mainstream, traditional media outlets have taken notice. News services and reporters have begun blogging. Political consultants now write blogs about political issues on a regular basis. Large group blogs such as The Huffington Post and the RedBlueBlog have cropped up with writings by many bloggers on one site. Politicians of both parties guest blog on these sites.

Candidates first used political blogs in the 2004 elections. Both John Kerry and George W. Bush had blogs on their websites. In the primary elections, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark were both blogging. Dean used blogs and his website successfully for fund raising. These candidates understood that this is an effective way to reach voters who may not be watching cable or network news. Younger voters may not be watching, but they are reading.

The 2004 South Dakota senate race was influenced, in part, by local blogs devoted to politics. Two well known bloggers routinely wrote favorably of the Republican candidate, John Thune. They also campaigned against Tom Daschle, the Democratic incumbent. Daschle was the leading Democrat in Congress, but lost his seat in that election. Later it was discovered that the two bloggers were paid by Thune’s campaign.

Blogs were initially seen as nothing more than partisan gossip, but are gaining credibility. Occasionally, bloggers actually break a story before the mainstream media. An example of this is the now infamous comments made by Senator Trent Lott about Strom Thurmond. Lott said that the country would have been better off if Thurmond had won the presidency in 1948.

Since Thurmond had campaigned on an anti-desegregation platform, this was perfect fodder for bloggers. Some began to investigate and found other interviews and documents to show the racism beneath the comment. Once the bloggers broke the story, the mainstream media picked it up. This eventually led to charges of racism and Lott eventually stepped down as Majority Leader.

Reading political blogs has benefits for voters, especially those who are undecided. Prior to the explosion in blogging, the undecided voter had to rely on debates between the candidates and information from the mainstream media to make a decision. The evening news too often resorts to sound bites when reporting on candidates. This can make it difficult to weigh the issues and differences between candidates. Reading a variety of political blogs from both parties can help crystallize the issues and decision making for the voter.

Both positive and negative implications exist for politicians - there is the benefit of a broader audience, spreading the word to more and more people. But that isn't always a good thing. Every time a candidate or politician makes a mistake or a bad decision, the bloggers will be there to record it. This has been a problem for George W. Bush during his presidency (one of them at least). Bad decisions and inaccurate statements he has made have been given more attention than they would have before the advent of political blogs.

The accuracy and integrity of political blogs continues to come under fire. Both parties accuse the other of using these writings to damage the credibility of the candidate’s opponent. This is a valid complaint and happens on both sides. It can be difficult for the voter to get an unbiased look at the candidates by reading blogs. It’s important to evaluate the source when relying on the information given.

Voters can expect more situations like the South Dakota senate race in upcoming elections. Politicians have learned the power of blogs and will be more likely to use this to their advantage in the 2008 election cycle. The parties will use blogs in the upcoming election, particularly in battleground states that can impact the Electoral College and therefore, the presidency.

In actuality, it remains to be seen how much influence bloggers will actually have on the 2008 and future elections, but it is likely to be a notable one. As interest in these writings continues to grow, they seem poised to have an impact.

reputation management

A Rep Management Trick

2006-10-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Somebody post something bad about you (or your company) on a forum or a blog? Hey, it can happen to the best of us. Chances are, if you are anyone or do anything worth talking about, someone will have something negative to say about you. And in the lovely cyberworld we live in, chances are it will also be showing up in a SERP near you.

Well here's a trick that can help remedy the situation (in most cases at least), and repair your online reputation in the process. The key to this trick is whether or not this negative post was done on a forum or a blog that offers the ability to leave 'comments'. Of course all forums allow people to participate in the discussion, and most blogs do too, so there's a good chance this will apply to your situation. Here's what you do:

1. Respond to the negative post by leaving a comment of your own on the same forum or blog, but on a different page. Include your full name (or company name) in the post.
2. Have a friend reply to your post.
3. Reply to your friend's post and include your full name (or company name) again.
4. Repeat this one more time on a different page within the forum or blog - not the negative post and not the one you just did, but a 3rd page.
5. Tag the 2 new pages that contain your name / company name and also point a few links to them (either place them on your own site or ask a friend).

Within a short time, the negative result that was previously showing up in the SERPs should be replaced by the new pages you have affected change on. Since Google (and those other guys that don't really matter) only will index 2 pages at most from a given domain in their top results, the new pages should replace the negative page.

Granted, there are instances where search engines index more than 2 pages (snippet links, https, etc.), but in general this should work. Especially on blogs and forums. It's worth a shot, and I've seen it work numerous times before. Happy manipulating.

Who is Less Trustworthy - Politicians or Bloggers?

2006-10-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

In a time when people are consciously participating and relying more and more on the internet, in partiular blogs, as their one-stop source for political news, opinions, and goings-on, who are we putting our trust in? While there's no doubt that the general population takes the words that come out of a politician's mouth with a grain of salt, what about the pundits of Web 2.0?

Bloggers most typically obtain their 'facts' from mainstream media sources like newspapers (tangible or online), TV, and the net. They then offer up their own personal take on a given politician or issue, applying whatever biases or party-alignments they may have. And whether they are doing this conciously or unconciously (and whether you believe they may be biased or not), it still is just a single person sitting at a keyboard, as far removed from the inner-workings of American politics as the everyman.

Political bloggers may be absent a political agenda, but personal biases and unique life situations are definitely traits they share - just like all of us. Looking to them as an authoritative source of information thus may not be the best thing to do before making a decision on who you will vote for in the coming mid-terms, or further down the road in '08. The internet has given everyone a voice, and as we turn our eyes away from the negative television commercials to the free-wheeling op-ed postings of our favorite blogs, remember that the new media wave of the future probably isn't coming equipped with a heightened level of credibility.

Time will pass, and politicians and their consultants will become more aware of the power of the net to pursuade people. Their .com efforts will begin to increasingly crowd out the large search engine hugfest between political blogs/UGC and Google and Yahoo, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing. You may just end up having to dig a little further to find your favorite source of bullshit, cause Mr. Politician will be feeding you just as fast as Joe Blogger.

In the end, it's still on us to decide who to trust and what to trust. Just remember that while bloggers still have a stranglehold on the political web forum, they did not obtain it through years of service in politics, and thier words are as open for debate as the men and women they critique.

The $100,000 Blog Post - Politics' New Make or Break Media

2006-10-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

How one blog post that ranks well can do more damage than $100k spent on a TV mudslinging ad.

The idea of the $100,000 blog post is that a single posting on a prominent political blog, aided by the presence of search engines and the blogosphere, can sway more potential voters toward or away from backing a politican than we may have ever imagined. The advent of the internet and the continued saturation of traditional media outlets has left politicians on a new playing field, one that goes beyond radio and television. Rightly, spending $100,000 on a spot on Channel 5 won't go as far as it used to. Some say the televised debates won Kennedy the election back in '60 because the man was a natural in front of the camera . . . will they be saying the same thing about the net and the Senate races of 2008? Or your local congressman? Those with the foresight to prepare to compete in every media outlet available will never be left, rather Nixon-like, asking "what if?".

Long gone are the days of prominence for FDR's 'Fireside Chats', the aforementioned John Kennedy's appealing TV persona, and a former Hollywood star in the White House. The big newspaper headline, the mudslinging radio ad, the 30 second commercial spot on the 6 o'clock news - we as Americans have seen it all, and we've shifted our collective attentions through new forms of media just as surely as they have emerged.

Have you ever seen the episode of Entourage where movie-star Vince Chase has to play up to a nerd with a movie blog that gets "a million hits a day"? The guy had the power to make or break Aquaman's open weekend. It's the same with politicians today. Prominent political blogs and bloggers draw more daily visitors than would fit into the Rose Bowl, and more than ever these visitors view bloggers as the purest authoritative channel of political information available. And with most prominent bloggers posting 1-6 times per day, blogs have become the darling of the Google's and the Yahoo's of the world. So what does it all mean?

More and more Americans are actively using the internet for researching political issues. And if Joe Blogger posts an article entitled "Mayoral Candidate Jim Jenkins Caught on Tape", then chances are within 48 hours any searcher that heads over to Google and types in "Jim Jenkins" and hits "Search" will be well versed in Mr. Jenkins' tape-recorded antics in a few short minutes. No need for us to catch it on the tube, or while in the car listening to the radio, it's all just sitting out there for us on the net waiting to be consumed. $100,000 TV ad? Better to spend those campaign dollars figuring out what the online community is saying about you and to take an active role in it.

It is doubtful that our Founding Fathers harbored a vision of a futurisitc "blogosphere" way back in the 1770's and 80's, but it may be the purest form of the ideas of free speech and "everyone has a voice" to ever emerge. That's right, democracy is recognizing it's fullest potential in the world of Blogspot and Google. The speed with which information travels, accompanied by the unlimited audience the blogosphere provides, is driving American politics into a new frontier. Bloggers such as Andrew Sullivan and sites like Wonkette have more clout and catch more eyes circa 2006 than just about anyone outside of the New York Times. User-generated content (UGC) websites have exploded in the last 2 years, and while we're all aware of the MySpace's of the world, blog search engines like Technorati and social tagging sites like Digg and Del.icio.us have made blog posts / stories easier to find and easier to proliferate on the web. Any web nerd will tell you - a spot on Digg's home page or on the Del.icio.us "popular" page will send tens of thousands of visitors to a given blog every day.

Not to mention our reliance on search engines to find information. Billions of searches are conducted each day. Top placement in a Google or a Yahoo can make or break a company, much in the same way that it can now make or break a politician. While 3rd party sites maintained by bloggers are outside of thier control (but should be monitored), politicians can utilize blogs on their own websites to maintain a consistent, "personal" voice with their audience. Google will reward them for it. Also, maintaining up-to-date information on their campaign and their stance on each issue is a great way to continue to have a first-hand influence on the message being sent about them online, and effectually their online reputation. Properly handled, of course, a managed online reputation will guarantee that a politican's official site and the prevailing blog community which surrounds it will be yet another positive factor leading to their election (or re-election) and their approval while in office.

So I urge you, fair politican (and accompanying political consultants) to ponder for a moment about where that next $100,000 should go(ogle).

Reputation Management in the Political Forum

2006-09-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

Some 26 million Americans used the internet to gain information about politics in August 2006. As mid-term elections grow near and the race heats up for 2008, it seems for certain that the internet (and the information contained therein) is going to play its biggest role to date in shaping the opinions and ulitmately the votes cast by countless Americans. Interestingly, this fact opens up a world of opportunity for online reputation management with respect to politicians. Much like a large corporation's brand name, a politician is very much in the public eye - and even more hotly debated over. Politics have often brought out some of our fiercest emotions, emotions that stem from most people's core beliefs on government, society, and morality. In cyberworld, the realm of public opinion is more vast and more dynamic than ever. News reports, blog posts, forums, and press releases spread through the net at the blink of an eye, and to the end of the earth. For a political candidate, no matter how big or small, what is being "said" about them online must be their concern.

Political Reputation Management, then, is the search marketing discipline borne from the collision of all these realities. Politicians in today's age should be well advised on how to both strengthen the search positions of thier official sites, profiles, reputable news stories and the like, while at the same time lessening the presence of negative or irrelevant websites and posts relating to their name and their campaign. It is virtually impossible to quantify the effects of positive or negative websites that lie in the top 10 or so in the search engines for a person's name, but the prevelance of use of search engines like Google to research information on any given topic by people in our country is undeniable. And as the recent USA Today article explains, millions are using it every day to learn more about local, state, and national politics. While I don't expect most politicians nor the people who run their campaigns have much knowledge about search engine marketing at this point, it is becoming more and more a part of the "game". There are some companies out there who can help with search engine marketing, as well as Plus 1 Marketing, which specializes in reputation management for politicians.

It's an exciting time with respect to the online reputation management industry, as much of it is just getting traction among the search marketing community and new niches keep appearing. Job applicants, corporate brands, and now politicians all fit the mold of being in need of a good online reputation, and I believe we are only scratching the surface. What will the next group be? We'll know shortly.

News Articles - Forming Your Reputation

2006-09-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

One thing that many people fail to utilize in managing their online reputation are archived newpaper articles. Generally, if you do something that is noteworthy enough to get you mentioned in your local newspaper (or even if it is the New York Times), it's either something that is very positive in nature or very negative. Either way, archived news articles will stay hosted on publications' websites for years and years, so it's something that needs to be managed to benefit your online reputation - either by pushing those news stories up in the rankings, or by pushing them down. If there is a story out there about how you helped contribute to a charitable event, link to it. Link to it from your blog, your personal home page, and tag it in del.icio.us. Increasing its link popularity will definitely give it a boost in the SERPs.

What if the story is a negative one? First question to ask is whether or not there are other stories hosted on that publication's that are about you. One method of pushing a bad story out of the SERPs that is hosted on a fairly prominent domain (like a large city's newspaper or even a highly popular blog) is to add to or link to other page within that same domain that are not negative. If you are a public figure, chances are there are multiple articles about you hosted on most news domains. By increasing the link popularity of the positive stories you can force out the negative ones rather quickly as the search engines do not index more than 2 pages for a specific domain near the top of the SERPs (unless you are talking snippet links of course but that does not apply here).

Reputation Management on Squidoo

2006-09-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

I recently added a lens to Squidoo, you can check it out here - Online Reputation Management. You gotta love that site by the way (Squidoo.com), I really like the features it offers and the ease of use. It's gonna be the next Wikipedia they say, and I wouldn't be surprised. If you haven't became a "lensmaster" yet, get over to the site and get to work. It's a great way to spread the word about your brand or your services.

reputation management

Become a Part of the Conversation

2006-09-06T11:21:00.000-07:00

"Become a part of the conversation" is a common maxim of the online reputation management forum. The "conversation" of course is the combination of all the official sites, news reports, press releases, blog and forum posts, and related industry sites that offer up information about your name as a company or an individual. These are the sites that are defining how your name is perceived online, and whether they are offering up factual information (positive or negative) or inaccurate information, an opinion is being formed throughout the world based on them. Reputation management campaigns typically focus in on the top 10 search results for a given name and it's a good bet that there is some sort of combination of blogs/forums, official pages, personal pages, and news sources showing up for each name out there. So what does "becoming part of the conversation" mean? It means that the best way to exert influence over the search results and the "voice" of the net with regards to your name or company brand is to contribute to it actively and through the appropriate channels.

It is important to first identify those appropriate channels - is there a large forum that discusses your industry? Is there a blogger that has come to be viewed as authoritative source of information for your field? Spreading positive information to these types of sites can go a long way in assuring that those top 10 results will be a source of growth for your brand. A convenient reality associated with online rep management is that most of the sites that are of any concern for influencing your rep are stocked full of user-generated content. Search engines are quite in love with blogs, forums, and news sources. They offer up an extremely large amount of content / pages for the engines to crawl, and oftentimes update it on a daily basis. But just about any blog that is out there slandering your brand, and absolutely any forum, will offer you an undeterred path for response - just make one. Reputation management is all about controlling those user-generated, Web 2.0 sites, news articles and press releases, and optimizing your own sites. Spread the good word, apply some basic SEO, and enjoy the comforts of knowing that your online reputation is helping grow your brand or name, not hurting it.

reputation management

Online Reputation - Have You Made it an Asset or a Liability?

2006-08-30T08:17:00.000-07:00

"Reputation is a company's most powerful asset, or its costliest liablility." - I saw that quote on towerspr.com a few days ago and I think that it sums up the importance of reputation management and what it can mean for your company quite well. And what about Daniel-Day Lewis in the movie adaptation of The Crucible, shouting, "Because it is my name!"? That's another good one. But no matter what you reference, it rings true that managing a reputation has always been an important aspect of functioning in any society, whether it be your personal name, your family's, or that of your business. With the advent of the net, a new arena was formed for any name to be applauded and scrutinized over. It's no question that every minute of every day that there is a potential customer out there researching online for your brand. Nor is it a question that people will search your name to learn more about you. It's time to start acting to make sure what they see is the truth, the positive truth, and nothing but what you want them to see.

Got Content? Make it Visible

2006-08-23T11:34:00.000-07:00

In all reality, most of the "grunt" work required to have a good online reputation is done before a campaign is launched. All companies have tons of positive written content on everything from their mission statement to their individual products. It simply takes the know-how of search engines and how to make those positive things index highly in the search results. Given that 90% or more of people will do online research using a search engine on a product before they buy it, or a trip before they take, or a job before they apply, it makes sense to need those positive things to be highly visible. So take those testimonials and get them on your site, then get some links.

Granted, all major search engines will typically only index 1-2 pages of a given domain, meaning it is going to take 10 separate websites positively lauding your company's services / products to effectively manage an online reputation. For most companies, managing 10 sites is likely out of the question. That's where companies that specialize in ORM can help out by featuring positive content on their own network of sites, but there are also a ton of user-generated content sites out there where a small posting or a profile on your company can go a long way. Sites like Amazon, LinkedIn, Squidoo, Yahoo360, MySpace, etc. Posting a paragraph about yourself or your company on one of these sites will probably result in a top 10 ranking in the search engines for your name. Or you could start a blog just like this one. Think outside the box a little and you'll be vanquishing any negative / "flame" sites in no time.

Managing a Reputation - The Top 10 Results

2006-08-15T12:53:00.000-07:00

What are the top 10 search results in Google for your company's name? What about for your own name? As our world becomes increasingly focused on the web as a source of information, whether it be for obtaining news, researching a purchase, or learning more about a company or an individual, the websites that appear at the top of the search rankings in any major search engine can have a great amount of influence on people's opinions and buying decisions. By combining the techniques of search engine optimization (SEO) with the ideas behind old-fashioned PR, online reputation management can help any individual or company successfully manage the websites that appear in relation to their name in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Whether you are applying for a job, running for political office, or looking to put a good name out there for your new (or established) company, online reputation management is something that should be strongly considered.

Recent news stories have highlighted the lack of privacy people are beginning to realize exists for social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook. College students and adults alike have been passed over for job positions because of their personal profiles and comments posted on these purely recreational sites. Because a MySpace or a Facebook is so popular and has so many pages, there is a strong likelihood that if you have your name and personal information posted there that it would show up in a major search engine for a query on your name. Online reputation managers can help push those "personal" website posts down and out of the top search rankings by optimizing their vast network of sites for your name. They can post copies of your resume, add a general profile, post personal statements, etc. Many employers today will do as much research as they can on job applicants by using search engines and browsing social websites - don't let them make a decision on you before the interview. Your online reputation is just as important in today's world as your public reputation. The internet is a free resource open for everyone to use, view, and form opinions over, a powerful tool that has made managing an online rep and controlling the SERPs a fledging industry.

The applications of SEO to managing personal or corporate image in the public eye is only now being explored for the first time. In the next few years, events like the 2008 elections and the continued use of search engines to research purchases, company information, and personal information will only further the understanding of a need to head off threats to one's online reputation and to manage it intelligently and in a time-sensitive manner.