For a freelance writer, holding the title of a professional
blogger doesn't just mean that you write for a living. It means that
you've built reputation management in order to even hold the title
"Professional Blogger."
Whether you're trying to build an audience or sell products/services, having people know that you're reputable and authoritative is a key factor. The problem is, the chances for an online reputation to be shut down in a single swoop are quite high. Gone are the days when protecting your image went no further than keeping embarrassing moments out of the local newspaper! These days a business rival who turns out to be an old college friend can post something negative about you and/or your business to the Web, or an embarrassing photo from your college days can surface, and the damage can be detrimental.
There IS something you can do!
You don't have to sit by the way side and watch your reputation unfold! There are ways that you can monitor and protect the reputation that you have rightfully earned. But I want to clarify that there is also a lot of misinformation out there about the ways in which your reputation can be monitored.
Tools such as FollowWonk and Klout are used by a large population of bloggers. These tools help them evaluate exactly where they stand with their online reputation. Granted, these tools are useful, they are not accurate enough to offer you a full and true assessment of your online reputation.
I will start with Klout for example - it tells you many things about your persona online and it will give you a finite "Google footprint." It will even give you the number of people that you have directly influenced and what kind of sway you hold over other people in your industry. I will say that it effectively measures your online influence through the prism of social network import and reach which at the end of the day everything combined DOES give value, but it's just not quite the same as monitoring your reputation.
What these tools basically tell you is how influential you are. They do NOT tell you whether your overall image is good or bad, or whether there are potentially embarrassing listings out there that could cost you your reputation both personally and professionally.
Let's say for instance that the one time you screwed up in college it cost you a DUI and an expulsion and that information leaked out onto the Web. A great way to stay alert about these negative listings is to just do a search for yourself, on Google, Yahoo, and Bing as often as you can. Have you ever heard of the term "If you want it done right, do it yourself?" Well this is a prime example!
The steps are simple to complete this task. First, you have to make sure that you are completely logged out of Google before you begin your search on yourself. If you don't, you will only get results that are more "personalized" and do not show the bigger picture. Next, make sure to search for different variations of how your name might be spelled, particularly if your name has an alternate spelling; so if you go by Karryn, for example like I do, there is going to be a very good chance that someone might post about me under a more common way to spell my name which is "Karen."
Another very important step is to setup Google and Yahoo alerts. For bloggers and other professionals who want literally up-to-the-minute information about their online listings, this is the most effective way to get the information.
Be proactive!
I'm sure you know though that merely monitoring your reputation will not be sufficient. You have to be proactive in shaping it to ensure that when someone DOES search for you on the Web, the first listings that appear to them are positive ones. The molding of your positive online reputation is crucial and essentially a matter of population the search engines with flattering content about yourself.
You may be asking, "how do I do that?" The first and most important thing to thing about is your online real estate portfolio. You absolutely have to make sure that you are the owner of all of the domain names that your name is associated with. For example, if your name is Sophia Aaron, try to secure the domain names of sophiaaaaron.com or sophiaaaron.net or even.org. Get all the exact-match variations that you can. You will want to do the same thing with social media accounts. For example a Facebook account is not going to provide you with Google rankings if it isn't directly attached to your name. The same goes for Twitter.
Keep in mind that the primary goal in defending your reputation is to fill the first couple of Google pages with positive listings - that is, listings that YOU control. You will want to make sure to get a LinkedIn page because LinkedIn ranks better on Google than ay other social network! Some other social networking suggestions are; WordPress, which ranks better than Blogger or Tumblr; Vimeo which astonishingly ranks better than YouTube.
At the end of the day measuring your influence is no less than useful, but when it comes to ensuring that your online image is positive, there is absolutely NO substitute for basic reputation management and monitoring.
If you currently monitor your online reputation, feel free to share it in the comments.
Whether you're trying to build an audience or sell products/services, having people know that you're reputable and authoritative is a key factor. The problem is, the chances for an online reputation to be shut down in a single swoop are quite high. Gone are the days when protecting your image went no further than keeping embarrassing moments out of the local newspaper! These days a business rival who turns out to be an old college friend can post something negative about you and/or your business to the Web, or an embarrassing photo from your college days can surface, and the damage can be detrimental.
There IS something you can do!
You don't have to sit by the way side and watch your reputation unfold! There are ways that you can monitor and protect the reputation that you have rightfully earned. But I want to clarify that there is also a lot of misinformation out there about the ways in which your reputation can be monitored.
Tools such as FollowWonk and Klout are used by a large population of bloggers. These tools help them evaluate exactly where they stand with their online reputation. Granted, these tools are useful, they are not accurate enough to offer you a full and true assessment of your online reputation.
I will start with Klout for example - it tells you many things about your persona online and it will give you a finite "Google footprint." It will even give you the number of people that you have directly influenced and what kind of sway you hold over other people in your industry. I will say that it effectively measures your online influence through the prism of social network import and reach which at the end of the day everything combined DOES give value, but it's just not quite the same as monitoring your reputation.
What these tools basically tell you is how influential you are. They do NOT tell you whether your overall image is good or bad, or whether there are potentially embarrassing listings out there that could cost you your reputation both personally and professionally.
Let's say for instance that the one time you screwed up in college it cost you a DUI and an expulsion and that information leaked out onto the Web. A great way to stay alert about these negative listings is to just do a search for yourself, on Google, Yahoo, and Bing as often as you can. Have you ever heard of the term "If you want it done right, do it yourself?" Well this is a prime example!
The steps are simple to complete this task. First, you have to make sure that you are completely logged out of Google before you begin your search on yourself. If you don't, you will only get results that are more "personalized" and do not show the bigger picture. Next, make sure to search for different variations of how your name might be spelled, particularly if your name has an alternate spelling; so if you go by Karryn, for example like I do, there is going to be a very good chance that someone might post about me under a more common way to spell my name which is "Karen."
Another very important step is to setup Google and Yahoo alerts. For bloggers and other professionals who want literally up-to-the-minute information about their online listings, this is the most effective way to get the information.
Be proactive!
I'm sure you know though that merely monitoring your reputation will not be sufficient. You have to be proactive in shaping it to ensure that when someone DOES search for you on the Web, the first listings that appear to them are positive ones. The molding of your positive online reputation is crucial and essentially a matter of population the search engines with flattering content about yourself.
You may be asking, "how do I do that?" The first and most important thing to thing about is your online real estate portfolio. You absolutely have to make sure that you are the owner of all of the domain names that your name is associated with. For example, if your name is Sophia Aaron, try to secure the domain names of sophiaaaaron.com or sophiaaaron.net or even.org. Get all the exact-match variations that you can. You will want to do the same thing with social media accounts. For example a Facebook account is not going to provide you with Google rankings if it isn't directly attached to your name. The same goes for Twitter.
Keep in mind that the primary goal in defending your reputation is to fill the first couple of Google pages with positive listings - that is, listings that YOU control. You will want to make sure to get a LinkedIn page because LinkedIn ranks better on Google than ay other social network! Some other social networking suggestions are; WordPress, which ranks better than Blogger or Tumblr; Vimeo which astonishingly ranks better than YouTube.
At the end of the day measuring your influence is no less than useful, but when it comes to ensuring that your online image is positive, there is absolutely NO substitute for basic reputation management and monitoring.
If you currently monitor your online reputation, feel free to share it in the comments.
Best of luck to you!
Karryn Brown
Personal & Business Development Coach
theblogartist@gmail.com
Find me on Facebook at: TheBlogArtist
Tweet me: @TheBlogArtist
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karryn_A_Brown
Karryn Brown
Personal & Business Development Coach
theblogartist@gmail.com
Find me on Facebook at: TheBlogArtist
Tweet me: @TheBlogArtist
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