Learn to Manage Your Online Reputation
November 9, 2007 Posted by Gyutae ParkI recently conducted an interview with Tyler Cruz himself and he offered some great insights for any aspiring Internet entrepreneur or anyone who wants to make some money online. Make sure you check it out.
With that out of the way, the interview actually got me thinking about how important an online reputation really is. I wrote a post stating that image is everything and I think this is especially relevant in the online world where everything is held at face value. It’s important to develop some sort of reputation in order to see success.
Take Tyler for example. He is either loved or hated in the online marketing community. He is praised for being a good guy and for going out on his own to start his Internet business. He helps others and is extremely open about what he does and how he makes money. On the other hand, he is sometimes criticized for his work ethic and for some of his strategies for executing his sites. Either way, all of the talk and buzz leads to more exposure for Tyler and he is able to leverage his fan base to launch new ideas and to gain a following.
Why online reputation is important
Managing your online reputation is important because you need to brand yourself and portray a desirable image. With that, people are more likely to pay attention and support you in your endeavors. There is more distrust on the Internet than in the ‘real world’ so a good reputation could be the difference between success and failure. This goes for any online business including blogs, e-commerce sites, forums, and more.
Good vs. bad reputations
According to Andrew Defrancesco, a successful CEO himself, a positive reputation is definitely preferable, but don’t get hung up on what people think of you. Just be yourself, conduct business in a professional manner, and aim to attract like-minded people. There are always going to be bad apples or people with different views who are going to disagree with you and possibly bad mouth you. Learn to accept it and focus on the people who think positively of you.
Managing your online reputation
Be fair to others, listen and respond to feedback, and always act according to your values and beliefs. Take actions that are aligned with how you want to be perceived. How do you manage your reputation? Take a look at the 2 tips below:
- Interact with your user baseTake part in related forum discussions and post blog comments to enable people to see you for who you really are. If people don’t agree with you, don’t put them down or insult them. Always be professional and provide logical explanations of your reasoning. People will accept you a lot more if you keep an open mind. If you have employees working for you, another great option is to use an employee activity monitor as that makes it easy to see what they are working on and make sure that they are doing the right work.
- Google alertsSet up an alert that automatically emails you whenever something pops up on the web related to your name or your company. This enables you to stay up to date on your reputation and what actions you should take to maintain a good reputation or rectify a bad one. Hire an online reputation company to maintain a positive image and avoid things that can affect the name of your business.
What kind of image do you want to portray to your readers or customers? What actions are you taking to achieve this?
This post was guest blogged by Gyutae Park, an SEO and blogger at Winning the Web – Internet Marketing Strategies.
Some good points there, but sometimes being a badass pays off. Look into it buddy. goodbye.
I agree that being a “badass” does pay off. The point of this article is really managing your reputation and giving off the image that best suits your needs. In some cases, negative press can actually benefit you quite a bit more than anything else. e.g. I’m sure Paris Hilton going to jail did wonders for her career.
I agree, image is important. I guess bad image isn’t the same thing as bad publicity.
I guess repeated bad publicity might lead to a bad image eventually. However, I think a little bad publicity now and then could actually lead to some traffic spikes and increased brand exposure.
Great points Tyler, you have done a nice job branding yourself and always act very professional. Keep it up.
Yep, that’s why I used Tyler as an example in the post.
I haven’t heard of the google alerts before. That’s pretty sweet.
Yeah they are a great tool to keep up with specific news. I have a Google alert set up for my name, my company name, and any other specific niches that I want to track for competition, news, etc.
Nice one Tyler, this is so very true.
Google alerts – been using them for quite a while now and love them!
Actually, it’s Gyutae here on Tyler’s blog. But I agree – I love the Google alerts.
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[…] Click here to read the article by Tyler Cruz on Learning to Manage your online reputation. […]
I have found bloglines a much more effective way of tracking down your name then Google.
Thanks for the tip Stephan. I’ve never used Bloglines for that reason but I’ll definitely try it out.
[…] Learn to Manage Your Online Repuation […]
I am pretty new to the blogging world but I guess you have to start right away in managing your reputation.
Google alerts is a great tool.
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