5 in 10 SMM series: Becoming an authority - Reputation Management

Who are you online? If I 'google' your name, what will I find? When you are about to do business with someone, or about to make a major purchase, do you do research first?

More and more, most people do: I, for instance, would never hire a professional of any kind, Lawyer, Doctor, Realtor, Lender without 'Googleing' that person's proper name first to view their online reputation.

Chances are, if they are really bad, somebody has said so somewhere, and it will come up when I 'google' (yes it is a new verbe!) their proper name.

Many people don't even think about this aspect of social media marketing: that you can intentionally, easily, and for free control what people see about you when they 'google' your name, and/or search other major search engines and rating sites like Yelp about the name of your business, your brand, or your product name.

In reverse, others, more tech savvy and industrious than you can likewise 'conquest' your name, your product name, your franchise name, your brand name and steal your customers, or even intentionally damage your reputation.

By building properly optimized profiles on Facebook, MySpace, Yelp and others, you, and even a few of your friends or business associates can not only assure that this does not happen; you can also build valuable links, and send positive messages to these very important prospects when they do research, and establish yourself as an expert in the process.

Blogging, and achieving a controlled online presence is now built around becoming the source of real information, what I call 'Human Edited Data'

You see your proper name, your opinions, what you have to say about your market, your co-workers, your colleagues, even political statements and opinions about current events and trends: these all come from your unique human mind, and are unique by definition in all the world - and that is a prerequisit to achieve first page organic search engine recognition, placement, traffic, and a good online reputation.

This can all be done on purpose, and for free ;-)

Lear more at our very famous search engine marketing blog:

3net Search Engine Marketing Blog