Increase Your Profits Series

Transcription

1 Increase Your Profits Series

2 Rights... 2 Disclaimer... 2 Offer... 2 Cinnamon Edge... 2 Introduction... 3 NetRep Terminology... 4 What is Online Reputation Management?... 5 What is Online Reputation Marketing?... 6 Monitoring Your Online Reputation... 7 The Basics of Building a Good Reputation Online... 8 Basics of Dealing with Negative Information Steps to Create & Manage Your NetRep Other Things to Do Protect Your Online Reputation How to Repair Your Online Reputation When the Worst Happens Doing NetRep What to Look for When Hiring NetRep Services Online Reputation Management Tools Conclusion & Offer

3 Rights NetRep ~ Reputation Management & Marketing has been produced by Cinnamon Edge. You may not reproduce this report under your own name, nor sell it. However, you are most welcome to share the report digitally or in hard copy so long as all text, references, links and copyright notices are left as is. 2 Disclaimer This report is a short guide only; the authors cannot accept responsibility for your own online reputation management and marketing undertaken as a result of reading this; if in doubt, you must refer to approrpriate professionals. Offer Cinnamon Edge will offer you a free NetRep overview for your business, and give you recommendations. You can then use the information as you see fit, and it s up to you whether you implement strategies yourself, get training, or use us or another company to help you out. Cinnamon Edge Cinnamon Edge is an established NetRep, online marketing, training and publishing business accepting a range of clients locally, nationally and abroad. We keep up to date with the latest developments and techniques so you don t have to, meaning you can concentrate on doing what you do well! You re welcome to call us.

4 Introduction 3 Everything you do or say these days has the potential to end up on the internet. The world of George Orwell s book Nineteen Eighty-Four is far more of a reality than any of us care to admit. However, it is possible to control the way we are seen on the internet, at least to some extent, through online Reputation Management. It s also possible and recommended to use the situation to your advantage using Reputation Marketing. In this report we ll look in online terms at: What Reputation Management and Reputation Marketing are How to monitor your reputation How to start building your online reputation and protecting it How to repair any negative information Using search engine optimisation (SEO) and tools to optimise your reputation What to look for if you want to hire someone to do this for you

5 NetRep Terminology 4 The terms Online Reputation Management and Reputation Marketing are quite recent, and shortened versions such as RM, ORM, RMM, RepMan, RepMar, etc, haven t really been agreed on. One phrase that is gaining ground, however, is NetRep (or Net Rep or netrep), so we ll go with this one, using it to encompass both the management and marketing of your online reputation.

6 What is Online Reputation Management? 5 Online Reputation Management is, as the name suggests, managing your reputation online both your name and your business. It involves: Monitoring what is said or seen about a person, brand or company on the web Encouraging the visibility of positive information Suppressing and/or addressing any negative information NetRep needs to be an ongoing process; we ll look later at what you need to do.

7 What is Online Reputation Marketing? 6 Online Reputation Marketing takes you to the next step where you will look to: Building a good reputation Maintaining that reputation Making sure people can see your reputation Using that reputation in your marketing Reputation Management and Marketing do overlap somewhat, so we ll deal with them as one NetRep entity in this report.

8 Monitoring Your Online Reputation 7 Basic internet reputation management begins with careful monitoring of all mentions on the internet. This means keeping careful track of search engine results for key terms covering your: Name, company name, address and brand name(s) [Your keyword] review [Your keyword] scam A good place to start is to set up Google alerts. However, although Google is the most used search engine, your name can show up in other search engines, and also on social and sharing sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Reddit, Flickr, YouTube and more: anywhere your name could show up is a place that needs to be monitored, not just Google. All the social networks and other search engines can turn up different results, so monitor as many as you can.

9 The Basics of Building a Good Reputation Online 8 As you go about building your reputation online, there are three basic keys to remember: 1. Regularly post positive content You need to make sure that the information you want the world to see is the content most visible on the internet Regularly publishing your own content in a variety of places increases your visibility online and lets people know who you are, and what values or messages you represent

10 2. Keep your private information and arguments private The best defence against any future problems online is to keep private information hidden from public eyes. Either don t post that type of information online in the first place, or check your privacy settings everywhere to make sure you are limiting who can see your details 9 Also, don t bring arguments online anything negative you say will come back to bite you! By all means, respond to criticism, but put your case assertively, yet calmly and fairly 3. Deal quickly with any negative information If you do find that there is something inappropriate, nasty or unflattering about you out on the web, you ll need to counteract it quickly Don t let a piece of negative content get entrenched in people s minds or, even worse, go viral on the net. Answer complaints, and work to getting a lot of positive content online

11 Basics of Dealing with Negative Information 10 If you re unaware of its presence, just one negative review, comment or photo can affect you for years to come, no matter whether you re a sole trader or a corporation. Monitor your online reputation carefully and take control of how the world sees you. Your main options are: If you think it s unfounded, ask the person responsible to delete it. If the post is libellous (and/or left by a disgruntled ex-employee), take the matter up with a solicitor who is used to dealing with online crime Post an answer online, showing you are dealing with the situation; use this as an opportunity to show your professionalism and fairness Push it down in the search engine results by adding regular, optimised content that will show before the negative content By dominating the results with positive content, people are far less likely to see that one item that might embarrass you or cause the wrong impression.

12 5 Steps to Create & Manage Your NetRep 11 Luckily, having a large degree of control over the way the world sees you can be easier than you may expect! Once you know what to do, the process can become quite straight forward (though, to be fair, it can be pretty time consuming). By taking specific actions, you can manage your online reputation and create a consistent brand and image that bridges both the online and offline world. Crafting your message and delivering it to the world online is just another component of marketing. Some would argue that it is one of the most important business strategies you can use, and many successful companies spend 60% + of their marketing budget on NetRep. To begin with, use these five steps to start building your online reputation:

13 Step 1: Assess your current reputation Start by doing a thorough assessment of your current online reputation. Conduct searches for your full name, company name, brand or other key phrases (such as your services) in Google and other search engines. 12 Focus primarily on the first two to three pages in Google s results. Put this information into a spreadsheet, listing the URLs, position in results and your comments on what s in that URL. Flag any causes for concern, even if they re minor, and decide: What needs doing Who will do it When it must be done If everything s fine and dandy, well done! However, you must keep up the research on a regular basis (at least weekly and, if possible, daily).

14 Step 2: Identify changes needed Look through each of the results on your spreadsheet and identify things you want to change. 13 If there is anything negative, mark that as a priority to either delete or push down in the results. For results that contain key information you want to promote, mark those as items you want to move up in the rankings. Add columns for do by dates and who will be responsible for that task. Conditional formatting (easy to do) can help you see at a glance where people are up to. The picture shows MS Excel, but you can use the free Open Office s Calc and Google s Sheet instead.

15 Step 3: Determine your best arenas & niches Now look at what is showing up most in your results. Are your highest ranking URLs from Twitter and Facebook? 14 Maybe you show up more on a personal blog or in YouTube videos? If so, these are the types of places where you can publish more information about yourself and influence your reputation. At the same time, be sure to identify places where your target audience hangs out. You want to be seen and heard in the places that are most important for the type of reputation you want. Once you ve established a good presence in these places, look at strategies to show up better in places where coverage is non-existent, minimal or patchy.

16 Step 4: Create a reputation strategy With information about your current reputation in hand, you can now craft a strategy for building the image you want. 15 Focus on both the what, where and how of your content and message. What type of content will serve you best? This might include blog posts, press releases, articles for directories, tweets, Facebook pages, and interviews. Where will this content will be published, and in what format(s) and how? This might include which social networks to focus on, high traffic blogs, news sites, your own blogs and video sites. Also determine how you will know when you have succeeded; for example, will you be dominating page one of Google, will you have at least 10 glowing reviews, will people say they have seen you on the Internet and, even better, follow you?

17 Step 5: Start building The last step in building your online reputation is to follow through on your strategy and start creating your content and promoting it in the search engines and elsewhere with SEO techniques (we ll look at some of these later). 16 Save time and hassle, and give people a choice by re-using content you have. For example, say you have a video interview you have done with someone: produce this also in audio format, and have a transcript. Use the content to make a webinar, slide show, screen shots/graphics, infographics, articles, news release, case study, course materials, a Kindle book and more. Be sure to have your name, brand or company listed as the author on each item published, so that you get credit for it. As you create the content that will influence your reputation, continue to monitor search results online. Track your progress and keep tabs on all mentions of your name and key phrases so that you can quickly respond to anything negative.

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19 Other Things to Do 18 Implement a company policy Make sure you have a very strict media and social media policy that covers such issues as: Having content OK d and signed off before it is ed or posted False advertising Discriminatory and racist remarks Illegal practises/law Privacy The consequences of poor reputation management How not to take angry, defamatory and accusatory posts personally, and how to deal with them Limit who you give passwords and permissions to. For example, an employee may tweet something that s defamatory or damaging it may well be spotted within minutes, but by then it may have been retweeted world-wide and the next thing you know, the journalists are calling to see if there is any truth in the rumour that?

20 Look inside your company Disgruntled employees and ex-employees can cause an awful lot of damage! Watch passwords to social media very carefully as you don t want to suddenly find yourself locked out of an account. 19 We won t upset your day by telling you hair raising tales of what s happened to some businesses we know but, please, take care. By the same token, keep an eye out on review sites. We have known several businesses which have had very damaging reviews posted about them by ex-employees. In some cases they didn t find out for a long time and lost customers and income. It s not always easy to tell who s left a review as people can use pseudonyms when posting, so check all reviews carefully. For genuine reviews, leave a reply; for ones that look suspect, don t leave them and hope they ll go away, but investigate further and take action if needed.

21 Find out about your competitors If you have competitors who are doing better than you are in terms of NetRep, then find out how they re doing it, and then formulate your new approach. 20 Find out what they re using in terms of: Keywords Content subject matter Content type (documents, books, digital books, podcasts, slideshows, videos, graphics, etc) Content location (websites, blogs, forums, Places/G+, YouTube, SlideShare, etc) Publicity (social media, authorship, websites and blogs, news releases, etc) Search engine optimisation (site structure, tags, Permission marketing (eg, with newsletters) Calls to action In addition, find out where they don t shine, or what they don t do well. Measure yourself against these observations too are you doing the same? How could you do better?

22 Protect Your Online Reputation 21 While you can certainly use different strategies to repair your image online, the best way to protect your online reputation is to be proactive. There are a number of measures you can take immediately that act as a defence against any negative information that could show up on the internet and harm your reputation. For instance: Create profiles everywhere Get your addresses Register your personal domains Check your privacy settings Actively engage and publish Let s look at those five suggestions in a bit more detail:

23 Create profiles everywhere Make sure that you have profiles in your own name, brand and company name in all the major social and sharing sites. 22 These include Twitter, Facebook and Facebook Pages, LinkedIn, Flickr, Google+, Pinterest, and YouTube in particular. Make sure you get on plenty of general, local and trade directories. Time permitting, you should also consider creating profiles at MySpace, Naymz, and any new or rising social networks. In addition, make use of major bookmarking services such as StumbleUpon and Q & A sites such as Yahoo Answers.

24 Get your addresses Make sure you have an address in your name at Gmail, at the minimum. Since this is such a widely used service, you don t want to end up with someone creating a Gmail account in your name and sending information that looks like it came from you personally. You should also consider creating free accounts at widely used services like Hotmail and Yahoo, etc. 23 Register your personal domains Register your name as a domain so that someone else can t claim it. You can use a domain registry like GoDaddy.com or DomainMonster.com to claim your domain. (Learn from us! Set it up so that it automatically renews each year.) You could also set up personal blogs at Wordpress.com, Blogger.com, and Tumblr.com. Even if you only put up a single page with some public information about yourself and/or your business, it s worth claiming blogs in your name at these major sites. Look around to see if there are other places or sites in your market where people are active. Then set up profiles under your name there as well.

25 Check your privacy settings Personal accounts: In any profiles or accounts that have privacy settings, check them carefully to make sure you are only allowing appropriate information to be seen publicly. 24 The same goes for picture sharing sites, where people might be able to find embarrassing photos that you ll regret later. (Of course, pictures showing you in a good light are fine!) Business accounts: Make sure that colleagues and employees don t put up potentially embarrassing/damaging pictures or other content on business or private accounts that can be tracked back to you; let them know this rule during your NetRep briefings, and again before any office parties!

26 Actively engage & publish While you may have set up profiles and accounts in a variety of places online, that doesn t mean you have to be actively participating everywhere. Unless you have an army of helpers, that would be impossible. You need to be in the places where you want to be seen. 25 Pick the sites where your market is hanging out or where they go for information. Make sure you are engaging with people on a regular basis in those places, answering and asking questions. If there are specific types of sites where people in your market go for information, make sure you are regularly creating valuable content and publishing it there for everyone to read. If you protect your online reputation from the start, you can control at least some of the information that appears on the web. By making it more difficult for people to hijack your name and by keeping up a steady flow of content, you give yourself a significant edge against the type of people who might want to harm your image.

27 How to Repair Your Online Reputation When the Worst Happens 26 We hope it won t happen, but no matter how many steps you take to build up and protect your image on the internet, there may come a time that it gets attacked. When your online reputation has been damaged by negative information, you ll need to act immediately to repair it and prevent it from becoming a long-lasting problem. It s best to have a policy and procedure in place before this happens. You can t envisage every scenario, but at least have the basics in place. After identifying the source, you have a couple of options for damage control: Repair the damage yourself Bring in the expert help We ll have a look at those now:

28 Identify the source Before you can do any reputation repair, you need to find out where the negative information or attacks are coming from. Use the major search engines and social networks to see what is coming up in search results for your name. The sources will probably show up on the first two pages in Google, but you should also use a Twitter search or a tool like Social Mention to see where you are showing up in the social networks. 27 Repair it yourself If you need to go the route of repairing your online reputation yourself, the first step is to delete anything negative. If it is something under your own control, such as on a personal blog in a comment, then just go and delete it. Rather than waiting for Google to crawl your site and find the change, you can also use Google s Webmaster Tools to remove the URL (web page address) from search results. (Check in their support sections if you need help with that.)

29 If there is something negative on someone else s site, you can go to that site s webmaster and request that it be removed. Another important step to take is to counter any negative information with positive content: 28 Start regularly posting articles, comments, blog posts, social updates and other information that can push the damaging content way down in the search results Encourage happy clients and customers to leave reviews for you and/or write testimonials for you Use whatever SEO (search engine optimisation) tactics you know to promote your positive content to the first pages of Google and other search engines If you are able to respond publically to a review or post, do so: seek to show you understand the concern and show what steps you are taking to make them feel better. Invite them to contact you. If, however, there is no truth in the statement, reply saying that to readers and add you will be taking this matter up with your company solicitors. Always respond calmly, politely and pleasantly: addressing the complaints in a polite and helpful way will actually serve to build up your image further and save you from further trouble.

30 Bring in the expert help There are specialist NetRep services that you can pay to repair your reputation. Depending on the extent of damage, this can turn out to be a quite cheap or a very expensive option. However, if you have the funds, it can be the most effective. You can also hire these types of firms to monitor your reputation on an ongoing basis. 29 Be careful about who you hire to repair and manage your reputation. There are plenty of dishonest or inexperienced consultants who can do more harm than good. Get a recommendation if possible. Regardless of whether you do it yourself or through the help of a specialist, you need to act fast to repair your online reputation when it has been damaged. NetRep 4U Ltd A single negative statement about you can go viral quickly and spread throughout the internet. By monitoring your reputation diligently, you can spot the damage before it becomes uncontrollable.

31 Doing NetRep 30 Gathering good reviews and testimonials and using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques are a key part of anyone s arsenal when managing online reputations. While traditional SEO focuses primarily on how to get your site to page one of search results, SEO for NetRep is focused on pushing negative information further back in search results and promoting positive information to the top. The actual tactics, however, are very similar. There s a lot you can do, and we ll look at some approaches here: Content marketing Using SEO to promote existing content Using SEO to promote new content Gathering good reviews Getting the news out Let s look at these in more detail now:

32 Content marketing The most widespread SEO technique for building and managing your image is straight content. You can use both new and existing content to market yourself, just as you would use it to push a site up in a search result. 31 If you can get your content onto high authority sites, then it is more likely to show up higher in the search engine results. The more eyes that see your content and your name in a positive light, the better. While content marketing for traditional SEO is meant for driving traffic to a specific site, when it comes to reputation management it s a bit different: your goal should be to have content that reflects your message dominating the first two pages or more of any search results. That s what people will see, so it doesn t matter whether it s showing up on your own site or someone else s. The content can be in the form of articles, news releases, ebooks, podcasts, videos, infographics, answers to questions, and so on.

33 Using SEO to promote existing content The content that you already have online can be used to help build your reputation, but you ll need to use SEO to push it as high as possible in the search engines for visibility. The most effective way to do that? Pick the content that best represents you and your message. Then build backlinks and promote it on social networks to achieve better rankings. 32 When you start building more backlinks to your content, start by looking at where the nearest competitor s links are coming from. Then you can try to build links from the same places. Other SEO techniques that you can use include building links from high authority sites. These include posting to places like the big social network Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and LinkedIn. However, you should also look at the high traffic blogs in your market; offer articles to these sites that relate to both their audience and the content you want to rank. In addition, make sure your actual site/blog is optimised in terms of content, tags and metatags. Look too at structure if you can silo, for example, all the better.

34 Using SEO to promote new content Whenever you develop new content for building your reputation, you ll need to use both traditional SEO tactics and specific, targeted approaches. 33 For content that you are creating to widen the visibility of your brand, use the standard SEO that you would use for any marketing. Optimise each page for a specific keyword in the URL, title, headers, image tags, and a couple times in the written content. Once it is published, promote it through bookmarking, social media, articles, directories, press releases, videos, and guest blogging. You can also publish content that is specifically designed to counter anything negative that is already in the top search results. One way to do this is to identify the negative keywords that those sites have used that relate to you, such as the word scam. Then create your own content that is optimised for that negative keyword, but which contains a message you want people to hear.

35 For example, say your product has been reported as a scam because someone didn t understand it. You can then publish an article discussing the common misconceptions about your product that might lead people to think it s a scam, and show how it s anything but. 34 Push that up in the search engines and you ve both countered the negative and prevented some misunderstandings in the future. Add the information to your FAQs page, and place a video (or several) on YouTube and your site(s) saying the same thing. You should also be sure to build links between not only the pages you have authored, but also ones that contain your name in a positive light. This will lend more authority to each link that you want to promote. Keep track of all your major sites to see their rankings and adjust your tactics accordingly. While you may have thought of SEO in the past as a way to rank your money-making sites, it s clearly an invaluable tool for managing your internet reputation. It helps you to selectively promote content that represents your brand while countering anything negative.

36 Gathering good reviews Reviews and testimonials can make a huge impact on people s perceptions of you/your business/services/goods. 35 Testimonials can be written, or recorded on audio or video. They can be placed (with permission) on your sites, Facebook page, YouTube, itunes, etc. Reviews can be left on review sites like Trip Advisor, Yell, Google+, on blogs and on your own site you can ask your web designer to include this functionality, or use a plugin (ready-made code) like WP Customer Reviews. Showing stars or scores gives a quick impression when people are searching, so the more showing, the better. People are more inclined to leave negative reviews (or tell their friends their unhappy stories), so it s definitely worth your while encouraging happy customers and clients to leave reviews and/or give you a testimonial. If you can encourage people to add their picture and website to a review or testimonial, all the better, as these additions add credibility.

37 Places to get seen Part of NetRep is gaining credibility and authority. You can do this by making sure you are publishing helpful content, especially if people get the chance to leave reviews/feedback. In no particular order, here are just a few places to have your content or links to your content on: 36 Your site(s) and blog(s) and other people s sites and blogs Amazon/Kindle, etc Sharing sites: documents, videos, presentations, podcasts & graphics Webinars PR Web and other online news release sites On business literature (with QR codes pointing to download pages) Article sites (including Ezine Articles, Squidoo and similar) Directory sites, Google Places and Google+ Where you can, optimise your listings/posts/bios with keywords, and include pictures of you and/or your logo. Do make sure you re appearing in sites relevant or complementary to your content, and don t get on any site that seems dodgy.

38 Getting the news out It s no use having good content out there if you don t let people know about it! Tell the world through: 37 Your newsletter/customer list and followers on your social media accounts such as o Twitter o Facebook o YouTube o LinkedIn Your blog Forum and blog comments (use a discreet link in your signature line) Your RSS feeds News releases (offline and online) If you keep a large proportion of your content evergreen (that is, not date dependent), then you can promote them every so often without having to produce more. Include topical content if people are likely to be searching for it just now.

39 What to Look for When Hiring NetRep Services 38 Online reputation management services and consultants have become more and more common as the internet gets increasingly complicated and difficult to navigate. For any business needing help with managing or repairing their image on the web, hiring an expert can be your answer. Consider hiring a NetRep firm if: You are short on time You are very confused by the internet You d rather get on with what you re good at You d like them to train your staff to do it in-house However, it can be a delicate and potentially dangerous situation when you put your own reputation in the hands of another. Follow a few basic guidelines when hiring:

40 Find out their experience level Investigate the consultants level of experience in online reputation management by looking at how many years they have been in business. Did they just start this business last year or has it been longer? 39 If they haven t been in reputation management long, what did they do before that? Don t write them off just for the number of years, as it s possible that their prior experience is related, and it s a relatively new service. You should also look at what types of jobs they have done in the past. How big were their clients? What was the nature of their assignments? How long did each job last or is it ongoing? How much work was straight SEO versus new methods of social media management? Another way to judge experience is through looking at how many clients they have had in the past and how many they are working with now. Do they have the staff or hours available to devote to you?

41 Get proof of results Look for testimonials on the consultant s site and, if you don t know the consultant personally or through recommendation, ask to see the original letters or to speak with a few of their past or current clients and ask those people what they were happy and unhappy with. 40 The company you re considering should have some statistics for you to look at. If they have been keeping good records from previous clients, they should be able to show you what they achieved over a specific period of time. Look at the service s own reputation online also. If they haven t done a good job promoting themselves on the web, how can they possibly do it for you? On the other hand, if they have achieved good results for their own brand, maybe they can replicate those methods with yours. (TIP: At the same time, see if they offer you other, complementary services maybe as a package deal.)

42 Ask if they offer training Because this needs to be an ongoing process, if you have someone inhouse whom you think could do your NetRep with some training, it s a good idea to ask if they ll start off your NetRep and train staff at the same time. 41 You both benefit: The consultant gets an initial fee and another testimonial You may get the services of a consultant who otherwise may not have had the time to fit you in long-term You save money in the long term (if it s done properly) Your team focus a lot more on your business, what it s about and what your mission statement involves A staff member can quickly whip something up, so you don t have to wait for your consultant to do it especially if you need it up now Of course, there s a middle way too: they train your staff to do certain tasks (usually the simpler, quicker ones) and carry on doing a proportion of your NetRep themselves.

43 Ask for a proposal Before hiring anyone, always get a detailed proposal. They should outline their plan of action for managing or repairing your reputation, along with how long they estimate it will take. Naturally, you ll want to know what they ll charge: it might be a flat fee for repairing the damage from one problem; it might also be an hourly rate for ongoing reputation monitoring. 42 It s absolutely critical to ask what happens if they don t achieve the results promised. What do they guarantee in terms of rankings and time frame? What if they don t achieve those results? Do you get your money back? While hiring a reputation management service is similar to hiring any professional consultant, you need to be extra cautious. Your reputation is on the line, so you need to be totally confident in their abilities. An inexperienced consultant can cause more harm than good, so make sure you do your research thoroughly and know what you ll be getting for your money.

44 Online Reputation Management Tools 43 With all the places on the web where your name can appear, it can be difficult to keep track of your reputation. However, there are many tools available that can help individuals easily monitor and manage their own online reputations. Here are some tools to start off with: 1. Google s Me on the Web. This is a free tool provided by Google that helps you set up alerts for monitoring mentions of your name or other information you provide. You will need a Google Profile set up in order to use it. It is then managed from your Google dashboard 2. Knowem. This service searches social networks, domain names and trademarks for your name/brand. You can also pay to have them set up profiles for you in all these places 3. Social Mention. Social Mention is similar to Google Alerts, but it searches social media for mentions of your name rather than Google search results

45 4. Trackur. This is a full service online tool that gives you a dashboard for monitoring and analyzing your online reputation in a wide variety of accounts. 44 A paid tool that starts at $27 (c 16) per month, it is great for small businesses in particular 5. HootSuite. Hootsuite is one of many tools available for managing multiple social accounts You then have the ability to post to any combination of these. There are both free and paid options 6. Disqus. Disqus is designed to help you manage and display your comments across multiple networks, such as both blog and forum comments

46 7. Twitter search. The search function on Twitter lets you save searches for specific terms, giving you the ability to monitor the results of these searches RSS feeds for searches. Many sites give you the ability to create an RSS feed for a specific search, so you can monitor it from your feed reader. These include feeds for Yahoo alerts and searches and Technorati searches With the wealth helpful tools available for managing and monitoring your online online reputation, you can easily get stuck deciding which ones to use. Try picking the ones that will be easiest for you, that cover the networks you need to be on, and which do not overlap with each other. Be careful not to post the same information more than once to the same place. NetRep consultants will probably have an armoury of tools (including more expensive, proprietary ones), so if your time is valuable, you may decide you re better hiring people in to do your NetRep for you. If you have a little time, it s a good idea to do at least the basics so you have a good idea of the concept and process and will be able to understand NetRep feedback and reports.

47 Conclusion 46 Like it or not, online reviews and comments are ubiquitous, and people use them daily when looking for products and services or specific businesses. NetRep can help or hinder your profits. You need to do a NetRep audit and act on whatever result you come up with, even if it s good! Poor NetRep can damage your business and income Indifferent NetRep means you re less likely to be found or to stand out Good NetRep can help your business to stand out above your competitors Even if you can t do it all at once, just make a start now. We ll be adding more resources on a regular basis simply sign up here and we ll let you know whenever a new report or video is added. With best wishes for your successful NetRep, the Cinnamon Edge Team

48 Offer NetRep ~ Online Reputation Management & Marketing Cinnamon Edge will offer you a free NetRep overview for your business, worth 397, and give you recommendations for your NetRep 47 You can then use the information as you see fit, and it s up to you whether you implement strategies yourself, get training, or use us or another company to help you out there are no strings attached

49 Links 48 We are adding helpful links all the time, so get the up to date list at Cinnamon Edge: Cinnamon Edge publications: Google Alerts: Google Webmaster tools: Excel help: Open Office Calc: Google Sheets:

50 Cinnamon Edge 49 Do you need a better online presence? Cinnamon Edge is an established NetRep, online marketing, training and publishing business accepting a range of clients locally, nationally and abroad. We keep up to date with the latest developments and techniques so you don t have to, meaning you can concentrate on doing what you do well! You re welcome to call us. Web: Contact: info@cinnamonedge.co.uk Call: Twitter: Facebook: