Online Reputation Management For Dummies

Assessing Your Needs

No two people or brands are exactly alike, so no single approach to online reputation management works for everyone. To understand your own needs, you must first get a clear picture of your brand’s existing reputation, and how that reputation stacks up to your competition. I tell you more about how to do this in the following sections.

As you go through these steps, carefully consider what level of involvement you desire and can afford to invest your time and resources into. Safeguarding your reputation online is a must, but it shouldn’t consume all your time. Surely you have better, more important things to do. A good online reputation solution is one that takes only a little time, and allows you to get back to your business.

This means you should apply your strategy only where it does the most good. This is a great for locally based businesses that can’t extend their services or products online. If you own a house painting business in Tulsa, for example, there isn’t much point in advertising your business in New York City. This means you don’t need to do much to promote your business beyond taking care of security and your basic online customer service. The security information I share later in this chapter, then, is most crucial to your success.

On the other hand, if you have an American-based, web design business, today’s communication tools allow you to create a website for somebody in London almost as easily as for somebody in Los Angeles. You stand to ...