Why Online Reputation Management Is Like Brushing Your Teeth
Think about why you brush your teeth.
You
don’t do it because your teeth are brown and dirty.
You do it preventatively.
It’s a habit that’s good for
you because it impacts your long-term health
and the look of your smile.
Now think what would happen
if you waited until your teeth were gross
before you decided to start
brushing. Your teeth might fall out.
You’d probably get gum
disease. Your smile would be tarnished and discolored.
It might be too late to fix
everything and, at the very least,
you’d have a lot of ground to make up.
Brushing your teeth is an
insurance policy against all those negative outcomes.
Online reputation management
(ORM) works the same way.
Many folks realize how
important their online presence is only once they have a problem –
a nasty negative, an ex’s
rant, a sketchy forum that sticks out like a sore thumb, etc.
We fix these results, but it
can take months and months, or even years.
And that can be a hard pill
to swallow.
But ORM can be just as
effective -- even more so -- when it’s done preventatively.
By building up your
reputation now, you’re able to lay a strong foundation before anything negative
has a chance to dominate your search results.
The impact of your search results
Your online presence is
critical to success in the business world today.
People spend hours and hours
sweating over the smallest details in their resume,
but then forget about the
very next place potential employers and clients look -- their search results.
Even when someone gets your name via word of mouth,
their very next step is to
look you up online and see what you’re about.
When people have negative
results, they finally realize how many people
are actually Googling them.
They realize this because they find themselves in the uncomfortable position of
needing to defend themselves
to potential customers and employers.
They have to explain that
old lawsuit or the story behind that nasty forum.
And there’s no way to
recover from that negative first impression.
When people have irrelevant
results, they don’t hear about it, because there’s nothing
for potential clients to
complain out. But there’s nothing to impress them with either.
Clients and employers can’t
find relevant information on you so you lose out on business opportunities.
They look you up and find a forgettable, irrelevant reputation.
People with stellar search
results are, to a certain extent, in the same boat as folks
with negative search
results. They finally realize how many people are Googling them on
a regular basis, only this
time it’s to the advantage of their business. It’s a no-brainer really.
Relevant, kick-ass results that direct people to the right information
is bound to result in more
business.
The best kind of insurance is one that brings in business.
And this isn’t just an
idealistic notion. I’ve been actively managing my online reputation
for less than a year, and
I’m already bringing in positive business for Brandyourself
thanks to my blog posts and
active online presence. This stuff legitimately works.
That’s why we’ve started to
take on more clients who are interested in these proactive,
branding-focused campaigns.
They understand the benefit of maintaining a healthy smile,
and they understand the
benefit of keeping their online reputation in pristine shape.
It’s the best kind of
insurance policy --
one that brings more business in the door every single day.
You don’t wait until your
teeth are gross before you decide to get a toothbrush.
So don’t wait until you have
a negative search result
before you start managing your online
reputation. Get started today.
4 things you can do today
1. Purchase your domain: Go
on a site like GoDaddy.com, and buy the essential domains
with your name in it.
(RyanErskine.com, .org, and .net for example). This is an incredibly
important form of online insurance. Even if you don’t plan on building a
website right now,
you’ll still prevent other
people from taking this valuable piece of real estate away from you –
or using it against you in the
future.
2. Get a personal website: Having
a personal website is a terrific way to consolidate everything important into
one central hub. You can put your resume, accolades, portfolio, biography, contact information and
blog all in one place.
Plus, there’s nothing better
than having your site come up when people search your name.
It’s the best way to direct
potential clients and employers to the information that matters most.
Squarespace makes this easy
with classy and professional themes.
If you don’t want to spend a $8 a month and are a bit tech
savvy, you can make yourself a nice site for free on Wordpress. Alternatively,
sign up for a site like About.me or Tumblr
and use your new domain as
the custom domain.
3. Keep an active blog: There’s
a lot of compelling information out there for why blogging
is a worthwhile investment.
It can depict you as a thought leader in your industry
and bring in free business.
It can earn you a loyal following and will build authority
on your website so
it ranks well in search results. Write an article today
and
put a reminder on your calendar to write another in two to four weeks.
Need some help coming up
with effective article topics? Write down some trends
or innovations in your industry that are
making you excited, worried or angry.
What lessons can you teach others
about a recent event in your professional life?
Find some news articles in your
niche you’d like to comment on or take in a new direction.
Or, write down some
challenges in your industry.
This is the birth of the
how-to blog post.
4. Build a social
presence: Sign yourself up on some of the most authoritative social
networks
like LinkedIn and Twitter.
Try out ones like Crunchbase and About.me -- up-and-coming networks that don’t
require much effort on your part but still look great and rank well.
Then follow these
six steps to optimize them properly for search engines.
For instance, use your full
name as your username: RyanErskine, not RyGuy9000.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/253201
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