Building a solid online reputation takes time. You build it bit by bit, blog by blog, one tweet at a time – and you’ve probably invested a lot of time to cultivate it. But what you might not realise is that you should now be investing time protecting it

You see the internet can be a bit like high school at times, with gossip and the spreading of rumours and (just like high school) – what people are saying about you can affect your reputation.

There are instances where online reputations have gone pear-shaped so if you’re not prepared it can happen before you know what’s hit you.

At the end of the day, if you want to protect your reputation, you first need to know what people are saying about you. Here’s how…

4 ways to monitor your online reputation

Google yourself

Set up an automatic Google alert for your name, your business name and any popular acronyms used by your customers. Automatic alerts will be sent to your email daily so that you can see exactly what people are saying about your business – the good, the bad (and the ugly)!

Be very social

You need to access your social media accounts often enough that you can action really important stuff as soon as possible. Ignored customers are irate customers so check in at least daily to make sure you’re not missing any important communications.

Moderate comments

Rather than letting comments automatically publish to the website, you should consider moderation. If you have to authorise comments before they go live, you give yourself some breathing space and time to respond appropriately if issues arise.

Topsy yourself

Topsy is a free monitoring system that is super easy to use. Simply enter your social media details and you can view all of your social media and website data, including a sentiment score between 0 to 100. Login weekly to run the numbers and stay on top of any downward trends.

If you would like to have a chat about building your online reputation, why not give your nearest studio a call and see how we can help!