WELLNESSEO.com

“Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated” – once said by Mark Twain, today holds, especially true for websites. You never know when your steady online business might go kaput! You never know when your websites die on the Internet!

Previously web 1.0, was all about collection of information from your users, customers and visitors. Today, web 2.0 is all about distribution of this information and more, and this information that is imparted of released to the users, doesn’t have to be righteously true!

What does this all mean in terms of your online reputation?

Let see an example. Lets assume that we own a whole sale shoe mart, online and offline sales is what drives us. Now consider this, what if there was an employee who was stealing from us? Obviously, we would have him fired, right? Ok, So the employee was fired. Now consider, that this employee is an avid blogger… and he or she also uses plenty of social networking websites, like myspace, facebook etc. If this same employee starts blogging about our company negatively and starts sharing libelous stories with others and keeps up the trend. A new user shopping for shoes, unawares, punch ins the search keywords on say Google, and what does Google show before it can show our indexed pages, it shows the same slanderous stories and other information put up by this disgruntled employee!

Now, if its on Google, then it has to be true, how many times have your found information on Goolge that your really have cross checked? Never, is the right answer! Its as good as a Gospel then right? And what follows next is our online sales dip by 60-70%!

So how does one manage a websites online reputation?

Online Reputation Management is not complicated et al’. Online Reputation management can start with writing articles about your field or business. You can even write articles on your specialties and expertise. These articles can then be submitted to various article directories and can as well be hosted on your websites. You may have to create a blog on your website, and may even get your customers to leave messages, comments or posts on your blog. You should keep your blogs updated. Always register your business with social networking websites like linked in, orkut, myspace, facebook, etc. and drop around links to your customers comments posted on your blogs or your posts or even your articles! Always keep an eye and vote for other articles and blogs using websites like Delicious, Digg and Stumbleupon. This will ensure that others read your stories too and vote for them too.

Online reputation management is required to keep in check the negative plubicity from your unsatisfied employees, customers or disgruntled competitors. Online reputation management does play an important role in managing your online businesses brand image.