How to Monitor your Online Reputation

Do you know what your customers are saying about your business and products?

Fact is there may already be many people talking about your business on Social Networks and websites without your knowledge.

Before you purchase a product or service, do you go online and look for peer reviews? I do. Therefore, it’s important to monitor your online reputation and see what is being said about your business, as no doubt potential customers are also looking for this information.

So how do you monitor your online reputation?

1. Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts

Setup Google alerts using the following queries:

• your company name
• your name
• your website address

You can get Google alerts to send you an email instantly when someone mentions your brand online, or you can get it summarised into a daily break down. I use instant alerts, and have setup an email folder to capture all these so it doesn’t flood my inbox. Then at the end of the day can check the alerts.

Another advantage of Google Alerts is for SEO monitoring. If you have a blog and are constantly posting new content, seeing when it shows in Google Alerts is a good way to understand how quickly your content is being indexed by Google.

2. Bing Social Search – http://www.bing.com/social

Microsoft has been able to secure search agreements with both Facebook and Twitter, therefore using the Bing Social Search is another important tool in monitoring your online reputation.

This tool is constantly developing and has some rather advanced functionality, especially if you are signed into Bing.

3. Twitter @Replies

Twitter is an important business tool for us now. Make sure you are checking what people are saying to you on Twitter. Also current and future customers will most probably use Twitter as a medium for customer support – therefore it’s important this is regularly checked.

In addition to Bing Social Search, you may also like to use the Twitter search engine at https://twitter.com/search

4. Engage Online Communities

Whilst this is not exactly ‘monitoring’ your online reputation, engage community forums, blogs and websites to offer help, even if it’s just a link back to an article or information on your website.

Future customers may pick up on these posts which will surely portray you and your business in a positive light.

Conclusion

Monitoring your online reputation is a constant process, but shouldn’t take you a lot of time and the end result will provide value insight into how your business is perceived by the general public.