Blogging For Reputation Management

One of the newest buzzwords online is Reputation Management. The idea is to monitor what people are saying about you online and address any potentially negative or public relations issues that develop from what people are saying. Virtually anyone – multinational corporation or small business – can receive some fallout from negative content about their business. This fallout could come from any of various sources:

• Competitors
• Former employees
• Disgruntled customers
• Journalistic sources
• Anonymous sources
• Third parties repeating an untested rumor

Not every negative comment about your company needs to be addressed. But there are times when you do want to address something that is said about you. Even then, how you go about it will determine whether you receive any further fallout from your efforts. A blog can help in many situations. By inviting the conversation to take place on property that you own and control, you can have much more influence in the way that your reputation is managed online.

Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim recently was interviewed for an MP3 podcast on the subject of online reputation management. I highly recommend the podcast. It covers some very important points for reputation management and every point he makes is an essential part of keeping track of what people are saying about you and how to address it if inaccurate comments are made online that you feel need to be corrected. You can hear the podcast right here.