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The following article from blogging.org shows the importance and indeed, power of using a blog. In fact, the website gives great tips on how to start one, and how to make yours stand out from the ordinary. In many ways blogging is somewhat like posting on social media, in that you need five or so […]
This article from the Huffington Post, “sounds the alarm” about potential Online Reputation Management problems and warns people about the dangers of “staying off the grid” when it comes to search engines. What the article means by that is not having any profiles about your business that rank higher than potential negative entries and negative traffic on google (and other similar platforms). Social media entries as such from facebook, linkedin, twitter, etc., are what the article refers to, and can go a long way towards making your results shine online. So the article is right about that, that you shouldn’t “wait” for problems to happen before you become proactive about protecting your online image.
However, the article is absolutely, positively, without question WRONG when it says you need to engage in “black hat” tactics such as “legal, covert ops or otherwise” if creating a facebook account doesn’t work or doesn’t get rid of your problems. In general, Online Reputation Management Services techniques are absolutely “white hat,” above the belt, and above board. That’s why you should contact a company like Hoplite that can help — they know how to make your internet search results shine, and look excellent, without resorting to any “off the grid” tactics like the article suggests. While it’s important to create excellent search engine profiles before problems happen, when they do, don’t despair, give HopLite a call, we absolutely recommend them.
Though not directly related to Online Reputation Management, one very interesting topic that people sometimes ask about is how to make money from blogging. We’ve posted a link to an article you can look at here about how to do just that, but being experts in blogging ourselves, we have some tips for sure. Usually, the first thing people think about is how to “monetize” their blog, or in other words, what revenue generating technique they are going to apply.
The problem with this however is it misses the big picture and main problem with making money off blogging at all, and that is: does anyone want to see your content? And, it’s not quite that simple either; to actually make money off a blog your content has to attract the attention of a VERY large group of people, several hundred thousand people or more in fact. It’s not as easy as just “throwing up some ads” and waiting for the dollars to pile up in your account. Often times, on places like youtube (for example) no one really knows what type of content is going to go “viral” or draw large crowds, although we have learned a lot about that in recent years. Things like “video games,” cat pictures, cute animals, videos with spoilers about very popular movies such as star wars, etc., as well as other things like that often go “viral” very fast. So if gardening is your topic, you want to make sure the type of information you’re putting up with that particular bend will draw in enough traffic (sometimes the answer would be yes, sometimes no, nor should you necessarily be discouraged if you feel your topic won’t draw traffic necessarily, you have to find the right angle).
In general with this sort of thing, you want to make sure you’re on the right path, and in the right direction. But check back here regularly at Online Reputation Tracker to make sure you’re on the path to looking your best online.
The following article lists some advice from Catriona Pollard on the Huffington Post, in this case strictly for businesses (rather than individuals) on how to manage your online reputation. Actually, some of what’s on the list is the standard social media fare, very similar to this article here – http://www.hopliteorm.com/post-greatsites.html. But what’s important and useful about this particular article, is the specific advice given; such as: “Don’t view social media as a marketing platform, imagine you are talking to someone in real life. What would you say to them?” This is a critical point, as for some businesses, finding the proper “voice” online to appeal to customers can be essential. It is not obvious upfront for all organizations on how exactly to communicate with users, and finding the right way to do so can often be extremely helpful. Usually this can be done by creating several social media “test posts,” about five or so to start with, and imagine that your customers are reading them. Then, if necessary, edit them to achieve the proper “voice” that you think will appeal to your target audience with the greatest accuracy. This certainly can be refined overtime to achieve the desired results.
Another piece of advice worthy of note that she gives includes the following: “The content you publish must be useful and meaningful to your target audience or there is no reason for them to read or engage with it.” Indeed, this is absolutely so, but it’s actually not just your audience you would want to worry about. Google as well, with their new “Panda” update absolutely LOVES rich content, especially sites that have a large number of meaningful and relevant blog posts in one spot, such as a blog, for example, so it’s not just customers that like relevant content, but having and doing it the right way means google will take your enterprise more seriously, and this also quickens the path to more customers.
If you have any questions about how exactly to best use the previous information or where to go from here, feel free to give HopLite a call. They can clear up any questions you may have about –how to best connect with clients–, how to influence google results, or just how to make your internet search results look amazing. HopLite absolutely has a very solid grasp on how to deliver –high quality Online Reputation Management Services–. But also come back and visit us here too at Online Reputation Tracker as often as you like for the best news when it comes to meeting your ORM goals.
In this post, we review a documentary released in 2015 that’s available on Netflix. It’s called: “Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine” and it’s about one of the titans of the tech industry; in fact, you might say one of the very founders of it – Steve Jobs. One may wonder what a film about the creator of Apple and Pixar might have to do with ORM, but the answer is actually very simple: everything.
The documentary tells the story of Jobs and his rise in the 1980s when he began making a tremendous difference in the tech field; it tells of his visionary approach throughout his career even into the 2000s and 2010s especially with the release of the iPod, the device that changed everything. Indeed, we wouldn’t know what “pods” and “pads” are today without Apple and Steve Jobs himself. Even at the very beginning of his career he was smart enough to understand that 20 years later, everyone would essentially forget what came before. Indeed, while many people may remember the Apple IIGS, there are a bevy of other Apple products from yesteryear that no one does. The same is true for Microsoft products, not all that many people can raise their hands and say they’ve used, or truly remember Windows version 1.0 from the 1980s.
However, it is absolutely the case that the internet did not exist as it does today in the late 1980s, and equally and as such, there was no such thing as Online Reputation Management at the time. To understand the problem one must think about what Apple became to many people. The film clearly shows that throughout its history, Apple released products that people just “had to have” and products that were sold from no other type of corporate outfit anywhere. So in other words, people would go as crazy for the Apple IIGS as they would for the iPod, and keep on buying these products no matter what.
But Steve Jobs himself played a very dangerous game internally with his own people under his charge. He often acted very ruthlessly – in fact, both towards his own employees, and anyone else outside his organization who crossed him. From the founding of Apple as an organization, he openly and proudly created a very confrontational business environment, and by the end of his career, was handling situations among his own workers in ways that were in some cases either borderline criminal or directly criminal, and everyone knew it. For the purposes of Reputation Management, this is a disaster.
We recommend that people reading this post watch the film to find out what we mean. The reality from an ORM perspective, is that the only reason Jobs was able to get away with this was that his company began in the 1980s, and at that time there was no such thing as online reputation problems, because there was no internet the same way there is one today, and even in the 1990s, when the company was much more “down on its luck” than it had been previously, such search engine problems were less of a major issue. The other reason, is that people fell truly, madly, and deeply in love with products such as the iPhone, and there was no other place to go for that exact “name-brand” Apple item.
If other types of companies, such as a hardware store, pizza shop, or even a bed and breakfast were to create that type of work environment, it could be seriously dangerous, since old employees could go online nowadays and bash the organization from afar, and those results could end up on page one of a google search, especially for businesses that have a very limited online presence. Treating employees the way Jobs treated his own can be as dangerous as treating customers openly with contempt, and in the same way, such incidents could easily end up online for a disgruntled employee. We recommend against doing so under any circumstances in the utmost.
We can see how absolutely nuanced Online Reputation Management can be; it isn’t simply about tracking search engine results using social media management tools (and the like); it’s also about thinking in a hands-on way about how to prevent these problems in the first place. There’s an article here – http://www.hopliteorm.com/recommendations-for-businesses-on-how-to-avoid-negative-reviews-in-general.html that can help when it comes to thinking about how to deal with customers in a way that fosters ORM success. You can check out their site for ways regarding thinking about how to deal with issues such as this. And check back for the latest here at Online Reputation Tracker on how to make your internet search results look the very best they can, no matter what type of issue you’re dealing with.
Steve Jobs
Do you recall reading the following story in the news? While it never made the national news, here at Online Reputation Tracker we absolutely found a copy of this story in the local papers. It’s about a couple who got really kinky one evening with handcuffs, but lost the key to said handcuffs in the middle of “the act” (so to speak); of course, not having any way to release the individual in question from the handcuffs, they decided to call the police to have them do it for them. This may have sounded like a good idea; in other words, it passed the “reasonable man test” since it’s absolutely true that police stations and police officers have master keys that can open handcuffs; but it was not the best option to deal with this exact situation perhaps, because one of the individuals in question had an active warrant out for their arrest. When the officers finally arrived and did a standard check for this in regards to both individuals, one of them was arrested.
You’ll notice we have not given out their names, though the story is true, nor have we linked to any article in the news about it. This is because instances such as that, can be a disaster for Online Reputation Management. That’s because since the story is true, their names ended up in the newspapers due to this event, and the newspapers gave an accounting of the sex act (but did not directly describe it) plus the handcuffs (and the arrest and the warrant) and newspapers always keep online archives of their articles; this is embarrassing to say the least, but also, it is the case that if someone does a google search for those people’s names, now or ten years later, the incident in question would come up on page one. So, even after the person has handled the legal side of it (and even if the incident doesn’t show up on a background check a decade or so after the fact, as is the law in many US states) what comes up on a google search has the very serious potential of preventing that person from getting a job or any sort of employment at all. So it has potential to ruin their prospects for a very long time or even for life.
This is what makes Online Reputation Management so important, in fact, it is possible to deal with problems such as that should they arise, by driving negative search results far down in the rankings, so it becomes very unlikely anyone will see them at all – employers or anyone else. Studies show, that once listings are past page two on a google search, the probability of no one ever seeing them becomes higher than 98 percent (yes, you heard that right). So is it possible to drive negative search results to a place where they can no longer cause any further harm? Indeed, that’s what ORM is all about, and it’s not just for individuals. Check out more of our articles on how it can help businesses too. Indeed, we’ll cover all this here at Online Reputation Tracker.