Manage Your Online Reputation More Efficiently With These Tools

Manage Your Online Reputation More Efficiently With These Tools

In a world where more and more people make important decisions based partially or entirely on what they learn via the Internet, safeguarding your online reputation becomes more important every day. If you’re a professional or a business owner, maintaining a positive reputation online can mean the difference between success and failure. Here are a few simple tools that will help you get a handle on what’s being said about you online.

Raiding The Google Toolbox

As usual when you’re considering how to do things online, Google is there with a free service that can deliver a lot of value when used correctly. The tool in this case is the venerable Google Alert, an automated email notification that shows you new content related to predefined search terms. Don’t be afraid to load up highly specific phrases for Google Alerts. They can often be your first red flags in the event of trouble.

Make sure you take the time to set up Alerts in the “Me on the web” section of the Google Alerts page. Google is getting extremely good at tracking NAP (name, address, phone number) data, and it will do an excellent job of sending you fresh web content that touches on your identity directly. This is outstanding for personal reputation management. If you’re watching a business or other organization you should strongly encourage key team members to set up “Me on the web” alerts.

Scan Social Media Like A Pro

Twitter is an outstanding tool for highly-responsive communications, but it can be tough to dive into a pool that deep and come up with meaningful information. If you need to narrow down your focus and concentrate on the diamonds in the rough, there are a few tools that can help. Until 2015, Topsy was a key helper for making sense of the Twitterverse, but sadly Apple bought the company and then shut it down.

Fortunately, you have alternatives. Social Mention is an excellent aggregator that collects posts from several different social networks and delivers some free analytics regarding the relative popularity of the terms you search for. This may not be of use when you’re monitoring local reputation, but it can still be extremely helpful in gauging current trends in your industry.

Brand-Level Management

On the other hand, what if you are managing a serious brand with a global reach? Just making sense of all the traffic regarding your brand can be overwhelming. In situations like this, it makes sense to invest in advanced reputation tracking tools. Many of these are available in free trial versions so that you don’t have to make a financial commitment before trying the software.

Trackur is an excellent search platform that monitors multiple social media streams for mentions of you and your brand. It makes it easy to respond to incoming messages in a timely fashion, and the service also comes with some basic analytics capabilities. The advanced features unlocked with a monthly subscription are likely worth their cost to a professional reputation manager.

Naymz is a slightly more advanced tracker that attempts to gauge your standing as a social media influencer across multiple networks. It features easy-to-use dashboards that aggregate lots of information and some very handy tools for enhancing your reputation. The free service is excellent, and even the monthly plan is extremely affordable.

Maintaining a sterling reputation online can be challenging, especially when you know potential customers and clients will use internet resources when deciding whether or not to work with you. This makes it well worth your time to familiarize yourself with reputation tracking tools. Make a habit of monitoring your reputation and you’ll avoid getting blindsided by potentially harmful information in the future.