“A good reputation is more valuable than money” wrote Publilius Syrus in the 1st Century BC, little realizing how true the maxim is today, especially on the net. Individuals and businesses alike, now have to be concerned about their online reputation, and monitor it, to sustain their public image. A bad online reputation can be devastating. Online reputations are more potent than word-of-mouth criticism or praise. Today’s net savvy population relies heavily on the internet to make financial transactions, shopping decisions, or travel plans, and hence depends heavily on online commendations. Thus it is imperative for every business and individual to monitor their online reputation.

Why to Monitor Your Online Reputation?

You need to begin by monitoring what your customers and others are saying about you. You can take the aid of free or paid web applications that can help you by notifying you every time you are mentioned on any social networking site. Tools like GoogleAlerts, TweetBeep, Kurrently, Monitor This, Social Mention, are just a few that will alert you on a separate feed, or on email, every time you are mentioned online, whether on FaceBook, Twitter, or any search engine. There are custom tailored tools available too, that will rank those mentions. Online mentions about your business can be both structured and unstructured, and while the structured ones often come with their own rankings, the unstructured ones could be random. The unstructured ones can be more damaging, if negative, because often negative criticism (especially if combined with an emotive appeal) can spiral into something larger; hence, the importance of monitoring online reputation and managing it.

Strategies to Monitor Online Reputation

By monitoring your online reputation, you will be able to address all negative criticism timely and aptly, whether by apologizing, or offering incentives; thereby improving your customer service. Positive feedbacks, on the other hand, are excellent publicity tools, as you can publish those in different social media and broaden your reach. If you are an individual, you could be dependent on your online reputation during job searches, as most hiring organizations check the social media before they make their hiring decisions. Thus, monitoring online reputation is a very important facet of your publicity strategy.