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Tue
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Jul '08

Protect Your Reputation Vigilantly

Part of Caroline Melberg's marketing strategies Branding, Reputation Management

One of the most important things you can do for your business online is to set up profiles at all of the social bookmarking and networking sites. If you don’t, someone else could.

Online, anyone can essentially steal your identity and pretend to be you, making promises in your name and not fulfilling them, doing all sorts of damage that you’ll spend hours upon hours upon hours cleaning up and still not sure if you got it all. That could be worse than cleaning up a negative credit report!

It’s up to you to protect your brand online and one of the best ways to do that is to set up profiles in your business name or brand and actively engage other social media marketers through those profiles. Even if all you do is set up the profile and never use it you’ll at least stop others from using your brand name illegitimately. Many social sites offer link juice for the links from your profile to your website so that alone is worth the effort. But actively using your profile by networking with others in those social sites could lead to additional business as you develop relationships. Not only will you be protecting your online reputation, but you’ll be building your business brand in a positive, forward-moving way.

2 Comments »

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2 Responses to “Protect Your Reputation Vigilantly”

  1. Lisa Katz Says:
    July 3rd, 2008 at 9:16 am

    I find it interesting that many of my corporate buddies love Linked In. As a Financial Planner I found it …… well to be honest…. quite useless. As a small business professional I rely on trusted associates and strong relationships to generate new business. My reputation is important and having befriended 400 online strangers means very little to my bottom line.

    I have been using an online tool, http://www.referralkey.com/ I invite the people I know and trust to join my referral network. I can then get quarterly reports to analyze and ensure those relationships are reciprocal. I also have access to my associate’s circle so I can exchange referrals with new prospects with only one degree of separation. I highly suggest it for small businesses looking to see actual results from networking.

  2. Caroline Melberg Says:
    July 3rd, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Thanks Lisa!

    Sometimes the popular choice isn’t for everyone. I will definitely check out the site you use to evaluate its value. Thank you for sharing.

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