Social media privacy settings and online reputation management
Posted by Daniel Peiser @ August 14th, 2009 in Online PR
Online reputation management often begins with adopting traditional SEO counter tactics and the term Reputation Shield has gained widespread use. The aim is to create genuine, positive content about a brand or a person, and occupy top level search engine positions by:
- Creating social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace
- Publishing new blogs, and writing guest posts on other blogs
- Creating user profiles in forums using a relevant keyword or brand name
This is typically the first step in façade online reputation management for brands or people worried about negative results about them in SERPs.
Facebook privacy settings and real time search dangers
Real time search on Twitter and Facebook is a practical way to see what people are saying about you and your brand right now.
Customers, friends, competitors, coworkers also can have access to what you are doing right now on social media, depending on how you decide to set privacy for your Facebook wall posts and updates: Facebook can compete with Twitter in terms of immediacy and visibility.
Choosing to make your Facebook posts visible to Everyone is the best way to make them searchable, but means you need to be extra careful with what you publish online.
A popular Facebook story about a girl who lost her job on facebook demonstrates what can happen if you write the wrong thing, and make it visible to the wrong audience. Moreover, the rise of social media as an information source for recruiting, and stories about employees damaging their brand, knowingly or not, show that expertise in social media is a vital skill.
Another recent example about mismanaged reputation on Twitter happened this morning, when UK musician Calvin Harris reacted very impulsively on his Twitter account to a negative review of his last album by a music critic. Even if you didn’t read the review, the way Calvin Harris handled himself in this situation, would put you on the side of the music critic.
Online reputation management on social media
Effective online reputation management is about contributing to the internet and building relationships. Online presence is getting more complex and more important as social media continues to grow in popularity.
Brands who embrace social media are gaining a clear advantage over those who don’t by showing that they care about their customers and are making an effort to communicate with them about what they both love: their products.
Genuine commitment is what make PR efforts positive for a brand’s reputation online. Blogs and forums need to be monitored, and competence in social media is crucial. Brands must understand when a negative comment is really important and then, given the situation, decide upon the most appropriate strategy to deal with it.
Establishing a strong presence in social media and managing it with the customer in mind, by engaging in genuine conversations, is not a paradox, but constitutes the key to online reputation management.
Last 5 posts in Online PR
- Make your content more accessible online. Journalists are turning to social media for information - February 26th, 2010
- How brands should react to negative online comments - January 12th, 2010
- Most used interactive marketing and communication strategies - December 11th, 2009
- Maintaining a good online reputation to obtain good position in SERPs - December 2nd, 2009
- Facebook status tagging is a problem for Online Reputation Management - September 16th, 2009
i am often bumping about the internet almost all of the day as a result I choose...