The City of Windsor is rapidly buying up domains that end in .xxx. Why would they do this? Because they are engaging in a simple form of Internet online reputation reputation management.

To avoid any indecent Internet exposure, some of the city’s biggest institutions are snapping up corresponding domain names ending in “.xxx” to make sure they are never bought by or associated with adult entertainment websites.Mary Rodgers, who works in marketing and communications at the city, said the IT department had just purchased www.citywindsor.xxx on Tuesday.

“It’s to protect our reputation,” Rodgers said. “We’re not going to use it, but we own it.”

This is actually quite intelligent. If they didn’t do this, some entrepreneur or hobbyist with no scruples could use those websites however he wanted.

This article does a really good job of emphasizing how the sphere of privacy has shrunk thanks to the Internet. Cyberspace has definitely left our lives open to criticism, investigation, and a total lack of privacy.

The phrase “my life is an open book” has never been truer than it is today. The Internet, coupled with the growing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have exposed many personal histories to anyone with access to cyberspace.

Often, this can result in embarrassing revelations or in online defamation. The answer is likely to turn to online reputation management–it saves time, effort, and frustration in this regard.

Obnoxious profile pictures are just that, obnoxious. That is why you should avoid any and all really annoying pictures–it could result in a ruined online reputation.

If you want people to like you, or at least not end up hating everything about you within 60 seconds of opening your picture gallery, you should avoid uploading pictures that contain: cars, boobs, rude gestures, angry facial expressions, alcoholic beverages, hugs, Photoshopped elements – seriously, no one likes those lens flares – and cartoon characters. Subjects more likely to invoke a positive response are: sensible-looking friends, wedding photos, pictures of children (hopefully yours) and shots taken on a beach, though that might clash with the “no boobs” rule. Smiling is good too.

The “no boobs” rule is one you see violated on a constant basis.

There are many methods for improving a company, individual, or organization’s online reputation. Those methods range in popularity depending upon how successful they are at a particular time. Search engines change their algorithms on a regular basis, so it is simply a matter of utilizing those methods which are most successful at the time.

More than that, though, online reputation management is about presenting positive publicity about an unfairly maligned person, business, or organization. When individuals need to use online reputation management, it is often because search engines are displaying negative results for them. The way to fix this is to replace those negative links or comments with more positive ones.

Simply replacing negative content with neutral or positive content is not good enough, though, you have to allow searchers to find not only positive information, but positive and true information! This is currently accomplished by many individuals, businesses, and organizations through the use of online testimonials.

A testimonial is a quote from a customer or former customer about the effectiveness of a particular product, service, or company. This is an effective way to present a positive image because it is not a cultivated statement by a public relations firm or a statement from the President of the company about the way he runs his company, but a review from a customer about the business, product, or service. This makes an impact, as customers tend to trust each other more than the businesses they are frequenting (or considering frequenting).

Those online reputation management campaigns that make use of testimonials will be most successful. This is because a testimonial is what people really want to see when they Google a company, product, or service. Rather than empty rhetoric, they want to see what their peers think about the company, service, or product.

There are many ways to improve testimonials and make them more attractive–such as having people send a scanned signature instead of a text signature at the end of the testimonial. Similarly, having online videos or recordings posted as online testimonials can be advantageous, though it is not always what is good for your online reputation management campaign. It is up to you and your online reputation manager to figure out how best to handle issues like these.

Online testimonials are a powerful way to communicate from a business to a prospective consumer that they can be trusted. There are a host of things to consider when doing online reputation management–one of the main things is considering how you want your “Google Front” to look. Your Google Front is the first page of search results that come up–the links and comments that every single person see.

This is a great article about the power of online testimonials. It is well worth reading:
http://reputationhawk.com/ThePowerofTestimonials.html

Product reviews shown to be effective by research. This entire article is very informative:
http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/online-product-reviews-most-helpful-in-purchase-decisions-offline-too-3437/

Ways to make use of online testimonials. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it’s good nonetheless:
http://blog.noriskhomebiz.com/2011/01/29/a-number-of-helpful-hints-for-making-the-most-of-the-impact-of-testimonials/

The online reputation is something to be coveted–once ruined, it cannot easily be fixed. Unfortunately, people often do not recognize the important of an online reputation until theirs has been ruined. If you think it could never happen to you, you’re quite wrong. Any enemy you make could turn and make a webpage that cites your name and says terrible things about you. Worse yet, even without making enemies you can be defamed online. The Internet is full of random malcontents who would love nothing better than to ruin someone else’s day.

What to do in order to stop this from occurring? Well, the truth is that you can’t really stop the anonymous miscreants from making their negative comments. What you can do is protect yourself from the entire situation by engaging in preventative online reputation management. If the problem has already occurred, then online reputation management can help after the fact.

Online reputation management doesn’t remove the offending comments, but it does replace it with positive content. This positive content will, thanks to online reputation management, climb its way to the top of the Google search results, which pushes the negative content down. Once the negative content is pushed off the 2nd page, it might as well not exist for how many people are going to see it.

If the term “Water Army” makes you think of a Lord of the Rings-style battle, then you’re going to learn a lot in this article. This article is from Search Engine Watch, one of the most interesting websites about reputation management around. I highly suggest frequenting this website if you want to learn more about online reputation management services. In this article, they discuss a recent controversy where Facebook was caught paying a PR firm to encourage bloggers and media outlets to print negative stories about Google privacy issues (pot, meet kettle). So, where does the water army come in?

As a brand marketer targeting China, it’s easy to get local PR firms that hire the water army – better known in Chinese as “Shui Jun” – to post positive comments about your company or negative comments about a competitor on the Internet under the guise of e-PR.

This “army” could number from a few hundred to thousands of anonymous Internet users that will delete or post comments to influence public opinion dictated by the PR firms.

The water army is essentially a large group of paid commenters online. They post about your company, product, or service according to how the PR firm directs them to in exchange for cash. This is common in China because of the sheer number of individuals who can be gainfully employed by a Western company or a company with Western clients.

It is always interesting to see where the discussions about search engine reputation management pop up. In this case, it is a discussion amongst scientists about how reputation management services affect their industry. It turns out, scientists care a great deal about how they are perceived, both by their peers and by others.

Ugh. This doesn’t work. Anyone searching for information on Dr Anil Potti who discovers blithering press releases like “Dr. Anil Potti Likes Spending Quality Time With His Wife And Three Daughters” is going to sniff out the scent of a stinker. Not to mention that Dr Anil Potti, his misconduct investigation, and his pathetic attempts to cover it up, have now achieved prominent mention in both Nature and Pharyngula.

In the blockquote above, the author is discussing a cancer researcher who is under investigation for various reasons. However, he fails to understand the difference between well done internet reputation management and the firms that simply try to bury negative comments or news under an avalanche of content. Besides, many firms in the online reputation management industry wouldn’t work for this researcher for ethical reasons.

There are a host of industries for which search engine reputation management is an indispensable part of doing business effectively. The automotive sales industry is one of those industries which depends upon google reputation management for success. If a dealership does not properly utilize its online reputation, then it is putting itself at a comparative disadvantage. This guy seems to get it, at least.

Online Reputation Management was a big topic too. If your dealership comes up on Google Places (the map thing) you better check the reviews of your dealership. According to Brian Pasch of PCG, if your reviews are bad, you are selling cars for your competitors. Fortunately there are solutions to improve your online reputation.

The industry of car sales is hyper-competitive. It usually involves competition amongst geographic areas, brand names, and then dealerships even within the brand. The incredibly competitive environment leads many dealerships to understand the importance of online leads and, as an extension of that, online reputation.

One thing cannot be emphasized enough in the hospitality industry–Online Reputation Management Services are effective and necessary. Reputation management services can help a hotel or bed and breakfast to excel in the industry by shielding it from unfair or untrue criticism online. It is important to protect your reputation, whether in real life or online. Hotels are beginning to understand this, which is why reputation management has become so important to the industry lately.

“Hotels are quickly recognizing the link between revenue management and reputation,” says Corin Burr, Director of London-based Bamboo Revenue. “Common sense dictates that there is a link between guest reviews and revenue performance. Of course there are many contributing factors, but to watch your Revenue Generation Index increase as your Guest Satisfaction Index increases puts more science into the instinct.”

Being able to increase revenues while blocking out untrue or defamatory statements about your business is a common sense move. With the hotel industry, it is almost a requirement, due to the competitive nature of the industry.

An online reputation is an incredibly important asset these days. Even more important than having an online reputation, is having one that is positive, instead of negative. On the Internet, a place of random anger and negativity, it is quite easy to accrue a negative online reputation. This article does a good job of outlining why it is important.

THE online you is important – 70 per cent of human resources (HR) professionals have rejected potential candidates because of their online information, according to a Microsoft survey. Or put more positively, 86 per cent said that good online information could work in a candidate’s favour.

With so many employers and human resources people looking at online reputations, and unemployment reaching historic highs, it seems unwise to have a negative online reputation. Of course, it is the most competitive industries that attract the most attention in this regard, but many people are paying more attention to their online reputations–and they should.