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.

When you find out that people have been chattering about you or your company, positively or negatively, you want to check it out immediately. Once you have, almost 90% of the time, you wish you hadn’t. It is often negative, and most of the time there simply is not that much you can do about it. However, there are a couple of things you can do and this article covers pretty much all of the options.

After you get over the initial shock that someone said something negative about your brand, the first thing you should do is decide if the criticism is valid. Does the comment expose a weakness in your product or service? Did you actually do something wrong to prompt a negative reaction? Is the comment an honest call for help or clarification? By answering these questions you are taking the first step in maintaining control of your brand’s online reputation.

For the most part, an online reputation manager’s advice to you in these circumstances is: Don’t respond. If you do, respond only once, in a positive way, in hopes of reconciling. What you don’t want, though, is to make Google think that this one blog or forum post is important.

There is one variable in reputation management that never fails to be mentioned, regardless of what issue, campaign, or company is being discussed. Timing. How quickly can they get it done? How quickly does the client need their damaged reputation repaired? Etc.

Now – you cannot delay in responding to comments or issues that concern your business. Timeliness is critical. This is true for both publicly posted and private comments (which can easily become public-Wikileaks, anyone?). If the comments are negative, you have an opportunity to immediately address and resolve the issue.

Reputation management is, now more than ever, expected to be more responsive. Clients expect that their reputations can be repaired much more quickly than “a few months”.