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When you are building your brand and your business online, one of the most important elements to monitor is your online reputation. If you know anything about online reputation management, you know, essentially, that it’s the process of monitoring and managing what people are saying about you and your company.
Online, as in real life, word of mouth is one of the most potent methods for spreading good news (and bad).
While there are many paid services to help you monitor your online reputation, there are several free tools you can (and should be!) using to keep track of your mentions on the web.
The first is using Google alerts. You can set these up at http://www.google.com/alerts. You would set these up for your name, your business name, and any key terms or initiatives you might also be monitoring. Using this free service enables you to be notified whenever there is a new Google listing for any of your keyword terms. You can set how often you should be notified (I have mine set to daily), and you can set up as many alerts as you would like. It’s wise to use your desired keyword term in quotes (as in “red cars” rather than red cars), as this increases the specificity of your alerts. Google alerts are a good first line listening tool to monitor your online reputation.
A second tool you can use to monitor your online reputation is a site such as Keotag, which is located at http://www.keotag.com. When you visit this site, you’ll be able to enter a keyword to research. You could start with your name, for instance. When you submit your query, you’ll be given a list of sites you’d like to search. When you select a site, you’ll be given a set of listings where your keyword terms appear. Sometimes Keotag returns results that the other tools miss, so I like to have it in my arsenal.
A third tool you can use to monitor your online reputation is Addictomatic, which is located at http://www.addictomatic.com. This site is great because it pulls from many content sources, and you can get a one page listing of your keyword as it appears on various sites. You can remove or switch around the order of results. What I like to do with this site is set up some custom keyword searches and then bookmark them in my browser. This way, I can easily return, at a glance, whenever I’d like to be updated on new information on my keyword.
I’ll be covering other tools in future blog posts, but these three will get you started. If you don’t have these set up and running for your name, business, and main business terms, set these up right away.
It’s always good to know what people are talking about- especially if it’s you!
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I was speaking with a consulting client yesterday about using the social networks. This client is somewhat new(er) to social media, and is getting a fast-tracked education. 
We got on to the subject of Twitter, and started talking about Twitter do’s and don’ts. While I know what my personal pet peeves are, I was curious as to what other tweeters thought. So, in a highly unscientific survey, I asked.
Here are the responses I got:
1) Lack of engagement
Several people cited this as a major pet peeve, where people follow them without trying to connect with them or find out more about them. This came up most often. It does seem that people really do want to use the social networks to connect.
2) Automated messages after following
This was the second most cited pet peeve. People feel like these messages are clutter and kind of clog up the works. From my perspective, if I follow you, you don’t need to welcome me. Just give me some good information (i.e. be a good tweeter) and I’m happy. Likewise, I am certainly thumbs down on all the direct messages about making money with Twitter, joining your Mafia family, and the like.
3) Spam and porn.
This was the third most commonly cited Twitter pet peeve. People, in general, say they are blocking and reporting people who spam or send out pornographic links or tweets. There are some things which should be left to the imagination.
4) Too much tweet repetition
This pet peeve relates to people repeating their tweets. There are various services which let you set up recurring tweets, but the latest news is that Twitter is cracking down on accounts which make notable use of repeated tweets. This means that you can’t really “set and forget” your Twitter account without running a higher risk of suspension. I imagine that occasional repetition is fine, but just keep in mind that people want new information. Every tweet you send out has the potential to build your brand, so be original.
5) Too many hashtags or @ names
This means that people don’t want to read tweets that have too many labels or tags. They also don’t want to read ones which seem blanketed with user names. I, too, notice that I tend to glaze over when I read a tweet that references multiple users. Maybe the balance is to use names, but maybe 3 or less per tweet.
If you want to get attention, gain followers, and be more effective with using Twitter, keep these pet peeves in mind- and don’t do them.
Special thanks to my Twitter connections who contributed to this post:
@paganmomblog, @adamsherk, @Agotthelf
@jodhikavespa, @driveindustries, @mollyzmommie
@SchereLLC, @GAStroz, @AdaMarcom
(If you’re looking to connect on Twitter with people who add value and like to engage, follow them!)
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