Best ways to manage your online reputation?

[calledminime]

I've read some articles that stress the importance of maintaining the online reputation of your company: so when you do a search for your company's name, the top results are all pulling up results that you have some sort of control/influence over.

For example, an online company should spend the time to create a listing in squidoo, facebook, flickrs, etc. Not only do you create an additional online presence, outside of your actual website, through these online resources, they can also provide other SEO and reputation-management benefits as well.

Some resources that come to my mind that are easy to establish and worth the time to do:
yelp - squidoo - facebook - myspace - flickrs - thisnext - wordpress (or some other blogging service)


That said, can anyone provide a list of the top resources that you've had a personal experience with that you control, advertise, and monitor and/or any other thoughts about this type of online marketing?

[WDC]

You should try to reach each and every internet user. Various ways are:

- Placement in organic SERPs
- Social bookmarking.
- social networking
- Link buidling
- Press release
- Blogging
- podcasting
- sites like yahoo answers, wikipedia
- Dmoz

etc...

[dburdon]

Calledminime,

first things first. Make sure your home website come top when a search for your brand is made.

[calledminime]

You should try to reach each and every internet user. Various ways are:

- Placement in organic SERPs
- Social bookmarking.
- social networking
- Link buidling
- Press release
- Blogging
- podcasting
- sites like yahoo answers, wikipedia
- Dmoz

etc...

Thanks for the recommendations WDC.

I guess I was trying to address the whole social aspect -- what sites/directories/forums do other SEO experts use to build up their own and their clients' sites?

So while it is wise to spend time making sure everything you can control, internally, such as SEO, blogging, article writing, press releases, etc is up-to-par; there is a whole other aspect that can be influenced by outside sources/services and it would be worth your time to take a look at.

[calledminime]

Calledminime,

first things first. Make sure your home website come top when a search for your brand is made.

dburdon,

I completely agree.
We do currently rank well for our web site when you search for our brand.

In addition to the in-house things we can control, I am very interested in seeing what others use to promote their sites externally -- primarily social networking resources.

[camerasngifts]

For quailty social networking I use

directmatches.com

for links from free directories i use (these directory sites have page 4 rank or better 275 free one way links)

onewayseolinks.com

for blogging i use

c-net digg facebook sqidoo

hope these sites help

Pam

[mjtaylor]

Well, obviously I use WebProWorld. And I recommend clients seek out the forums in their fields, and choose at least one in which to participate. I also belong to webmasterworld, but rarely post there ...

I have also recently joined several social networking sites. so far, I like:

• Xing, which seems to have a solid business groundwork and I am impressed with the new contacts I've made there (thank you webnauts).
• LinkedIn - I found solid existing connections here ... in other words, many in my RL network were already here.
• Facebook, which I see as a more 'personal' social networking site.

I also joined a few others ... Tagged seems interesting ... and I have a Squidoo lens I would like to develop further ... but I have yet to really explore all the possibilities.

This is a great topic ... I'd like to see WPW explore more on social networking ...

If anyone wants to join me on any of these sites, please let me know ...

[calledminime]

For quailty social networking I use

directmatches.com

for links from free directories i use (these directory sites have page 4 rank or better 275 free one way links)

onewayseolinks.com

for blogging i use

c-net digg facebook sqidoo

hope these sites help

Pam

Awesome list, thanks for all the recommendations camerasngift -- I will definitely have to spend some time to look into and participate in the resources you listed.

Thanks again!

[calledminime]

Well, obviously I use WebProWorld. And I recommend clients seek out the forums in their fields, and choose at least one in which to participate. I also belong to webmasterworld, but rarely post there ...

I have also recently joined several social networking sites. so far, I like:

• Xing, which seems to have a solid business groundwork and I am impressed with the new contacts I've made there (thank you webnauts).
• LinkedIn - I found solid existing connections here ... in other words, many in my RL network were already here.
• Facebook, which I see as a more 'personal' social networking site.

I also joined a few others ... Tagged seems interesting ... and I have a Squidoo lens I would like to develop further ... but I have yet to really explore all the possibilities.

This is a great topic ... I'd like to see WPW explore more on social networking ...

If anyone wants to join me on any of these sites, please let me know ...

mjtaylor,

Thanks for the input. I will be looking into the resources you've listed as well.

While SEO and other on-site work is crucial, resources listed by you and the other forum members demonstrate that there are other online outlets that are also important for your overall online success as well.

Once I start getting listed in these resources, I would love to join you.

Lastly, is there a time limit as to how long I have to edit a post? If this thread plays out like I am hoping, it would be very beneficial to list these resources, gathered from everyones' posts, near the top of the post -- making it much easier for others to go to a single spot for all the recommendations/resources.

[incrediblehelp]

You might want to try these tips:

Top 10 Reputation or Brand Management Tips - Jaan’s Search Marketing and SEO Blog from Cincinnati, Ohio

I think the easiest way to manage reputation is to let other websites do the work fro you as far as authority is concerned. So creating profiles at the appropriate website is the best way to control your SERP reputation.