Contributed By:
GUEST WRITER
Brand
Strategist at BrandYourself
Source: Entrepreneur
Think about why you brush your teeth. You don’t do it because
your teeth are brown and dirty. You do it preventatively. It’s a habit that’s
good for you because it impacts your long-term health and the look of your
smile.
Now
think what would happen if you waited until your teeth were gross before you
decided to start brushing. Your teeth might fall out. You’d probably get gum
disease. Your smile would be tarnished and discolored. It might be too late to
fix everything and, at the very least, you’d have a lot of ground to make up.
Brushing
your teeth is an insurance policy against all those negative outcomes.
Online
reputation management (ORM) works the same way. Many folks realize how
important their online presence is only once they have a problem -- a nasty
negative, an ex’s rant, a sketchy forum that sticks out like a sore thumb, etc.
We fix these results, but it can take months and months, or even years. And
that can be a hard pill to swallow.
But
ORM can be just as effective -- even more so -- when it’s
done preventatively. By building up your reputation now, you’re able to lay a
strong foundation before anything negative has a chance to dominate your search
results.
The impact of your search
results
Your
online presence is critical to success in the business world today. People
spend hours and hours sweating over the smallest details in their resume, but
then forget about the very next place potential employers and clients look --
their search results. Even when someone gets your name via word of mouth, their
very next step is to look you up online and see what you’re about.
When
people have negative results, they finally realize how many people are actually
Googling them. They realize this because they find themselves in the
uncomfortable position of needing to defend themselves to potential customers
and employers. They have to explain that old lawsuit or the story behind that
nasty forum. And there’s no way to recover from that negative first impression.
When
people have irrelevant results, they don’t hear about it, because there’s
nothing for potential clients to complain out. But there’s nothing to impress
them with either. Clients and employers can’t find relevant information on you
so you lose out on business opportunities. They look you up and find a
forgettable, irrelevant reputation.
People
with stellar search results are, to a certain extent, in the same boat as folks
with negative search results. They finally realize how many people are Googling
them on a regular basis, only this time it’s to the advantage of their
business. It’s a no-brainer really. Relevant, kick-ass results that direct
people to the right information is bound to result in more business.
The best kind of insurance is
one that brings in business.
And
this isn’t just an idealistic notion. I’ve been actively managing my online
reputation for less than a year, and I’m already bringing in positive business
for Brandyourself thanks to my blog posts and active online presence. This
stuff legitimately works.
That’s
why we’ve started to take on more clients who are interested in these
proactive, branding-focused campaigns. They understand the benefit of
maintaining a healthy smile, and they understand the benefit of keeping their
online reputation in pristine shape. It’s the best kind of insurance policy --
one that brings more business in the door every single day.
You
don’t wait until your teeth are gross before you decide to get a toothbrush. So
don’t wait until you have a negative search result before you start managing
your online reputation. Get started today.
4 things you can do today
1. Purchase your domain: Go on
a site like GoDaddy.com, and buy the essential domains with your name in it.
(RyanErskine.com, .org, and .net for example). This is an incredibly
important form of online insurance. Even if you don’t plan on building a
website right now, you’ll still prevent other people from taking this valuable
piece of real estate away from you -- or using it against you in the
future.
2. Get a personal website: Having
a personal website is a terrific way to consolidate everything important into
one central hub. You can put your resume, accolades, portfolio, biography,
contact information and blog all in one place. Plus, there’s nothing
better than having your site come up when people search your name. It’s the
best way to direct potential clients and employers to the information that
matters most.
Squarespace
makes this easy with classy and professional themes. If you don’t want to spend
a $8 a month and are a bit tech savvy, you can make yourself a nice site for
free on Wordpress. Alternatively, sign up for a site like About.me or Tumblr
and use your new domain as the custom domain.
3. Keep an active blog: There’s
a lot of compelling information out there for why blogging is a
worthwhile investment. It can depict you as a thought leader in your industry
and bring in free business. It can earn you a loyal following and will build
authority on your website so it ranks well in search results.
Write
an article today and put a reminder on your calendar to write another in two to
four weeks.
Need
some help coming up with effective article topics? Write down some trends or
innovations in your industry that are making you excited, worried or
angry. What lessons can you teach others about a recent event in your
professional life? Find some news articles in your niche you’d like to comment
on or take in a new direction. Or, write down some challenges in your industry.
This is the birth of the how-to blog post.
4. Build a social presence: Sign
yourself up on some of the most authoritative social networks like LinkedIn and
Twitter. Try out ones like Crunchbase and About.me -- up-and-coming networks
that don’t require much effort on your part but still look great and rank well.
Then
follow these six steps to
optimize them properly for search engines. For instance, use your full
name as your username: RyanErskine, not RyGuy9000.
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