4 Great Tools to Fix Your Online Reputation (and Control the Conversation)

We outline four powerful, easy-to-use tools to fix your online reputation and build a better narrative online. 
In many ways, the Internet is a lot like a party in a tiny room filled with a hundred people who are talking all at once, while a person running a search is a bit like the late party guest who stumbles into this room and has to figure out what’s going on.

Controlling the party means ensuring all the chatter is positive to drown out any negative mutterings from this room’s deep and shadowy corners.

For many people, Facebook seems like an excellent place in which to begin a reputation management strategy. Here, they can tout their positive attributes and entice their friends to do the same.

But should a comprehensive strategy begin and end on the big blue site? We don’t think so.

We can name three other methods that might be more effective and easier for the average person to manage.

4 Powerful Tools to Fix Your Online Reputation (and Write Your Narrative)

Here’s a brief look at four digital tools to fix your online reputation:

1. Twitter

While Facebook remains the social media champ, many people are turning to the microblogging site Twitter to get their social media fix. According to the Pew Research Center, Twitter is becoming the site of choice for teenagers, as its usage increased from 16 percent in 2011 to 24 percent in 2013.

This seems to suggest that more people find the site helpful, and perhaps you could get a big bang for your buck by focusing your reputation management efforts on the site. In addition, Tweets are concise and easy to knock out in just a few minutes. In no time, you could focus attention from the negative to the positive, all with the help of Twitter.

2. Quora

The website Quora is designed to allow users to post questions on any topic and get an expert’s response within minutes.

It might sound cheesy, and it would be easy enough for the model to fail if the answers were bogus or disrespectful. Still, it seems that the site’s users play by the rules and deliver a remarkably positive experience for all users.
In a reputation management sense, the site could allow you to pose as an expert in the field of your choice, be it business, marketing, health care, or fluffy kittens. Using Quora, you could also boost positive information on a Google search of your name if you post under your real name in Quora.

3. Blogs

It’s well known that companies that maintain blogs experience huge benefits in their bottom lines. For example, a study from Impact Branding and Design suggests that a company blog boosts traffic to a company website by 55 percent.
Additionally, search engines like Google consider each blog entry a separate item, so companies that blog could see their companies grab more market share with each consumer search. An individual could do the same.

Writing and updating a blog can allow you to talk about anything positive in your life. The sheer amount of useful information you share might bury your detractors. If you’re not blogging, it’s high time you started.

4. Monitoring & Privacy Protection

If you don’t know what’s being said about you on the Internet or what people are writing about you, it’s hard to protect yourself. Internet monitoring software is necessary for anyone looking to control and protect their online reputation. A good monitoring service will track your name and targeted keywords online, inform you of any new activity, and track your results.

Maintaining control of your online reputation takes work, and you must be a quality writer to succeed. After all, blog entries and Tweets full of half-formed sentences, cursing, and inappropriate humor could be just as damning as articles about your arrest or your troubles on the job.

If you need help with writing, we can provide that assistance. Our talented writers can create content for you on any media and work quickly. Visit www.internetreputation.com to find out more.