March 3rd, 2011 by Tracey_Ber
After chatting with Adam over a week ago about this blog, it has finally taken shape driven partially by the fact that a lovely friend/client David Wood is getting national media exposure thanks to his fabulous out of the box idea, the Press release and eBay advert I wrote for him, in order to help him find a job. In light of this I thought that I had better get this post done as it is very fitting and highlights alot about communicating, personal branding and online reputation.
In the last few days I have been watching more and more people around me talk, interact and post their stuff in many different forms on the web. In particular the social media arena. This all resonates with me as an NLP fundi and my company after all is about communication, branding and marketing in the social media world. I tend to read peoples language patterns and see things that other people have not noticed where their ‘communication’ is concerned and there is one thing that needs to be addressed quite seriously: Your online Reputation management (ORM).
What will happen to the web in the next 5 years or so will show you that YOUR online reputation and personal branding is out there forever. What is this I hear you say, well let me give you a very brief outline about ORM. This article can be found on Wikipedia and is the most comprehensive and the simplest outline of it.
“Online Reputation Management (ORM) is the act of monitoring, addressing or mitigating SERPs (search engine result pages) or mentions in online media and Web sphere content. ORM primarily involves tracking what is written about a client on the Internet, then utilizing sophisticated online and offline techniques in promoting positive and neutral content, while at the same time pushing down those links the sponsor (in most cases business or individuals) may not want to show when their name is searched.
Rather than working to raise link results with a particular search term in order to (ostensibly) generate more commerce or page views, the goal of ORM is to push already highly-ranked negative posts off the results pages so that they are seen by fewer people, thus creating a more positive results environment for the sponsor of the effort. ORM is the specialization in prevention and repair of online reputation threats, and has less to do with directly promoting businesses.
The term arose from a recognition of the importance that influencing how someone or something is perceived based on an internet search has to a business. As the amount of user-generated content on the internet grew, it began to affect internet search results more meaningfully, and the desire to change those results naturally followed.”
(Link to the full article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_reputation_management)
Now, there are plenty of tools out there to counteract anything negative about you, but is this the real you then? Shouldn’t you be managing this at a base level of communication to ensure that what you see is actually who you are and what you are communicating out is the good, positive side of you and using anything negative that gets said as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd, correct it or deal with it.
In NLP there is a great line that says: There is no such thing as failure, only feedback. In other words, use the feedback as a positive tool.
I love to use the analogy of human life where social media and reputation is concerned. I see it like a mirror image of who we are when you take the technology away.
Imagine this real life scenario:
You walk into a bar to meet friends, you start chatting and enjoying your evening, occasionally other people walk over who are friends of friends and you get introduced. The conversations gain momentum and the excitement of meeting all these people bubbles all around. Then all of a sudden somebody says something you don’t agree with and you get angry, you are rude to the person and everybody gets upset with you. The most of them leave. That little incident will get talked about to various other people about what an aggressive angry person you are and so your personal reputation in that particular circle is damaged. It is locked into their unconscious forever, if anyone mentions your name again, that memory is retrieved instantly and a bad picture pops back into their minds. Not a pleasant picture is it??
NOW.. the internet and any form of online communication takes this a step further, it is stored forever. Yes.. I said FOREVER. The tools that people use to manage this more often than not it is implemented incorrectly and they don’t work fast enough to counteract it or in an average person case, they don’t have funds to purchase such tools. There are also monitoring tools that can bypass this and they capture information in a nano second! A brilliant example of this was Russell Brand tweeting a picture of Katy Perry first thing in the morning. A screen shot was captured within seconds of it hitting the net. It went viral in a few hours, even though the tweet was only up for a very short time. To prove this point, I give you a link to just one the articles that was run about it:
http://www.inquisitr.com/94352/katy-perry-no-makeup/
If you search it, it still brings up a lot of articles on it. I have to admire them in a sense as there doesn’t seem to be any online reputation software cleaning up after them. It is who they are and they are people too. In retrospect considering their position in society as celebrities somebody should be guiding them as to the damage they do their reputations sending out stuff like that.
In the future and when we achieve Web 4.0 status everything you put out there will influence people around you and your life will not be a secret in any way if you interact on the internet. A lot of this is already happening although it has yet to be a norm. A good example is the recruitment industry where in a few years a possible employer will profile you off the internet before an interview. A few do it already, although when it reaches its peak, you won’t have a choice but to be found.
My suggestion is: Search yourself on Google or any other platform.. are you there? How do you look? If you aren’t at this point being seen and you do not come up in any search results, not even for your facebook page, may I congratulate you for having brilliant security ‘saviness’! In the future, it won’t be so easy, make sure you are putting out the BEST of you now because people around you will want that information on a daily basis, you won’t really be able to do anything without a good online presence.
Dave’s online presence is in the spotlight now and this will be captured forever. Just Google him – David Wood Ebay – to see for yourselves! Congrats Dave! I hope you find that dream job!
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September 23rd, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
We hope you find some useful info on our blog, we believe in sharing knowledge and experiences. Based in Gloucestershire in the UK we work with many clients helping them achieve an online presence that works. Your online presence is not just a website any more, it much more than that – it is your network online. Your network should tap into your clients & customers and those in your industry. Dont forget you can get in touch with us to discuss any time!
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June 13th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Hi all,
We have seen Google change the way searching is done over the last few months, we have noticed the testing at weekends and finally the new side options when searching. With Google still representing approx 80% of meaningful searches for products and services you can never ignore Google changes to searching. If you do you could see your website/online presence decrease and not even realise until you notice the negative impact on your business. What does the changes mean to you without being to nerdy or technical?
Well basically Google has started to give fresh content some meaning, new content will come up near the top, then when aged a few days will go back down the search engine rankings – having been judged on how popular web surfers have found it. This is a way of Google trying to get rid of that out of date info that plagues the searching and really it is a good thing for the users. We have been promoting Blogs & social media for sometime now and it is has just become more important than ever in keeping fresh relevant content to your business online. It is exactly what Blogs are designed for!!
We say dont let your online presence fade, keep your content up to date on your website, failing that get some kind of Blog going to help keep your content fresh and relevant.
Of course we can help with that 
www.gloswebsitedesign.co.uk
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April 24th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Business Blogs
Business Blogs are becoming an important marketing and sales tool for Companies in the UK, we now see forward thinking Companies & Organisations having a website blog, a business blog connected from your website. Creating a business blog for website will allow for a more relaxed way to communicate, distribute articles and interesting information and providing a Company personality online.
We have seen successful business blogs creating an online buzz in a local area, UK wide or across the World connecting potential clients to informative well written information that is fresh, updated and search engine friendly. A well managed effective business blog will promote your website and business online.
We work with our clients to design, host and maintain an effective business blog for our clients
Click here for more info about our business blog service
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April 17th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Blogs provide the latest information about a product or service that is offered by a company or an individual. This is the reason why more and more people depend upon blogs for information availability. However, this fact alone does not qualify in determining the authenticity of the information provided. With the inclusion of blogs, websites keep a track of people who are visiting them and also seek comments from the visitors to enliven their website’s coverage over the Internet for longer periods of time. People who write blogs are known as bloggers. These people are being paid by website owners for writing blogs on their websites.
There were times when blogs were an obscurity. Nobody was able to tell that what exactly a blog is. However, blogs are one of the important aspects that are ruling the market of late. Besides providing updated information, blogs contribute in the diversion of traffic for a certain website. These are known as online links or back links. They redirect the users who click on those links and in turn this increases traffic for that certain website. The amount a blogger receives depends upon the number of clicks a website receives on which that particular blog is posted. These clicks on the blogs are also known as “hits”.
The enhancement for blogs are blog networks. It is nothing but a network that has been created by bloggers for mutual aiding while they create blogs for various websites. Some bloggers create latest blogs based upon the topic and later interested parties will purchase that blog. The number of back links a blog contains the number of keywords it consists of. The arrangement of keywords must be unique or else those blogs will be considered to be blacklisted by search engines for keyword spamming and copy scape. In order to avoid such situations, bloggers need to be creative and implement their own ideas. This leads to the generation of more income.
Whenever a blog has been created, it should be known to the general public. For this purpose, we recommend using Twitter. In fact, we are able to place reTweet buttons directly on to you blogs for ease of use! Blogs visited in such way can generate huge volumes of money. Also, the amount generated by a blog also depends upon the blog. The more updated the blog, that better the scope of earning will be. In order to achieve this to a maximum extent, bloggers need to choose the current topics and keywords that are in demand and can organise their blogs based on that content.
We specialise in Social Media Optimisation, including Blog/Twitter Services.
Get in Touch Today!
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March 10th, 2010 by Adam Webmaster
Gone are the days when companies have to depend on dedicated marketing strategies that involved huge amounts of money. Enter Social Media and the wide range of benefits that comes along with it. What is social media and what’s the scope of it? Well, social media is all about networking with like minded people who are trying to accomplish goals and achieve targets by being on a common platform. In general, it requires companies to invest a small amount of money to reap large benefits… Here are the reasons why companies should consider social media as a primary method of reaching their customer base.
To Find Talent
With the talent pool expanding enormously thanks to the recession, companies are left with a tough task on deciding whom they should opt for and whom they should leave behind. Spotting the right talent is one of the successful factors that influence the future course of a company. Acquiring talent is not a simple task. In fact, it is a phenomenon. For these reasons, there are some companies that set up talent acquisition teams that work in and embrace Social Media as a way of fishing for and in turn hiring the best talent.
To Swap Ideas
Social media brings the concept of exchanging ideas in realtime. This can be promoted through social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and several other websites as such. A more professional method would be the use of Telepresence, Blogs and Forums. Whenever firms are in the market for new ideas they can do no better than to make use of social media for all of their needs.
To Promote its Existence
Because of the umpteen companies available in the market that are catering to every sector immensely, it becomes extremely hard for companies to survive the competition. Social media can help a company in projecting itself in the right direction. This is possible by using Social Media such as this blog, to reach
potential clients and encourage them to engage with you.
To Better Serve Your Clients
Whatever the features and benefits of social media are, the ultimate goal of any company that is into employing them is always going to be Customer Service, keeping the clients happy. When a client feels neglected, they will vote with their feet and go elsewhere, costing you business. Blogs and Forums are great methods for clients to seek help and support from you, whilst requiring a minimum amount of effort on you part to keep them feeling valued.
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