How to Write For Your Blog
Writing for blogs is a little different than writing copy. Your posts should not be too long, but they need to be informative. Posts that are too long may bore your readers and posts that are too short may give the impression of not caring. The sweet spot is something between 300 – 500 words per post. That makes it manageable for you as far as time goes and it keeps the reader’s attention intently focused. Your sentences should be short, snappy and to the point. You want people to leave feeling like they want more.

You can blog about anything interesting that has to do with your company, even news that may not strictly be about you. If you are a business that sells suitcases and you see an image of an entire miniature Jurassic Park built into a suitcase, you can link to it and write a blog post about how versatile suitcases are. Don’t get discouraged in your trying to find things to blog about, you just need a little bit of imagination and perseverance.

What Blogging Can Do For You
Blogging can help you in many ways. Having a consistently updated blog means that your company’s website will outrank any negative comments in search engine results. You will be part of a community that cares about what you have to say and your blog will give your brand credibility. You will also be able to reply to any concerns in a direct way that people find somewhat personal.

The main drawback when it comes to blogging is time. With time comes motivation. Even if at first you wanted to start your blog and kept on top of it, your interest in it may run dry as you are doing other things. Set aside a couple of hours a week to write a couple of blog posts. Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule when your post will be published. Take advantage of that and fall into a weekly routine so that your motivation stays high and you can see results more quickly.

There is an easy way to get around this and although it does take a bit of work on your side upfront, you will save quite a lot of time and you will be able to stay constantly informed as to the status of your online reputation.

Reputation management tools can be great because they automate the process for you and they allow you to see exactly what is being said about you and where. There are many different types of reputation management tools and you may find that you need to sign up to several or that you are okay with only using one. This is the type of situation where you may have to try things until you find something that fits your needs and that you want to stick with.

Most of the tools available are free and many companies use a combination of them. However, there are also some pro tools that you have to pay for, but they come with many features and easy ways to see what people are saying and how they are feeling about your company. Whatever tool you decide on, it can help you considerably when it comes to organizing your online reputation management plan and addressing any issues that may come up. It will also make you more productive and could save you a considerable amount of time.

The Right Way To Deal With Complaints
Whenever you see a complaint online, try to address it straightaway. Waiting too long may solidify your reputation as a business that does not care. Acknowledge the customer and the problem that they have, apologize for the inconvenience and assure them that it will not happen again. It does not have to exactly be this way, but these are the basics and if you follow them, you will look good and your customer will appreciate you getting back in touch with them.

If their complaint was made on social media, reply on social media or on your blog – remember to leave the customer’s personal details out of these. You may be surprised to find that not only is your customer much more likely to recommend you than if it had all gone smoothly in the first place, but also that people who stumble upon this negative review and see that you are doing something to address are more likely to take a chance on you because their perception of your level of customer service and care. If you do this enough times, your company’s reputation will be defended by your followers and your level of customer care may become the thing that sets you apart from your competitors. Remember that complaints are not entirely bad when you see one and that you can use them to your advantage.

It is important that you familiarize yourself with the other social networks out there. You may find that your niche uses a certain type of social networking site as a driving force behind the conversation and how the consumer perceives their brand. A fashion label may use Instagram and Tumblr to generate leads, and an interior design magazine’s bread and butter may be Pinterest. Explore as much as you can and see what seems to fit your needs most. You can expand without leaving Facebook and Twitter behind while connecting to a lot of dedicated customers that are already looking for your niche. You can also link most profiles together to create an ever increasing network of your own.

How Social Networking Can Help Manage Your Reputation
Your social media accounts can greatly help your reputation, but if you manage them poorly you may run the risk of negatively impacting them. It is extremely important that you keep up with comments, follow up with replies and always address any negative feedback.

A well-managed social media presence means positive results for your company in search engines which in turn will attract more potential clients. The more you do to make yourself available and part of the conversation, the more likely people are to engage with you. From then on, word of mouth and your followers spread the word for you.

The first step towards preemptive reputation management is finding what the online conversation is surrounding your brand and identifying any sources of negative information that you may find. You may be able to address the negative information in a surprisingly quick manner. However, it is extremely important that you take care when managing any discontent client and you do not reveal any of their personal information. Before you build your online presence and have social media profiles and experience, it might be best if the entire thing is kept confidential.

You should not just monitor your company names and any variations of it. You may also need to look at product names, the names of high level employees, the online activities of high level employees and any industry community websites. You may also want to track your competitors to see what the public are saying about then. Once you have this information, you will be able to implement an online reputation management campaign that will be airtight and that will allow you to face any crisis that may come your way without putting you out of pocket.

Online reputation management is basically the process that your company needs to go through to ensure that this happens. Having an established brand name that people trust can make all the difference as far as your business growth and profit goes.
The first thing you need to do is simply to look up your company’s name. Go about three to five pages in and see if you can find any negative things that are being said about your brand. If there are, try not to worry too much, since you will be able to address these with time.

The second thing that you need to do is to solidify your online presence. Having a strong online presence means that your company’s main website, your social networking profiles and your blogs will outrank anything negative that is said about you, which will essentially make your company look great and stop the negative reviews from being the first thing people find out about you. These are not the only two steps, but these are the first two steps that you need to take when it comes to online reputation management. You want to ensure that your brand name is one that is well respected and you will only be able to do that if you put work into your online reputation management plan.

Think of it like this: on the internet, everything happens at lightning speed. The customer can look something up and he will get several relevant results for something that he wants to buy, for example. He is spoilt for choice but he decides to click on your company’s website. From here, a few things can happen. The best outcome is that he stays on your website browsing for whatever product he has come looking for. The second outcome is that he pushes the back button and continues looking for your product in a different place. This is not the only risk you run when you have a poorly designed website. Your content is less likely to be shared and go viral, customers may ask others for information instead of looking at your website and you may not get as many sales as you should.

Follow some simple design tips to ensure that your website is up to par. Black on white is about 200% more readable than white on black, it is important that a customer knows how to find things on your website and does not need to jump through a maze of links to find what they are looking for. Music or videos auto playing when someone enters a website has been shown time and time again to increase your bounce rate (a bad thing). Your website is the online face of your company so make sure it is up to par and allow it to be a strong link between the rest of your social media profiles for the most beneficial effects on your reputation.

• Google Alerts (Free): A surprisingly easy tool to keep track of what is being said about your company on the news and on some blogs. You can set it up and check it periodically from your homepage.
• Yahoo! Alerts (Free): Very similar to the above, but also checks stocks. Like Google Alerts, it can also send you e-mails if you request them. You may want to use your phone or you can even use your instant messenger to receive notifications.
• Technorati (Free): Perhaps the most popular one, this easy tool allows you to keep track of mentions of your company in different blogs.
• Social Mention (Free): Instead of focusing on blogs, this tool focuses on social networking and what is being said about you there, but it can also look in news.
• Lithium (Premium): This tool, which is not free, gathers information from millions of sources including social networking sites. It manages any duplicate content for you and it can let you know the sentiment that people have had around your brand.
• Radian6 (Premium): Perhaps the most popular pay-for tool, it also looks at millions of sources, which include social media and news. Other than telling you how much your name is dominating the conversation, you are able to see what type of feedback you are getting. You are also able to store last month’s data before the next month rolls over.
• Vocus (Premium): Very similar to the other two paid tools, but it also has a nifty feature that allows you to see if influential bloggers or people on Twitter have said anything about you while filtering out sites that serve as social aggregators.
Use these tools to see the impact that your campaign is having and what you can do to refine your process. You will also be more productive since it will not cut into as much of your time.

Perhaps the most obvious advantage of monitoring your online reputation is that you will immediately improve the satisfaction of your customers. Having an easy way to get in touch and a prompt reply satisfies customers and you can learn to pinpoint anything in particular that may be giving your brand negative publicity. You can also do a little bit of market research while you attempt to improve the perception of the brand through online reputation management.

Other less obvious benefits of online reputation management may be reducing your marketing costs. Once you have learned how to interact online you may be able to take over the entire operation if your company is quite small. You may also be able to identify gaps in the knowledge of your customers regarding a particular product or campaign and take the steps that you need to address it. A well run online reputation management campaign can make the difference between a customer wanting to purchase from you or not.

Online reputation management is not only important for your company’s image. There are many rewards that you may be able to reap from it when you do it right and they may have a positive impact on your company that you had not expected.

If the mistake is too big, you may consider bringing in an online reputation management specialist that can guide you through the process. Before you take action, you may also need to consult your lawyer, particularly if you feel like whatever has gone viral may become a legal matter down the road. Otherwise, you should use the tools available at your disposal to communicate with the public about your company. Use your social media profiles to let people know about the news and tell them that you are working to find a solution. Their anger may be somewhat appeased if they know that you are trying to do something about them and acknowledging the problem at least means that you will attempt to resolve it. Keeping it quiet may make people feel like you are trying to shove it under the carpet or that you agree with statements that were made. Update frequently and try to ensure that it does not happen again by training at least some key employees in social media so that any complaints can be quickly responded to and addressed.