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In this episode Carla & Mary discuss Online Reputation Management with Julie Friedman Bachinni owner of Neptune Moon Design.
We introduce this episode with a story about one of our colleagues, Megan E. Barber, owner of Barber VA Solutions. In March, Megan blogged about her nightmare experience of being defamed online. I felt that it was an important topic, one to which we should devote an episode.
Mary & I met Julie at a business networking event where Mary and Julie were the guest speakers. When I learned that one of Julie’s specialties is Online Reputation Management, I thought that Julie would be a great guest to have on Online Biz Insiders. So, here we are!
In episode 14, we touched upon using Google Alerts as a method for research what is being said about you and your business. One of Julie’s suggestions for your own Online Reputation Management is a manual search on the top search engines on a consistent basis – so that you can do an audit of what is out there.
If you discover that something negative has been said about you, the most positive proactive approach you can take is to get positive stuff posted about you. This could include creating a blog and posting to it regularly, claiming your listings at YellowPages, Yelp, InsiderPages, and MerchantCircle, and setting up a profile at Google Places. Stepping up your online marketing will as well help “push down” (on Google) negative posts about you.
Here are the 3 levels of support that Julie offers in Online Reputation Management:
1. “Name It & Claim It” – Researching online profiles to create a “snapshot” of what exists about you.
2. This level takes the snapshot created in Level 1, and uses it as an action items list – being proactive in how you are portrayed on the web. It’s also important to make sure your information is consistent on the profiles.
3. This level is engaged when you are involved in a full-fledged PR disaster. At this level Julie is in high gear posting both neutral as well as positive content, to push down the negative posts that are on the web.
If you would like more information, please contact Julie Friedman Bacchini at info [at] neptunemoon [dot] com.