Why is reputation management relevant to your company?

The short answer: Reputation management matters because more and more people use information found online to influence their purchasing decisions. If someone searches for your company's name or one of your products only to find negative feedback on the first search results page, the sales opportunity is lost.

Remember the old adage about bad news traveling faster than good news? The Internet not only validates the truth in that statement, it accelerates it.

Because your company's reputation on the Web matters now more than ever, here are some reputation management tips to help you get started:

1. Determine your company's current reputation ? Find out how your company is perceived online. Conduct searches using your company name and look for negative feedback on blogs, forums, and other online communities where people might leave feedback about your firm. Also think about subscribing to Google Alerts and other online services where you receive notice when new postings appear online containing the keywords and phrases you have chosen.

2. Issue press releases regularly ? Use the power of well-written, newsworthy press releases to announce company anniversaries, new product launches, promotions, relocations, etc.

3. Build online profiles ? Connect with your target audience through social media sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, and others. Social media sites are a great way to post positive information about your company. Make sure that your company name appears in the URL.

4. Register domains ? Register domains with your company name whenever possible. If your preferred name is already taken, get creative and use variations to get your firm name somewhere in the domain name. Use the name in the content of the site. Write your site content to entice your viewers to visit other pages of the site.

5. Add sub-domains ? If possible, register your URL with different suffixes like .net, .info, .biz, etc. Also see if site names like www.yourURLblog.com or www.your-URLblog.com and other variations are available.

6. Start a company blog ? And update the blog with new content regularly. Blogs are inexpensive, very popular, and search engines love them. Blogs also provide a great opportunity to get your message out there and for feedback.

7. Retain the services of a pro ? Consider hiring a reputation management professional to guide you through the process. An outside perspective is always helpful for fresh insight that you may not consider.

The reputation management tips are just a few of the many ways that you can manage your firm's standing online. Most cost very little and the information gathered in the process provides a clear perception as to how your target audience views your company and products.