Rainmaking Resource #6: Monitor Your Reputation on the Web
We all have a web presence that others can use to assess our suitability as providers, alliance partners and clients. It is increasingly important to monitor that presence so that we can manage it.
One way is to use the free Google Alerts service. Set it up to search your name, your firm, and other search terms and get emails when something new is posted.
The free service doesn’t catch everything, however. If you need deeper searches, use the paid GoogleAlerts service, which even catches obscure web mentions. You’d be surprised at what it uncovers. Like the free service, it sends you an email with results.
As Ben Worthen of the Wall Street Journal notes, “Once information finds its way online, it’s almost impossible to get it off.” His blog post When the Internet Turns Against You contains some tips for what to do when you find negative information about you or your firm.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:33 am
I’ve struggled with this problem forever. Ended up writing about it on my own blog (http://kassabov.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/privacy-in-the-web-20-world/)
If you want to market yourself, your name has to be out there, and while you have control over what you personally do or say out on the web, you have no control over what others may post. Look at what happened to Carmen Kontur-Gronquist, the mayor of a small town in Oregon. Managing one’s online identity is becoming more complicated than managing one’s credit report.
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 am
Hello Alex:
Congratulations on your blog. I has a good mix of the practical and the fun. On the practical side, the fast recognition that a posting got you through google is something that anyone contemplating a blog should read. On the fun side, I laughed when I read the story of the two maids in your hotel bathroom.
Thanks for the comment and link on managing one’s reputation on the web. Your example makes the case for concern compellingly.
Ford