I had an international client whose brand name you would all recognize, but will remain anonymous here. This client was not willing to spend much money on web marketing due to the particular standards, vision, and business style of their leadership. When profits were down, so went the marketing budget. In other words, they were cheap.

This company wanted to monitor its reputation for potential crises, so I performed a one-off reputation analysis. In early 2008, I delivered an extensive report to the company, detailing the issues, potential issues, and misprints that needed to be addressed. The company thanked me and proceeded to do absolutely NOTHING. They decided that the time, effort, and money required to address the public’s perception of their brand was too costly considering the nation’s economy and some losses already incurred during the year.

Before 2008 ended, this major company declared bankruptcy. Yes, bankruptcy. Granted, the execution of my proposed strategy would have cost them tens of thousands of dollars. It takes some time, effort, and money to rebuild what has been damaged. Client X opted out of the expense. They have since lost billions. Makes you wonder why they balked, eh?

Now, as powerful as it would be for me to use this company as example of what can happen as the result of a bad reputation left unchecked, I must admit that there were multiple factors involved, including the economy and the rising cost to do business, which cut deeply into profits. Add to that dilemma the inability to get credit due to the recession and you get the perfect storm.

Consumer confidence was at an all-time low. The lack of reputation management allowed confidence to erode and when additional shares were offered up to the public, not enough were sold to keep the company afloat. One way or another, your corporate reputation will make or break you. It may not boost your profits to an all-time high, but it could keep you afloat in a recession.

Since September, I’ve heard more than once that indirect methods of ROI are first to go when the economy takes a dive. The board of directors wants to see results, and in times of crisis, narrowmindedness leads to inexcusable vulnerabilities. My ex-client COULD have salvaged something, had their reputation been intact.

Let this be a lesson to all of you who are looking for places to cut corners and free up budget. Your reputation is NOT an area you can afford to sacrifice. Image, reputation, and consumer confidence are what keep commerce alive during rocky times. Are YOU doing what is necessary to guard your brand’s reputation?

If I boiled down the message of this post into one sentence, it would be this: Every profile you create should be visited and used regularly.

The focus of search engine based reputation management used to be all about rankings. If you could artificially populate the top ten Google and Yahoo results for your name, you were doing well. But this mindset was limited to one basic principle of ORM: push negative search results lower than page one of search results, and your reputation will be spared most of the loss.

But what happens when someone clicks these results you’ve created? What impression are you making? A first impression is still a first impression. Research still tells us something about the person we’re searching.

I know there are 50 “gurus” out there now who will manage your personal reputation by building these profiles or recommending you build them yourself. But think through this strategically. You want to BUILD your reputation, not just sweep bad comments under the rug.

That’s why you need a REAL STRATEGY for reputation management. It’s not enough to read a few blog posts and go flying off to create some half-cooked scheme. Building your reputation involves proactively creating a positive image. A bland, neutral image cannot combat the negative comments, nor does it impart a positive vibe about you to the searcher.

What are your goals? Get a job? Establish credibility? Sell leads? Impress potential clients? A deadpan profile does none of that. If your prospect finds an abandoned profile, you WILL appear to be just another colorless Joe who doesn’t make things happen. You’re just another guy or a girl with a lame profile page.

How does a winner sell himself in person? Take that creative energy and apply it to your online reputation. This is no place to cut corners, people. In fact, what is found online is more permanent than the words you speak. Handle with care, and see a professional before executing a premature campaign.

Your experience is relevant if you’ve ever:

• responded to a reputation management project
• looked to hire for a reputation management project
• responded to an SEO project
• hired for an SEO project
• responded to a social media project
• hired for a social media project

Most people hiring reputation managers are individual businesses or one man shops outsourcing outside of their specialty. So the likelihood of sharing valuable information with your competition here is unlikely (if you happen to care about that sort of thing).

What kind of information would be helpful to share with the community? Here are a few ideas to stimulate your thought process:

1. What was the deciding factor for you using one service over another? User Interface? Number of members? Specialized focus? Personal referral?
2. How much are company’s willing to pay for this service (and name the service)?
3. How much bidding competition is there on the service you used for each project?
4. Are the bidding clients knowledgeable enough about the service they need to hire wisely?
5. Are the bidding clients completely ignorant and hoping to pay pennies only?
6. What have you noticed differentiates the good clients from the bad clients on the service(s) you use?

That should get you started. Detailed comments are encouraged. Someone somewhere is going to search for more information on how to choose the right freelance service. We want to provide that helpful information below. Please take the time to read any and all comments below and ask questions of the commentors before you. If you post a comment, please return a few times to this post and make sure you haven’t been asked a question about your experience.

That one complaint post ranks #1 for the specialty garden tub company’s name. The company website ranks #2. In his particular niche, search engine reputation is huge. The company depends on their website for sales and promotional information. And somehow, this one post outranked them and was hurting their search rep big time.

As I said in the title, handle public product complaints with care. It’s easy to get offended and rush into battle like a bull in a china shop. But before you try blasting your accuser out of the sky, remember that the decisions you make now will affect your reputation forever. Your words are permanent once you’ve sent them out into the ether, so choose your response with care.

Casey’s (not his real name) initial response was to jump into the fray. He asked me for help finding comparable blogs/forums where he could post his own comments to outrank the complaint. His thought was that anything ranking higher than this negative piece would be better than being beaten outright. To some extent, this is true. But a little more thought put into his response would probably work in his favor in the long-term.

My response to Casey was to forgo the blog/forum hunt for now and focus on printing a response on the same forum/blog that the complaint was posted. My reasoning was twofold: 1) anyone reading the actual complaint would find his response listed immediately after, and 2) there’s always the chance that his response would outrank the original complaint.

My strongest recommendation, however, was that Casey allow me to at least review and revise whatever statements he would write in response. This is key, especially when the accusation comes from an ex-employee or anyone you’ve had relationship with. Your personal offense should not be counted against your company. Allow a “disinterested” third party review your response and make honest comments on style, tone, and content. Not everyone can afford to keep a PR firm on retainer, so choose your third party assistant wisely.

And, as always, feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas you might have.

Best of luck to you all.

A word to employers: Grow up! Realize that any quality blog posts written by an ex-employee still benefit your company by remaining visible. Those are searchable pages containing industry specific content that can still make you look good. But what about when the employee joins another team? This is your big PR opportunity to look like a mature corporate entity – one that embraces career development and speaks well of employees as they continue to pursue their dreams. It doesn’t hurt you to have an ex-employee’s name on your blog archive bylines. In fact, that employee may go on to be more successful somewhere and his/her name could become a valuable commodity to have in your archive. So don’t jump the gun by erasing ex-employees’ blog posts or by removing their names from the bylines. That’s just childish. And think of all the people those ex-employees may point out your faux pax to. Do you really want a whole group of people knowing that your company is so small minded that it feels threatened by each employee that leaves? Or would you rather be known as the employer who is proud of giving some future stars an excellent opportunity to hone their skills? Seems to be a rather obvious choice here.

Now, a word to ex-employees: Do not fear. WaybackMachine is here. If past employers delete your valuable blog posts from their corporate sites to “stick it to you” for whatever cheesy reason they might have, you can still get credit for them forever. Simply visit WaybackMachine online and search archived versions of your ex-employer’s site. This is especially effective if you make sure to get your name posted in the bylines of every site you write for. Simply pull up archived photos of your blog posts through the WaybackMachine and save screen prints of the actual pages with your blog titles and name in the byline. It will serve as absolute proof of your prolific blogging abilities regardless of whether your ex-bosses are savvy enough to keep them visible.

Take those screen prints with you to interviews in case a discussion should arise concerning the validity of your claims to have blogged professionally. Not only do the WaybackMachine screen prints give you credit, but they prove to your prospective employer that you are intelligent and creative enough to find the means to prove your work history in the midst of adversity.

On second thought, maybe you just hate searching for your name on Google and finding results for some other guy or girl with the same name. Each circumstance will be unique, but here are a few quick and easy ways to improve your online reputation without paying a professional:

1. Buy a domain name. Try to buy your name as a domain name (example: johnsmith.com). I recommend DreamHost to register and privately host your domains. If your name is common and the exact match is unavailable, look for a combination of your name and either a location or a professional title (example: johnsmithdallas.com or johnsmithcopywriter.com). Pick something you like, but make sure your name is up front. If you register at least one domain in this manner, you can go ahead and check to see if your name is available with hyphens (example: john-smith.com). Owning this domain is fine, but I would operate it as a second domain, not as your one and only. Hyphenated domains don’t always rank as well for keywords.

It’s not enough to OWN a domain name. You need a live site and you need readable, relevant, content. Since you are not likely a web designer, I recommend you download WordPress blog software for free and start a blog on your new site. Write at least once a week and remember that what you write will be read by your professional peers and potential new employers – each blog post you write is an opportunity to showcase your personality, intelligence, wit, and your grasp of your chosen profession.

2. Join several free article publisher websites. I recommend Buzzle, Amazines, Content Articles, Helium, and Ezine Articles. These are listed in order of importance and current search engine authority. Join each of these publishers and post at least one article on each that you write. Pick a subject that you are somewhat of an expert on and keep it simple and informative. Remember that any headhunter or interviewer may review these words prior to your interview, so you’ll want to make sure you’ve posted well written pieces.

3. Join several social media / networking sites. Top recommendations include: LinkedIn, Twitter, Naymz, Delicious, Technorati, and Magnolia. When you are trying to build search engine results for your name, each site you join must be joined under your real name. Use nicknames and handles for those sites or profiles meant just for your personal enjoyment. Create each profile for reputation management under your first and last name and be sure to add background and professional information when possible. Other sites you should consider joining include: Digg, Reddit, Propeller, and Facebook.

4. Register your blog with several blog directories. Top picks for blog directories include: Globe of Blogs, Blog Catalog, Blogflux, Bloghub, and Blogarama. Register under your first and last name and follow the online directions to add your blog to each directory.

5. Read other people’s blogs and write comments. Most blogs require you to enter your name and email address before you can post a comment. This is another chance for you to write intelligent responses to what you read, and to earn some low level rankings for your name as well. Go ahead and enter your blog URL in the field available. This gives you the added benefit of sending a few blog comment readers to your site.

6. Create a blog that is hosted on the blog software URL. Blogger and WordPress are the two most popular blog platforms and their URLs already have some strength. You can create a blog on Blogger’s or WordPress’ site and piggback off of their search engine authority (example: johnsmith.blogspot.com and johnsmith.wordpress.com). I know it sounds like you’ll have to write copy for several sites, and you WILL, but taking 30 minutes per blog per week shouldn’t be to hard to fit in, especially if you’re motivated to create some good search results and content to promote your career.

Each one of these options is free. They take a little time, but the rewards of a solid search reputation is well worth it. Of course, you will have some questions along the way like “how do I add WordPress to my blog?” or “how do I set up my new DreamHost hosting account so I can put a blog there?

Personal repute management can be handled quite well by individuals working from home. This is especially significant for those who aim at running their personal businesses online or find a home business opportunity profitable for them. As published in the home business review journal increasingly high number of people is eager to find work at home to avoid the hassle and cost of commuting long distances while some others work from home for the ease and flexibility it offers.

Feel free to shoot me any questions you might have about the finer points of building your online reputation.

Creating sub domains is an especially useful tip that I don’t think gets emphasized enough. Perhaps your company’s website and/or a personal website rank #1 and #2 for your name, but #3 is some unfounded accusation against you or your company. Depending on the strength of the website hosting the accusatory content, you’ll have to adjust your strategy. Still, creating a subdomain with your name in front of the company name (example: johnmark.awesomebusiness.com) will give you another premium ranking for your name, assuming you put quality content on it and get some good links to it.

For one client or another, I’ve been doing all the things Rob suggests except for the subdomains. Using subdomains really is a good idea. I just don’t always have the control to implement such practices on a client’s website. One of the downsides of contract or agency work is that the specialist rarely is given the power to implement any and all strategies which could benefit the client.

If you’re not doing these 17 things, now is the time. If you have already attempted them or need further explanation on how to accomplish them, my door is open.

There are three recommendations to choose from, and I personally recommend a blend of all 3:

1) Create a Blog on your website

2) Create a Forum on your website

3) Encourage your customers to supply honest feedback on your website

Both blog and forum will assist your company in addressing the complaints and recommendations of your customers. Their are advantages and disadvantages to both. The great thing about each is that they take very little time to set up and are very affordable tools.

Most company websites only provide a “contact us” page for customer/client feedback. Unfortunately, an angry or dissatisfied customer may not take the time to fill out something formal that, honestly, looks like it is meant only for new business leads. For most of us, if we’re savvy enough to use Contact pages, we’re probably savvy enough to know that webmasters take forever to respond to concerns or questions, and we don’t like waiting for answers.

As I mentioned before, blogs and discussion forums are excellent places to give your customers a voice. And by doing so, you offer them the dignity they deserve. And when a company shows its customers respect, it’s always a win/win.

Help me save some keystrokes. Let’s try to only type the phrase online reputation management once per post from now on…Pass on the acronym wherever you can, especially in those beloved SEO blogs and SEM forums. They spread new acronyms like a brushfire. j

In the coming weeks, we’ll look at the news for some examples of good and bad ORM campaigns.