5 Ways You Could Be Affecting Your Reputation

Many people can often make comments which may be mis-understood and can give them a bad reputation; however the fallout is usually contained to a small group of people within a specific area.

The rise of the Internet has changed much of this, managing your online reputation is much more difficult. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have led to more and more people sharing their thoughts and opinions online. This means that any bad publicity about an individual or business has much larger affects. This article provides 5 common ways in which you could be ruining your reputation online without even realising.

1. Spamming People – Businesses often send customers too many messages too frequently to current and potential clients. Often these messages are spammy, sales orientated and do not engage with the customer. This can create a negative Image of your business and alienate potential and current customers.

2. Posting Inappropriate Content – It is very difficult to delete your online content as it is often saved in the cache and posed to other sites. Those that know how to find what you posted online will be able to; therefore it’s very important to ensure that you don’t post anything you don’t mind anyone seeing.

3. Not Tracking Yourself – Do you regularly Google search yourself? The search results for each person can be very different depending upon how frequently you use internet sites and how common your name is, you could have pages on search results. Businesses using the internet to promote their brand or company should be tracking their image online which can easily be done by searching yourself. There are also online reputation management tools which will help you to track mentions in real time allowing you to respond.

4. Being Negative – Naturally people tend to be negative when they post online and this has to be controlled as negative comments can be mis-interpreted and can create issues with your image and reputation.

5. Talking About Yourself – Engaging readers is the best way to ensure that readers will pay attention to your sales promotions. Posting boring content which is all sales related will not engage readers and will not capture their attention, many may lose interest and stop following your updates.