Online Reputation Management for Software Authors

How to Monitor and Protect Your Reputation Online
Presented by:
Adriana Iordan
Adriana Iordan- Avangate

6 facts about online reputation?
Your desired image ≠ Identity of the company ≠ Your reputation
The reputation must be earned
It is not controlled by the company
Intangible asset, strategic differentiator
The community validates your reputation
It is not the PR’s job

Why is online reputation important?
Nielson Global Online Consumer survey April 2009
Because 9 out of 10 people trust recommendations from folks they know

How does it work?
Communications MEDIA
Social MEDIA
Image defined by Media Owner
Brand in control
One way / Delivering a message
Focused on the brand
Company created content
Limited channel distribution
Image defined by Consumer
Consumer in control
Two way / Conversations
Focused on the user
User Generated Content
Unlimited channel distribution

Where do online conversations happen?
Reputation
FORUMS/NEWSGROUPS
MICROBLOGS
Twitter: 17 million visiitors in april 2009
VIDEO SHARING
YouTube 100 million viewers (Feb 2009)
Conversation
- Google -
SOCIAL NETWORKS
WIKIS
Facebook: 250 million
Wikipedia: 65 million visitors
(Jan 09)
SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS
AGGREGATORS
PHOTO SHARING
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
BLOGS

Getting Started
Who cares/talks about you
communities / customers / press / industry leaders / employees / business partners / competitors
Check the perception on your company:
search engines, customer surveys, vertical search channels, social media
Prepare your reputation assets
Set your goals & metrics
Implementation (Google Reader, Google Analytics, WordPress, ORM tools, ORM policy)

What online reputation is not. Dibert version

Basic Listening Tools
Free tools to monitor
Email:

Google Alerts, Yahoo Alerts, SocialMention Alerts, TweetBeep

Customized RSS:

Google Blog Search, Technorati, BoardTracker, Search.Twitter.com, Digg
MonitorThis – monitor across 20 search engine feeds
Keotag.com
Custom search engine: Rollyo

Paid tools: Trackur.com / Radian6.com

What to monitor
Company & Products names
Website URL / blogs
Employees names (execs)
Marketing tagline
Industry communities
Competition
Business Partners & Clients
Copyright & trademarks
Paid Advertising Ads
Products, Company brand and Competition

Dominate brand SERPs
Tactics for SERP results
Approach the webmaster / blogger
Hosted Content – Leverage Universal Search (YouTube Channel, Twitter, Page Profiles) – create content with brand equity
Domains & sub-domains & Blogs & micro-sites
News, images, shopping
Linking to profiles
Check Wikipedia mentions
PR news – PRWeb, BusinessWire
Lesson learned

Conversation examples
Crack, keygen, serial, key
Twitter

Basic rules on New Media Marketing
Basic rules of Online Reputation
Transparency & authenticity
Learn to listen, react quickly
Embrace the blogosphere and build relationships before something negative appears
Involve all the departments from your company
Encourage the conversations
Try to add value to your industry and community
Connect with the influencers / help them find you
Create content and products worth talking about
Customer service, product development is marketing
“Build communities” instead of “doing communications”

Conclusion
Immediate actions to take:
Listen to online conversations as they are the foundations of your online reputation
Use an RSS Reader and subscribe to “vanity” feeds
Start a free company or personal blog / micro-blogging
Check the search results in Google, Yahoo, Bing on your branded keywords
Check your website content!

We sell software online. We've been doing it for the last 17 years.
Connect with me!
Adriana Iordan
Web Marketing Manager– Avangate
Email: adriana.iordan@avangate.com
Twitter: @adriana_iordan
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