Whether you think you are important or having a personal reputation or not… you do! If someone goes to Google and searches for your name, what will they find.
Whatever ranks that the top of the search results IS your online reputation. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not, it’s the first impression that is being given, and that’s all it takes for someone to believe it.
The reputation management space is a multi-billion dollar industry and hotels, restaurants, brands and personalities are spending a ton of money to make sure they have a great looking first impression when someone searches for them online.
For many brands, political figures and businesses, the need for reputation management usually lies in the need to clean up a mess or just something stupid being said on their part. As we all know, once something goes on the internet, it stays there forever — and can also so virally through social media in seconds!
“The best way to maintain a positive reputation is to avoid a bad reputation in the first place. Don’t say or do anything online you do not want to have to explain in a job interview, on a first date or to your mother.” – Todd William of ReputationRhino.com
Outside of reputation management and trying to clean up your name, having a great online presence and ranking at the top of Google for your name is a huge benefit as well.
As on online marketing expert and brand of my own, I’ve always wanted to secure the whole main page of Google for my name “Zac Johnson” — which IÂ successfully accomplished a couple years back. Through the use of my own web sites, using social media and high profile articles on other sites, you can accomplish this same goal.
No matter what your position is on protecting your reputation online, the following three tools will help you accomplish the goal of being more knowledgable about what is being said about you and your brand online.
Use These Tools to Check Your Name Online
Google Alerts  - https://www.google.com/alerts
This one is free, easy to use and quite valuable. All you need to do is head over to Google Alerts, plug in your name or words that you want to monitor for, and you will receive an email from Google every time a new article is indexed within their search results with that matching name.
You can see an example of a recent Google Alert I received when one of my recent articles went live on Time. Notice all of the other features within the email alerts, such as “see more results” and giving you the ability to “edit this alert” as well.
It’s not the most accurate or best tool around, but again… it’s free! You also have the option to limit how often you would like to be notified on alerts and also on what type of content (news, sites, blogs etc).
Knowem – http://knowem.com
Another great tool for not just checking up on your real or brand name across all of the social networks is Knowem. This site allows you to search and register your personal name (or any name) across all of the major social networks.
If you have a common name, it’s probably already registered, but if you have a trademarked brand name and want to secure it across all networks, this is a great place to get started.
Mention – http://mention.net
If you wanted to combine the power of both Google Alerts (web content) and Knowem (social media), then Mention is probably one of the best solutions for you to consider. While the service does cost $29+ per month, it does offer real time monitoring, giving you the ability to react and respond to social updates in second and also full access to all of your mentions and trackable data within their platform.
In short, Mention gives you the ability to monitor and manage your reputation online. They also offer your first alert for free, which is always a good thing to run on your personal name.
Where Do You Rank for Your Name Online?
Now it’s time for your voice to be heard. Where are you currently ranking in the search results for your name and do you currently share a name with another person who owns your personal name as a domain?