Don’t let your online reputation slip away; protect it

• TripAdvisor faces legal action over reviews posted online in 2010.

• A 19 year old emerging photographer, died after 'malicious' posts were put online in UK.

• Leading e commerce company pauses operations for one week due to online reviews hampering orders

All the above have been headlines at one point in time. What is common in all of them? They all are consequences of a rage triggered online. Did these organizations and individuals take any effort stay calm or build a reputation over time which could have nullified the effect of the rage? May be they did or maybe they did not but unfortunately all of them fell prey of an unusual outbreak online.

If you deep dive into individual cases cited above, you will realize that all of them did take measures over time to build a brand for themselves - both online and offline. However, they could not emerge strong enough to sustain a sudden event which washed away their efforts. Creating an online reputation is important, but what's more important is defending it over time and especially during web turmoil.

Gather information about yourself

To avoid situations as cited above, it’s important that you look of content available online in your or your organization's name. Keep an eye on comments others have posted online mentioning you. Look out for their blog which might have content against you which may go viral someday.

Apart from a simple web search you may need to explore deeper running web pages for which you might have to look separately. e.g. Content from Social Networking websites, photo sharing sites etc.- might not pop up in search results.

Connect the dots

Once you have all the information from various sources, it’s time to connect the dots and have a look at the picture which has been painted online. It is that picture of yours which the world is looking at. Is it in line how you want them to see? If yes, Bingo! But in case not, it is time that you find out what's missing, what needs to added or deleted. This would ask for effort from your end to identify source of content generation and in acute case may be online reputation defender services.

Defend your online reputation

Once you have created the desirable online reputation profile, you will have to constantly monitor it as any outbreak of event can swing your profile the other way around. Keep on reinforcing the reputation you want to defend by talking more frequently about area of your expertise or the way you want to be perceived as an individual.

Think twice before you post anything on the web. Content once posted online is almost impossible to pull back even after you think you have deleted the source. Online reputation defender services only suppress the unwanted information from getting highlighted in search results. But the fact is, it still stays there, almost forever.

And at last but not the least we should always remember, in order to successfully sustain and defend a particular reputation you need to pay respect in your interaction with the web community. The online world is no different from offline world, the more respect you pay to other; the more you earn it for yourself. Also, always stay vigilant and agile towards what the internet has in store for you.

We are amongst Top Online Reputation Management companies in India. We provide a great deal of online reputation management services. http://www.areputation.co.uk