Monitor And Track What Is Being Said Online

You want to know what is being said about your brand. You should be aware that ordinary people influence how the general public views your brand. It is very easy for anyone to publish information on CGM sites such as blogs, podcasts, and opinion forums. You must monitor these online conversations. However, the size and complexity of the internet, coupled with the speed at which news travels, means that it is difficult to continuously monitor all that is being said.

To address this problem, you need an early warning system to alert you of all news relating to your brand, so you may remedy when needed. There are internet monitoring services available that do the work for you. Such monitoring systems not only inform you of news and information relating to your brand, but will also help you to gather market intelligence and assess developing trends.

Once a monitoring system is in place for your brand you should also track other information such as competing brands and organizations, industry terms, as well as general industry news.

Monitoring gives you immediate heads-up if adverse information is appearing. Monitoring is an essential and useful tactic for controlling adverse information within your search engine space. Unfortunately, monitoring by itself is not enough. By this stage, it is usually too late and damage has been done. The best outcomes occur if you pro-actively control your space and what people read about your brand. It is important to analyze your current space in order to take action to control it.

Analyze How The Visible Information Affects Your Brand, Your Reputation

Your search engine space is dynamic and constantly changing as new sites are added to the mix and as search engines alter their algorithms. You need to develop an understanding of your search engine environment and of your competition.

First of all, undertake an analysis of your search engine space. Look at the sites listed in search results for your brand. List the sites that offer positive information and those that are negative. Determine what types of sites they are - blog, forum, consumer review, etc. Assign a value to their quality – Page Rank, number of links, influence, etc. Determine which results you may want to move up or down the list. This will help you understand the scale of the work involved.

Analyze Your Online Assets. Your online assets are the sites that you have control over and that you can use to dominate the search engine rankings. These include:

  • Corporate Sites
  • Sister Sites and Micro-Sites (other sites from your organization)
  • Product Sites
  • Corporate Blogs
  • Employee Blogs
  • Partner Sites (supplier sites, recruitment sites)
  • Corporate Communications (press releases, articles)


Influence the Results by Participating in the Conversation and Eliminating Negative Sites

Influence online conversations by being actively involved in them. Your participation will give you the opportunity to improve the perception of your brand. Take an active part in your industry conversation by becoming a regular contributor to blogs and forums within your industry. Lead the conversation about your brand.

Sources of Potential Reputation Problems, Sources of Opportunity

  • Blogs, Forums, and Consumer Opinion Sites
  • Consumer Complaint Sites
  • Social Network Sites
  • Competitor Attacks
  • Trademark Infringement
  • Counterfeit Products
  • Counter-intelligence
  • Crisis Management Developments