Social networking sites have recently become a focal point for individuals in the international reputation management industry. There has been a lot of excitement because social networking sites attract so much traffic, and therefore there exists a great opportunity for using social networking sites and profiles as tools in the international reputation management business.

Sounds easy enough, right? After all, there are more than a couple of social media sites to choose from. The question is, are they strong enough to be built up to the first page and maintain rank? Are they powerful enough to do what online reputation management (ORM) combined with search engine optimization (SEO) is often meant for, namely to keep a bad review, lawsuit filing, or anti-fan site off the first page where the majority of searchers get their first impressions?

The article linked below asks all the right questions regarding social media and international reputation management.

http://www.searchenginejournal.com/go-beyond-the-default-social-profile-strategy/16798/

There are a host of reasons why every company or individual should engage in online reputation strategies. The ability to control your brand, or reputation, is of incalculable importance. Angry customers, disgruntled employees, and competitors will often go online to disparage companies and individuals, but the damage can be contained–or prevented–by a decent campaign of reputation management. The article below lists four of the “damn good” reasons that every company should utilize online reputation services.

http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/16/43011.html

Reputations are important, especially to commercial enterprises. Even small businesses will often have several thousand dollars a year in order to earn a decent reputation in their community. Large companies, like Walmart, McDonalds, and Shell, spend millions of dollars per year proving that they are reputable companies who do good work. The Internet is quickly becoming the best way for companies to connect to customers, but it is also fraught with problems that do not exist in the real world. From within the anonymous confines of the web, dissatisfied customers, disgruntled former employees, and malicious pranksters can launch into tirades against certain businesses, services, individuals, or products, regardless of whether their claims have any truth to them whatsoever.

These anonymous attacks often get indexed by search engines and displayed in the search results of whatever company, individual, or product is being attacked. This can ruin their reputation with their customers, friends, or clients—through no fault of their own.

ReputationHAWK is a company that helps to decrease the effect of these online assailants by decreasing the importance of their negative comments in search engines. Their website is located at ReputationHawk.com, where you can look at how the company got started and learn all about the founder of the company, Chris Martin. The company is known for its highly effective strategy, whereby it displaces negative links and puts, in their stead, positive articles about the company or individual. This is the key to Reputation Hawk’s success, results. Their penchant for success has gotten them major media attention in TIME magazine, Businessweek, and ComputerWorld.

Companies spend months, sometimes years, building up decent reputations. However, all of that hard work and dedication can be virtually destroyed in a matter of hours by some blogger with an axe to grind. All he needs to do is put out some material on complaint boards and such and he can diminish your company’s reputation by making the search results reflect his complaints. Luckily, there are reputation management strategies that have been developed to put a stop to this.
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2006/03/online-reputation-monitoring-beginners.html

This article on Yahoo Finance is absolutely correct about many aspects of the business reputation management industry. However, it is incorrect to state that the reputation management industry is not effective–some businesses certainly are. Like all industries, though, some of the firms are more effective than others in actually doing their jobs.
http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/105009/Do-Reputation-Management-Services-Work

The industry of business reputation management just got a big sign of approval from the guys that everyone wants support from–Google. Their blog now boasts a post which explains how to personally manage your online reputation. This is likely due to increased pressure from people who want Google to remove certain listings.
http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2009/10/google-gives-a-thumbs-up-to-reputation-management.html

Prospective employers are looking at more than resumes these days–they’re also surfing the web. A new study by CareerBuilder shows that personal reputation management is more important than ever. While only 22% of employers used social networking sites to screen employers last year, that number has more than doubled this year–to 45%.
http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2035-Job-Info-and-Trends-More-Employers-Screening-Candidates-via-Social-Networking-Sites/?cbsid=4bf75f53d377447e9398a7d0121041b3-309373978-w0-6&sc_extcmp=JS_2035_home1&ArticleID=2035&SiteId=cbmsnhp42035&cbRecursionCnt=3&gt1=23000

The subject in this article is just one of many who has suffered from online libel. Unlike most others, she took matters into her own hands and hired an online reputation management firm to fix her online reputation. However, one has to be very careful about which firm you hire to defend your reputation!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/01/AR2007070101355.html

Social networking sites are not always condusive to making a good impression in the workplace. Employees, and prospective employees, have been finding this out the hard way over the past couple of years. Companies should be careful about social networking sites and how their employees use them, especially at work. Likewise, employees should be careful to groom their internet reputation.
http://blogs.bnet.co.uk/sterling-performance/2008/09/19/are-social-networking-sites-a-liability-at-work/

The easiest, and most effective, way to effect a change in your online profile is to start a blog. The two worst things to see when you Google yourself are 1.) A negative reputation or 2.) Nothing about you at all. Starting a blog can significantly raise your online profile and help with personal reputation management.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/business/Michelle-Rodger-The-quickest-way.5681781.jp