How to Monitor Your Online Reputation

If you own or run a business, keeping up to date with what people are saying about you online is crucial to your longevity and growth. There are a number of free services you can use to help streamline the tedious task of monitoring your online reputation; you can also search basic social media sites--such as Twitter--or use a general Google search to get an idea of what people are saying about your company.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Using Google

1
Open Google's search page. Google is the most commonly-used search engine; since most of your potential clients will likely be using Google to research their options, it doesn't hurt to know what information Google displays regarding you and your business. To navigate to Google, click the link provided.
- You can also access Google on any "smart" mobile device from any browser.
This should be in the middle of the screen.
You can include your business name, business services, and/or geographical location here.
4
Tap ↵ Enter or click the magnifying glass to search. This will bring up a list of results. If you see any information about your business on the first page of your Google search, you'll want to make sure it's accurate.
- Most people rarely go past the first page of a Google search; some numbers even suggest that less than ten percent advance past the first page.^{[1]XResearch source}
5
Review your search results. While the default setting on Google search includes all forms of media, you can tailor your search results by clicking one of the options directly beneath the search bar:
- Images
- Videos
- Apps
- Shopping
- Maps (located in the "More" menu)
- News (located in the "More" menu)
- Books (located in the "More" menu)
- Flights (located in the "More" menu)
6
Click the "Search Tools" button. This will replace the results counter--which is directly beneath the search options bar--with two clickable options:
- "Any time" - click this to change the history range of the results, from "Any time" (default) to "Past hour". You can also customize your range by clicking "Custom Range" at the bottom of this menu.
- "All results" - click this to change the search term restrictions to "Verbatim"; doing so will tighten your search to include only pages with your search terms in their titles.
7
Review your new search results. You have successfully used Google to view your reputation!
- Remember to look through the several pages of results. There may be a listing that is buried deep in the results that requires attention. To navigate to the next page, click "Next" (or one of the numbers) at the bottom of your search screen.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Using HowSociable

HowSociable measures how successful your company or brand is on different social media sites. To take advantage of HowSociable's services, you'll need to register a free account. Click the link provided to go to HowSociable's site.
Do this in the fields provided. You'll need to enter your password twice for verification purposes.
3
Open the email address you just entered. HowSociable will send you a confirmation email to ensure that you've entered a valid email address; to use your HowSociable account, you'll need to click a confirmation link inside the email.
- The email should be entitled something like "Confirmation instructions".
- If you can't find the email initially, check your Spam folder (and the "Updates" folder if you're using Gmail).
This will redirect you to HowSociable's "Brand Dashboard", from which you can set up your account.
5
Enter your brand/company name. Do this in the search field in the middle of the page.
- Proper spelling is very important here.
6
Click the green "Follow" button. This will upload your company's name to your Brand Dashboard. You should see a confirmation message at the top of the page that says "Brand Followed".
- You can add several brands to your dashboard; if you're in a competitive market, consider adding your competitors' brands to your page in order to compare their statistics to your own.
7
Click the green "Overview" button next to your brand's name. This button should be near the top of the page. Clicking it will take you to your brand's overview, where you'll be able to monitor the success of your business on several different sites.
- Default sites include YouTube, LinkedIn, Google Plus, Tumblr, and WordPress. The number next to a site's name corresponds to the frequency with which your company or brand is mentioned; the higher the number, the more successful you are on that site.
- These statistics should give you a general idea of which sites are responding well to your marketing and which ones need reinforcement.
- If you want to unlock the full extent of HowSociable's metrics, including Facebook, Twitter, and 34 other sites, you'll have to purchase a membership.
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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Monitoring Twitter

Open Twitter's website. Twitter has a feature which displays currently-trending articles and tweets about specific topics; entering your own search criteria will produce pertinent results. Click the link provided to go to Twitter.
2
Sign into your Twitter account.
- If you don't have a Twitter account, you can either create one, or you can use the search feature anonymously.
3
Click on the "Search Twitter" field to expand it. This should be in the top right corner of Twitter, to the left of your account picture and the "Tweet" option.
- If you're searching without an account, click the magnifying glass icon in the top left corner of Twitter's screen.
- For the Twitter mobile app, tap the magnifying glass icon in the top right corner of your screen.
Possible examples include your business name, business services, and/or geographical location.
5
Review your search results. You'll see the current trending results of your search by default, but you have other filtering options at the top of the search results:
- Live - displays only "live" format tweets and media. This can include news as well.
- Accounts - displays only user accounts with your search terms in their name or profile description.
- Photos - displays only photos with your search terms in their tags or descriptions.
- Videos - displays only videos with your search terms in their tags or descriptions.
- More options - prompts a drop-down menu with advanced filtering options such as whose tweets display (all users or followed users), which style of media is displayed, and an "Advanced Search" option.
6
Click "Advanced Search" if you want to narrow your search. This option is at the bottom of the "More options" tab on the search results toolbar. You can search for specific words, dates, people, and places.
- You can also filter out positive or negative comments, search for questions, and choose to include retweets from this menu.
This will refresh your search with your new criteria.
You have successfully used Twitter to monitor your reputation!
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Tips

There are instances where content regarding your business or brand is online but not indexed by the search engines; an example of this would be niche- or industry-related forums and communities.
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Most forums offer free memberships; depending on your industry, forums provide a useful way to reach active users.
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Remember that performing a cursory Google search is still a very effective method of seeing what people are saying about you online; potential customers or prospects will usually perform a similar search, so you will be able to see--and potentially address--what they're seeing.
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Warnings

Address negative reviews or mentions promptly. The longer a bad review sits online without any attempt at rectification, the worse it looks for your company and/or brand.
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Avoid confronting the poster or reviewer, since this could inflame things, making the issue worse.
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While you certainly can pay for a service, you're unlikely to see a huge difference in functionality between a paid service and a free one.
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