How’s your company’s online reputation? Spending a bit of quality time checking up on your company on the internet is a solid investment. Here are a few suggestions on ways to do just that.
Beyond Googling yourself or your company, set up a Google Alert that tracks your company, products, or topics you want to stay on top of. It’s an easy way to know who’s talking about you or to stay on top of current issues. For me, the benefit of daily photographs of fitness model Greg Plitt is also a nice bonus...
Google has developed Google Profile to help you rise to the top of the heap when your name is Googled. For someone with an unfortunate name like “Mary Smith”, a Google profile might help that poor, common individual separate from the pack a bit…(I’ll let you know how that goes).
You can also use different free applications to keep on top of what’s being said about your company. I recently downloaded a new application called SocialSeek which allows you to search for your company, brand or specific topic across blogs, Twitter, Flickr, and the rest of the internet.
SocialSeek describes it as “tracking the chatter”; I entered “seafood” in “Chicago” and voila - there was my own Twitter post from earlier in the day, some talk about “End of The Line”, and at least four prospective customers! I passed those customer ideas along to our Sales Manager then hopped on Twitter and added a few new people to follow (in hopes that they would soon be following me). A productive 15 minutes!
Which types of readily available free applications or tools are you using to add a new dimension to your marketing or sales strategy? Let us know what’s working, or what’s just a waste of time.
