Reputation management is, like it or not, a growing industry. It employs SEO tactics to try and control page one of the search engine, and for emerging personalities it’s almost a “must-have” service. But reputation management isn’t just about identifying the haters. Bloggers can use it for a variety of tasks, from analyzing competition to figuring out ways to grow your own site.
You’ll need to learn some SEO basics to pull it off effectively, but the more proactive you are about branding yourself and your ideas, the better your chances of growing.
Find New Topics
Reputation management can help you find new subjects to write about. Every great blogger has a set of blogs to follow in your industry that will help give you some inspiration, but what if you could tap into what your readers actually wanted to read about? Using services like Google Alerts (or just by conducting searches) you can have see new posts made about your niche in your mailbox. You’ll figure out what your competition is writing about, locate news stories as they break, and see what’s trending in your industry.
Meet Your Enemies
In the realm of Game of Thrones, friends and enemies change sides frequently and those who learn to survive close to their enemies often end up on top of the pile, real-life is no different. It’s why Sun-Tzu wrote that knowing your enemy was one of the best tactical advantages an army could have in battle. Knowing who they are, where they are commenting, which sources they draw inspiration from and who they talk to all help build your audience.
You also get to hear all the negative stuff people write about you. It is hard not to focus on the bad, but if you can learn from your mistakes the feedback was worth its weight in gold. Use social search tools like Twitter or Facebook to see what people are saying. Bing and Google also have social search tools that use the power of their search engines to mine for data in the social graph. You can also use the "Title" parameter to see which blogs post a particular keyword in the title of their blogs.
Competitive Research
You can also find out more about what your competition is doing to get an edge on you. Brand.com reviews a number of strategies, such as autocomplete review, that helps in branding. Tagging images for image search and establishing a Wikipedia presence are also important steps to take. Follow competitor social media accounts too, as you may find retweets from other sources that could be valuable to you. Competitive research is more than just discovering what they are doing, so put those tactics to work.
Create a Universal Bio
If you’re going to do guest posting, a universal bio with embedded links will save you time and help seed your expertise around the web. These small links are not highly rated for link juice, but in aggregate they can greatly increase the page rank of your site. More than links, they also brand you. Consistency is key in branding, so try not to personalize your bio for each site you write for.
Create a New Blog
If you’re a blogger, chances are you wouldn’t mind some extra love for your personal name. Your name is just as powerful a tool for your reputation as your blog. Starting an extra blog for yourself is a great idea for reputation management and blogging. You can include your professional blog in the blog roll, and blog about ideas you’re passionate for.
It does take work to create and manage a new blog, but even a weekly post about something you care about will help extend your reach across the Web.