Reputation is everything!

Who would have thought that the internet would come to this? Your reputation can be made or broken by a few words on a social network or article about your business. Yes, it's true! Companies now take steps to manage their reputation online to assure that the positive outweighs the negative.

Update: The most recent faux pas by JC Penny where the innocuous tea kettle resembles Hitler is just one example of a reputation management nightmare.  This on top of their already stumbling perception.

Take the last "gaff" by BP - do you think they will be worried about how the world perceives them? You bet! And one way they will manage those thoughts will be to have a positive online campaign highlighting all the good things about their company.

Have you seen this  ad from Toyota? You can see how this is part of their grand scheme of managing their company reputation in light of the Prius problems. The really drives home the safe for your family while adding a catchy beat and rap.

Okay so what can you do to manage your online reputation? Here are a few ideas:

1. Post customer comments on your site and make it easy to see them.
2. Have an online "newsroom" for press releases and positive media attention.
3. Write up "case studies" of projects that had positive outcomes and post those on the site, make available for pdf download
4. Re-write the case studies as "how to" articles to post on article websites.
5. Use social media to broadcast your press releases, case studies and articles.

Need more ideas or a little help? Contact me, I'm happy to help :)

Tag! You're It!

I've been working on completing my certification for Google Analytics and I've been getting a good refresher on some of the finer points that really help bring your website activity to life. Today I want to share (or remind) you about tagging!

Whenever you are running a pay per click or email campaign, even when you are just linking from referral sources, use a tagged link! By taking the time to tag your link the analytics program can show you exactly which traffic came from email, or the paid ad, or the specific referral site.

Tagged links can be built to show not only the source (website, email etc) they can show which keyword was used, which product was clicked, and which specific content was used (ad version 1 or ad version 2 etc.).

Once the link is tagged, you can check your web analytics program to discover exactly which sources are performing best. You can also drill down on those sources and discover which yielded the best qualified visitors to your site. Which source yielded the highest page views, time on site ect.

Sure it takes a bit of extra time to get this done but the results are really worth the effort if you want to get the most of your advertising dollars.

Need help tagging and tracking links / ads for your site? Give me a call or email.