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How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

How do you bring a vision to life?  Michael Fertik talks innovation and entrepreneurship at the 2012 Blouin Leadership Summit.

Mary Margaret Fletcher had a flutter of worry recently. She’s getting married next spring, and plans to change her last name to her husband’s. But one day it dawned on her: “I was like, ‘wait,’” she said. “My last name is in my email address.’“

Fletcher, an archivist who lives in Vermont, is one of the roughly 80 percent of brides expected to drop her maiden name upon marriage. That decision has always been a mix of the personal and the practical. It requires a lot of legwork, including interaction with multiple federal agencies and a trip to the dreaded DMV. But it also forces women to think about how they’ll be perceived with a new name and, at some level, a new identity.

The proliferation of online profiles and the growing demand for digital presence has managed to complicate both aspects. 

The practicalities
 Fletcher's Gmail problem has an easy-enough solution. Gmail lets a user update a profile name, but not the actual email address. To do that, newlyweds have to use a workaround in which they create a new account with their new surnames, and then use a feature actually meant to combine work and personal accounts to merge the two addresses. That can take a lot of time to accomplish, and up to seven days to go into effect. 

And that’s assuming the address is available. Lore has it that the competition for a reasonable married email name has become so cut-throat that some girlfriends are reserving an address with their boyfriends’ last names, just in case he pops the question.

For this story, I emailed a particularly digitally-engaged new bride I know, a social-media professional. First I received an auto-reply telling me to update my online address book. Then, I got a frantic list from her of other sites she’s wrangling with post-wedding: “Custom URLs, man,” she wrote. “Most social platforms were easy. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram let me change my URL and name, no problem. It's Pinterest that's trouble. Also, Etsy. Apparently you can't change your Etsy username… unless I want to start a new profile and lose all my purchase data.”

These things aren’t huge, of course. But they can add to existing hesitation that comes along with changing your name and, in some ways, how people perceive you. “I did think about how much of a pain it would be to change my email address and my Twitter and that kind of stuff,” Ashley Rayner, a librarian from Chicago who kept her own name when she got married last year, told me. “I know it’s small, but, ugh, it’s just another thing.”

Making a name
 Studies on the culture of brides’ decisions about their last names have always shown that women with more public careers are more likely to be “keepers.” The 2004 Harvard study Making a Name found that a major jump in women keeping their maiden names in the 1970s coincided the emergence of second-wave feminism and a growing set of women who worked. “Women began to ‘make a name’ for themselves,” the study’s authors write, “and more often insisted upon retaining their name at marriage.”

Today, not only are more and more women obtaining higher degrees and becoming an influential part of the workforce, they’re also getting married later, and have an even larger digital footprint to consider. In the digital age, it’s not just the journalists and published authors out there who are considering their "bylines." Social media and the ever-growing, searchable self have opened up public personalities for nearly everyone, particularly young professionals.

Michael Fertik, the founder of the digital personality management site ReputationDefender, calls this “digital equity,” and he finds a lot of clients who seek his company’s services are worried about it. Largely, they are professional women. “It is certainly a community who are reluctant to give up all the equity they’ve built up in their careers, in their names, and so forth,” Fertik said.

The company has set up services to help women make the digital transition when they decide they want to drop their maiden names, or when they divorce and want to switch back. He says there’s a lot more panic around the process than there needs to be. “If a consideration is your digital findability, I think you can certainly solve this with a high degree of accuracy if you give it just a little bit of effort,” Fertik said. “I don’t think you’re going to lose all the equity.”

Have it your way. 
Angel Brownawell is getting married next June. She plans on keeping her surname on her online accounts but changing it legally to match her husband’s. Her decision is prompted by a combination of factors — a feminist attitude, wanting to be a good digital role model for the people she advises in her public relations job in Washington, DC, and the practicalities of trying to come up with a whole new set of usernames — that are driving her to split her identity in two. “I’m still trying to figure out if that will work,” she told me in an email.

Brownawell’s approach may well become more common. After all, in the digital world, names are malleable. If you want, you can be one person on Instagram, another on Facebook, and someone totally different on the books at the Social Security Administration. It’s possible that this flexibility could be an advantage for women who want to define their professional selves outside of the private world of marriage and the family.

Rita J. Shea-Van Fossen, who co-authored a 2009 study called The Bride Is Keeping Her Name that looked at how social factors influence a woman’s decision, thinks that's the case.

“We talk about men compartmentalizing their lives — home versus work, and having separate spheres,” Shea-Van Fossen told me. "I think for women it’s almost easier to do that now because we can use the multiple names depending on where it happens — kids at home and school versus [work].”

In the history of name-changing, these are new possibilities, and they're taking the opportunity to experiment a bit. “Where in a lot of realms the legal status forced you to choose one from the get-go,” Shea-Van Fossen said, “now, we can say ‘oh let me keep both for a little bit’ and then make a decision.”

Original article: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/10/first-comes-love-then-comes-marriage-then-comes-a-new-gmail-address/280169/

Most businesses focus on the day-to-day – inventory, staff issues, product development, customer service, training.  But reputational risk is the strike that can put a company down for the count. And in today’s interconnected world, reputational assessment – and therefore risk – begins online.

Statistics bear this out:

• Nearly half of UK SMEs (46%) think social media reputational risk is increasing, while only 5% say it’s decreasing (Economist Intelligence Unit).
• 89% of Internet users don’t go past the first page of search results. (AOL, 2010)
• 78% of Americans believe it’s very important to look up information about people or businesses online before interacting with them, while nearly three-quarters (74%) would refuse to interact or do business with a person or a company if they found negative information about them online. (Harris Interactive, 2010)

In short, people are actively researching online, though not very extensively, and trusting what they find.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are, by far, the most vulnerable to reputational risk. In 2012, there were 4.8 million SMEs in the UK but research from BaseKit has found that a staggering 60% have no online presence at all. If these businesses have no website, it’s fair to conclude that they’re probably not paying attention to what’s being said about them online – from review sites to blogs to social media.  And unfortunately, no news is often bad news: since people have come to expect information at their fingertips, an absence of results raises eyebrows.

Unlike their smaller counterparts, large enterprises — though more attractive targets for media and angry customers — also have a deep well of resources to draw upon in times of crisis, making it possible to hire costly crisis management experts, PR firms, solicitors, etc. SMEs don’t have that luxury; a tiny shop depends on the kindness and loyalty of its customers so one disgruntled individual’s review can deliver a body blow to an otherwise well-regarded company. Times continue to be tough for UKcompanies and more than 230,000 businesses failed in 2011 alone. That’s why awareness and responsiveness are the twin tactics that can help close the chinks in an SME’s armor. 

If knowledge confers power, then setting up Google Alerts or using services like Newsle and Mention.net are very simple, preliminary steps to understanding current perceptions about a company. Regularly monitoring popular review sites is key – as is responding to issues raised in a timely, professional and courteous fashion. Asking customers to review you online, with accuracy and without incentive, is also vital to building an online reputation that matches a company’s offline presence.

Even in a digital era, we can draw upon wisdom from the classics. Think Socrates: “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear.” 

That means a solid reputation will follow when an SME does well by its customers, takes their feedback (online and offline) to heart, makes changes for the better and acts with good intent always. 

Original article: http://www.management-thinking.org/content/punch-you-don%E2%80%99t-see-coming#ixzz2gh5VH0lC

Mobile phones, tablets, e-readers and laptops put the internet at the tips of our fingers nearly every second of every day. This constant access makes it simple to add things to our online profiles without much thought. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other websites are full of pieces of your life, but how do those pieces reflect on you?

Potential employers don't make hiring choices based just on your interview skills. Chances are, they've already formed an opinion on you before you meet face-to-face, based on what they've seen on your online professional profile.

According to Polly Morton Wood, director of special projects at ReputationDefender, companies often conduct internet searches on potential employees, and what they find makes quite an impact.

"Recent research shows that 33 percent of people click on the first organic Google search result, 18 percent click on the second, and by the time you get to the tenth result, just 2.4 percent of people are looking," said Wood. "So if a hiring manager or a recruiter doesn't see something impressive in the first few search results, that's a risk for you and it results in missed opportunities."

Search your name

Wood suggests you search your name to find out what they'll see. "Self-audits are step number one. Search yourself on the major search engines (Google, Bing and Yahoo, at least) and don't forget to do a second search for images. An unflattering photo can be the visual that torpedoes your chances. Take note of what you find and start thinking about what you'd like to find," she said.

Put a professional spin on your profile

Your social networking accounts are probably used for socializing, but put a professional spin on them to make sure potential employers know you're serious about your career. "Start new Facebook and Twitter accounts — all with a professional focus. You want people to find these profiles and check out all your sharp insights on industry topics, right?" Wood asked. "Create a profile on resume.com and similar sites, which tend to rank well in search results."

Network online

Believe it or not, the internet is more than just your social playground. Use it to your advantage by spending time on sites that make an impact. "LinkedIn is a great social site for professionals," said Wood. "Make sure your LinkedIn profile looks amazing — fully fleshed out, crisp descriptions, compelling recommendations from former colleagues, managers and mentors. But use it to expand your network too."

It's not just you companies see when they look at your profile. "Remember, companies are hiring you, but your digital Rolodex can be a great selling point," she added.

Pick the perfect pose

Heather Taylor, social media manager for MyCorporation.com, says your profile picture has the ability to impress. "I recommend keeping your profile picture or avatar as updated as possible, especially if you attach your full name to these profiles. Companies looking for you will be checking out your skills, experience and endorsements, but they'll also be curious about what you look like," she said. "You can go for a slightly more casual photo on sites like Pinterest or Tumblr and use a head shot on LinkedIn or your own portfolio site. Avoid using avatars that aren't you on the professional sites especially — your LinkedIn profile picture shouldn't be of a model from a fashion editorial."

Take charge of your ZoomInfo profile

ZoomInfo is a site that automatically collects data about people online from different sources on the internet, and many employers check ZoomInfo to find information about candidates. Cheryl Palmer, president of Call to Career, says utilizing this site is key in controlling your online profile.

"Sometimes there will be erroneous information on ZoomInfo under your name because the site confused you with someone else with the same name. Also, there may be information that is omitted about you that should be included," said Palmer. "You can go to ZoomInfo for free and claim your name and correct any mistakes there may be. You can also post your picture to your profile if you choose to."

Post carefully

It's no secret that nothing is really private where the internet is concerned. Be careful what you post to any site, because once it's there, you can't take it back.

"Remember that anything you post online has the potential to be seen. So be wary, regardless of your privacy settings," said Jennifer Barbee, CEO of Jennifer Barbee Inc. "Always act as though what you publish on the internet will be seen by everyone, because it could be! It's always better to be safe than sorry, because internet infamy lives forever."

Barbee recommends carefully examining your online profiles and taking action to make sure they reflect positively upon you. "If there's something inappropriate or inaccurate about you online, take steps to have it removed. If it's a legal or defamatory issue, contact Google and/or the other search engines to see if it warrants removal. If it's a negative comment, photo or video that's inappropriate or something else that's just unflattering, contact the poster and see if you can find a mutual resolution."

Original article: http://www.sheknows.com/living/articles/1014221/how-to-manage-your-online-professional-profile

If Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google can do it, why can’t you?  A website is planning to help you profit off your personal details.

Those seemingly ‘free’ services, like email and social networking, are funded (and then some) by information like your birthdate, location, what you search for and buy, and insights to your online behavior.“It looks like based on the research that they will be willing to pay who fits in that category of descriptors $200 in discount or maybe even in cash to come in and do a test drive.”

"We only have a vague idea at best as to what amount of data's being used, sold, shared without our knowledge or consent for whom, by whom, and for what purpose."

That's what ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik wants to change.

“You can choose either at that moment or by theme — like I like cars, airlines — whether your data are going to be shared, and you know exactly what you’re getting in return,” like discounts at retailers, or special deals at a new car lot.

“It looks like based on the research that they will be willing to pay who fits in that category of descriptors $200 in discount or maybe even in cash to come in and do a test drive.”

All because, Fertik says, you fit the profile of a customer that seller wants, and you’re doing a lot of their leg work by volunteering your details.

It has become the Internet’s defining business model: free online services make their money by feeding on all the personal data generated by their users. Think Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn, and how they serve targeted ads based on your preferences and interests, or make deals to share collected data with other companies (see “What Facebook Knows”).

Before the end of this year, Web users should be able to take a more active role in monetizing their personal data. Michael Fertik, cofounder and CEO of startup ReputationDefender, says his company will launch a feature that lets users share certain personal information with other companies in return for discounts or other perks. Allowing airlines access to information about your income, for example, might lead to offers of loyalty points or an upgrade on your next flight.

The idea that individuals might personally take charge of extracting value from their own data has been discussed for years, with Fertik a leading voice, but it hasn’t yet been put to the test. Proponents say it makes sense to empower users this way because details of what information is collected, how it is used, and what it is worth are unjustly murky, even if the general terms of the relationship with data-supported companies such as Facebook is clear.

“The basic business model of the Internet today is that we’re going to take your data without your knowledge and permission and give it to people that you can’t identify for purposes you’ll never know,” says Fertik.

Fertik says he has spoken with a range of large companies and their marketers who are interested in his impending “consumer data vault,” as the new feature is called. He won’t yet give specifics about what data people will be able to trade, or what for, but he did tell MIT Technology Review that major airlines like the idea. “All of the airlines we talked to would like to be able to extend provisional platinum status to certain types of fliers to get some kind of loyalty,” he says. “It’s very hard for airlines to gain a sense of who is worth [it] today.”

ReputationDefender was founded in 2006 and has received $67 million in investment funding. It currently offers products that help individuals and companies find information about themselves on the Internet and in various proprietary databases. For a fee, the company will also try to remove records or information, a service enabled in part by deals that Fertik has struck with some data-holding companies.

Fertik says those existing products, which have around one million users, mean that many people already have data in ReputationDefender’s service that they could trade with other companies in return for special offers. That data can include home and family addresses, buying habits, professional histories, and salary and income information.

ReputationDefender has far fewer users than Facebook, of course, but Fertik says the data people have given his company can be more valuable to marketers than clicks on a like button. ReputationDefender has also filed patents on data-mining techniques intended to identify valuable insights in people’s data vaults.

Peter Fader, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, who specializes in the use of data analysis to help marketing, is skeptical that ReputationDefender’s approach offers enough to tempt either consumers or companies.

“Despite the ways that companies delude themselves, demographics and other personal descriptors are rarely useful,” he says. Data that captures customer behavior is much more important, says Fader, and many companies already have plenty of that flowing in from the various ways they interact with customers.

As for consumers, Fader predicts that, even as companies like Facebook expand how they share and leverage information gathered from users, relatively few will be motivated to actively manage and trade a portfolio of their own data. “The effort required to manage your personal data will be seen as greater than the benefits that arise from doing so,” he says.

Shane Green, CEO and cofounder of startup Personal, which provides a website and apps for people to store personal data, disagrees. His company currently has less than a million users, and he says the growing prominence of privacy issues in the media shows that many people do care about what happens to their data.

Green once spoke of launching a service similar to the one planned by ReputationDefender but now has different plans. Still, he says that Fertik’s vision makes sense. “I think there will actually be a lot of those marketplaces,” he says. “Marketing will shift toward more permission-based opportunities.”

Green cites the date that a person’s car lease expires as an example of a piece of personal data with an established value that people control themselves. “There’ll only be one car company that knows that,” he says. “But companies will pay hundreds of dollars, if you are seriously going to buy a car, to incent you to do that.”

Personal, based in Washington, D.C., and founded in 2009, has raised $15.7 million in investments and debt financing. The site currently focuses on helping people collate and reuse data—for example, for completing applications for college and loans.

Green says that he intends to develop infrastructure so people can selectively share data with another company, perhaps in return for discounts or other benefits. Similar to how a person might use a Facebook or Google account to log into a website, he might use a Personal account to connect with a company. He could then control exactly what data that company could access, and for how long. An early iteration of this idea can be seen on the website Car and Driver, where its already possible to log in with a Personal account. Doing so leads to a permissions screen where the site requests access to details including the make, model, and year of a person’s vehicle. “[Data] marketplaces are going to be incredibly valuable, but we’re focused on portability,” says Green.

Original article by Tom Simonite, MIT Technology Review: http://bit.ly/15trLDC2

In Mashable: http://on.mash.to/1679084/

http://bit.ly/15trLDC 

http://bit.ly/15trLDC

Many people rely on websites like RateMDs or Vitals when looking for a new doctor or specialist. However, while online reviews can be useful, they tend to skew negative (which is true for reviews of businesses or professionals more than for restaurants or books). And people take these ratings to heart – about 70 percent of people said they would not use a business or person if they found negative reviews about them, according to a survey by Harris Interactive for Intelius.

Michael Fertik, founder and CEO of ReputationDefender, offers the following tips for assessing physician reviews.

Look for truth in numbers

“A complete picture doesn’t come out unless you have a lot of reviews over an extended period of time,” Fertik said. The more reviews, the better. It’s tough to know whether one unhappy – or happy – patient truly represents a doctor’s capabilities and personality. The doctor, or staff, could have had a bad day, or perhaps the reviewer was just a difficult patient. Look for physicians who are discussed frequently—they are usually more liked. If you only see a few reviews, try other review sites or just don’t put too much stock in the reviews you do see.

Consider what matters to you

Look at the content in the reviews. Is a doctor getting only three stars because the patient had to wait 45 minutes, or the receptionist was rude? Or was the patient misdiagnosed? Did the doctor have poor bedside manner? Think about how important each of these factors is to you. If you need surgery, you may be more concerned with the surgeon’s operating room skills than his or her bedside manner.

Who is the reviewer reviewing?

Doctors often get blamed for others in their practice—the receptionist, the nurses and even other doctors. A reviewer might dislike one doctor, but then go on to generalize about the entire practice in his or her review. When you read online reviews, make sure you are clear on what caused the reviewer's bad experience.

Don’t just count stars

Many people rate doctors using the one-to-five star rating system provided by some websites, without leaving any comments.  Look for actual comments to gain a better understanding of what was behind a reviewer’s scoring—and what he or she liked and disliked about the doctor.

Look out for venting

The Internet provides a place to vent anger publicly. But when someone is angry, they may provide a very skewed and intentionally damaging review. Try to pick up on a commenter’s tone, said Fertik.

“Does the person sound reasonable and balanced or do they seem like they have an axe to grind?” he said.  It’s not that you should disregard the comment, but you should definitely get other opinions. Remember that doctors are not infallible, and people do have complications from procedures,regardless of the doctor's skill level.

Look for alternative recommendations

Reach out to your “friends” on Facebook or on community website forums to get referrals from people you know. But the same rules still apply—the more reviews the better and watch out for venting.

Help the M.D.s you love

Since most reviews skew towards the negative, help your doctor out by posting a positive one.

Laurie Tarkan is an award-winning health journalist whose work appears in the New York Times, among other national magazines and websites. She has authored several health books, including "Perfect Hormone Balance for Fertility." Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

Original article

Despite tech savvy customer data collection techniques like using zip codes tied to credit card information to figure out where shoppers live, mailing lists are still among companies’ most effective marketing tactics.

And, for the most part, consumers hate being on them because it typically results in piles of unwanted catalogs and other junk mail.

But rejoice, salvation has come in the form of the free PaperKarma app, acquired by online reputation management company ReputationDefender last month. The app, which Apple named as one of the best in 2012 for “disruptive services,” along with Uber and Airbnb, allows users to snap a photo of unwanted pieces of mail with their iPhones and Androids, and unsubscribes them typically within 72 hours. (Anthropologie catalogs and the Costco Connection are two examples shown in the app’s tutorial.)

ReputationDefender’s Chief Executive Officer Michael Fertik said last month that each U.S. household gets about 850 pieces of unwanted mail each year. Of more than 100 billion pieces of mail, 44% goes to landfills unopened, he said in a statement.

PaperKarma has blocked “millions” of pieces of mail by now, Fertik said in a telephone interview with Buzzfeed today.

The app isn’t looking to “nuke” all mail, he said. “People end up wanting to use it not only to exclude certain things but to include certain things. It becomes a kind of preference engine for them,” he said.

Indeed, even while online shopping and e-marketing increase, catalogs and other pieces of direct mail like coupons remain a powerful sales driver for retailers from Victoria’s Secret to Williams-Sonoma. Patrick Connolly, Williams-Sonoma’s Chief Marketing Officer, noted in May that sales per catalogs are “much higher than virtually anything anyone can do in terms of e-marketing.”

Even Tilly’s, the West Coast lifestyle retailer with a core market of 14- to 24-year olds, talked with analysts and investors that same month about the significant growth of its address book and how its catalog is a “very successful tool in driving traffic to the brand.”

Still, it can be frustrating for shoppers buying a gift off a Crate & Barrel wedding registry only to end up with a catalog subscription that’s useless to them.

The Direct Marketing Association also offers a service called DMAChoice where consumers can sign up to opt out of certain mailings by category, such as credit offers and catalogs. The organization says that direct mail, however, is “critical to the economic well-being of communities, businesses and charities,” representing more than $680 billion in sales last year.

Another service, Catalog Choice, also takes on unwanted mail, though it’s a subscription model that costs $35 a year. The DMA service and PaperKarma are free.

It’s not uncommon for local merchants to go to the extreme to make a great first impression when customers arrive at their businesses — designing custom signage and selecting window displays with the utmost care — without giving a second thought to the first thing potential customers see when they search for their companies online.

By failing to protect their online reputations, small businesses are missing a huge opportunity. Thirty-seven percent of consumers now use the Internet to find local businesses at least one time per month, and 85% read online reviews when deciding where to spend their money locally, according to a 2013 survey by BrightLocal. Here are nine strategies that merchants can use to protect their reputations and make a great first impression on the web.

1. Get a website — seriously. “Surprisingly, more than half of U.S. small businesses and 60% of U.K. small businesses don’t have a website — but 85% of consumers use the Internet to try and find you. It doesn’t have to be daunting; there are plenty of free and low-cost templates to make web design virtually do-it-yourself. You will have to maintain it and keep it current.” (Leslie Hobbs, ReputationDefender)

2. Focus on what makes you unique. “Sites should clearly display both the basic information about your business (phone number, address, hours of operation, etc.), what makes your business unique (certifications, years of experience, etc.), and any special offers or discounts that might be attractive to customers. Examples of your work and customer testimonials are great things to include, as well. And of course, keep it updated. Nothing worse than showing offers that are expired, services that you don’t offer anymore, or out of date addresses or phone numbers.” (Brooks McMahon, Marchex)

3. Set up online assets that you control. “When a business doesn’t have a strong online presence, any negative customer review or online complaint takes center stage. Having a company website is the first step, followed by creating additional web assets that will link to your main site. There are a variety of free and paid assets where you can list your business, such as Gravatar, LookupPage, about.me and others. Good online reputations consist of a selection of online assets (websites, social media profiles, etc.) that you control and promote in Google’s search results. When you control the first page of Google’s search results, it is much less likely that unwanted information will appear about your company. (Josh Brajtman, Veribo)

4. Claim your profiles. “Claim your profiles on review sites like Google+ Local, Yahoo Local, CitySearch, InsiderPages, YellowPages, MerchantCircle, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, and UrbanSpoon. Claim or create a local business profile on Facebook — ratings and comments on local Facebook pages are becoming more popular. Claiming these sites allows you to respond to online reviews publicly. If you haven’t claimed a profile, then you can’t respond to try to resolve an issue or thank somebody for their feedback. Thanking somebody for their feedback goes a long way, to the person who wrote the review and the potential customers reading the reviews.” (Lee McNiel, ReviewPush)

5. Ask for online reviews. “Today’s consumer is empowered with the tools of the Internet and search. They are skeptical about what they read and turn to their peers for information. Use communication channels to encourage customers to share their positive experiences or opinions. Of course, you can’t control what people say about you, and negative reviews are bound to pop up. The biggest mistake would be ignoring these. Show that you are attentive to consumer grievances by publicly responding to negative reviews, owning up to your mistakes, or gently disproving false accusations. When you take a proactive stance to respond to customer feedback — both good and bad — you show that you are listening and establish trust and respect from present and future customers.” (Nathan Labenz, Stik)

6. No news is not good news. “Companies sometimes assume ‘no news is good news’ — that if their search results yield nothing, that’s OK. But, it’s a huge missed opportunity. The world is digital and consumers expect to find you online. When they can’t, it raises eyebrows and causes them to wonder why you’re not there.” (Leslie Hobbs, ReputationDefender)

7. Respond to challenging comments. “A single bad review can cost a car dealership up to 30 potential buyers visiting their lot each month. By managing their online reputation they are not only maximizing their visibility, but they are monitoring both the ‘pre-purchase’ (those looking at reviews before they decide which dealership to visit) and ‘post-purchase’ (those posting their experiences after the sale decision) cycle of local car shoppers. DealerRater is the most important site for car dealers. I recommend, despite some people’s misgivings, that owners monitor and respond to challenging comments by posting an attempt to apologize for and correct any perceived poor experiences.” (Brent Cushman, Chatmeter)

8. Weigh the pros and cons of automated response services. “There are pros and cons for services that reply to reviews on your behalf. They’ll stay on top of your reviews and may be able to respond to them in a more levelheaded way. But, consumers can sometimes sniff out these canned responses and it defeats the purpose of responding. Businesses need a tool to monitor all of their reviews regardless of whether they are posted on a review site, a personal blog, or Facebook (especially with Graph Search getting wider distribution). Business owners are busy running their business, so using a tool to monitor reviews can be a more cost-effective and time-effective solution.” (Emad Fanous, YellowBot)

9. Turn your employees into brand ambassadors. “Every person in connection to your company is also a potential spokesperson. One of the biggest mistakes a business can make is focusing all of its attention on gaining outside media and forgetting about internal forces. Give your employees something to promote, such as photos for sharing or hashtag conversations to join. Since you cannot control what people do on social media, the most important step is to make sure your employees are happy and love their jobs. If you treat your employees right, their support and loyalty will follow. This is especially important for businesses in hyperlocal markets, where your employees may very well be directly connected to your customers.” (Nathan Labenz, Stik)

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Stephanie Miles is an associate editor at Street Fight.

Original article: http://streetfightmag.com/2013/07/23/9-strategies-merchants-can-use-to-protect-their-reputations-online/