Online reputation management requires serious work, and when an individual or a company is faced with a situation where their reputation is at stake, they seek a solution by reaching out to Google. They try and seek information about what is being said about them on the internet – either through keywords or catch phrases or articles or blogs and in order to counter the threat of adverse publicity, they create ‘good’ content for themselves on the internet or this boosts up their rankings just a shade higher. What they could also do is make use of the social networking site like LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is one of the largest used social media platforms in the world and USA alone there are over 107 million registered users. LinkedIn offers specialized tools that can be useful for users to boost up either their name or the name/brand of their product, service or even their corporate name and logo.
1. Leverage the benefits of keywords and key phrases
Keywords and key phrases are an essential part of the LinkedIn structure, and in order to extract their maximum value, one must use them just judiciously just like any online text. This goes to say that LinkedIn works just like a search engine and users can search the right profile of a person based on the keywords and key phrases that are used in the search.
Keywords and key phrases are linked to the profession or the service/ product offering of the company and so must be relevant and well thought out. In order to optimize their impact, it is recommended that keywords be used in those spots of the profile that are high impacting, namely:
– Headlines
– Company names
– Job titles
– Skills
2. Make use of tools to underline your awards and recognitions
LinkedIn provides a dedicated “Bio”section on its site where users can mention the awards, recognitions and titles that they have received during the course of their careers. This not only boosts their profiles but also highlights the facts that these individuals are good at what they are doing and have the capabilities to accomplish what they are committing.
In the eyes of the reader, such type of texts appear natural and not as a gimmick for quick publicity. Secondly, this makes the profiles and blogs more impactful. Users are however encouraged to be factual and not lie about their achievements as inaccurate information may invite unnecessary false profile penalties.
3. Make connections on LinkedIn with people whom you know
Although some would say that it is a good idea to connect with as many users of LinkedIn as is possible and build a good network of contacts that might be helpful later on when one is seeking a job change or an advancement in career, new research points in an opposite direction. Experts now say that building a network of connections who one does not know might be counter-productive when a user is seeking to improve his or her online reputation. In such an instance, the fallout is that the person might not accept the invitation or may write back a nasty or sarcastic response.
4. Join Groups based on your experiences or interests
This is an excellent way to network with individuals who share not only common backgrounds/ skill sets, but also have the same set of profiles and career objectives. The networking can lead to situations where individuals can help each other out by becoming connections. Joining groups also boosts online reputation as users can describe their experiences and skill sets based on specific keywords and key phrases, and this gives them credibility and authority in a group.
5. Start writing a blog
Blogging by either starting your blog or commenting on blogs of others are an excellent way to build your online reputation. Now LinkedIn offers a publishing platform with built- in tools where users can publish their blogs. The greatest advantage of publishing on LinkedIn is that the content gets shared very quickly. Users can also post the links of other blogs on LinkedIn or republish those articles or blogs on LinkedIn that were published elsewhere. The fallout of this platform is that users should avoid giving wrong or false information on the platform as that will lead to adverse publicity and might derail the process of online reputation management.
6.Always keep inventing yourself
Experts recommend that it is a good idea to make regular and possibly daily contributions to one’s LinkedIn account because this is a strategy that will pay off in the long run. Users should acquaint themselves with all the features of LinkedIn and the tools that are available and then use them effectively to their fullest advantage and to ward off any threat to the reputation of a person.