Reputation Management Starts With A Domain - AboutUs - by Mac ...

Don?t let your online reputation interfere with your offline persona.

The time to claim your web identity is now. Online reputation management cannot start soon enough. Purchase a YourFirstNameLastName.com or YourBusinessName.com domain, register relevant Facebook and Twitter accounts, and start filling those services with accurate information that you want to spread. Without a proper domain with your name in it and the relevant social accounts, reputation management may turn into reputation firefighting.

Reputation Management Fit for a President

Presidential candidate Ron Paul didn?t buy his namesake domain, RonPaul.com, and was forced into reputation management tailspin. Paul, a 2008 and 2012 contender, known for his staunch libertarian and anti-government standpoint, has filed a dispute with the UDRP, an agency of the United Nations, over the ownership of the www.RonPaul.com domain.

For reasons unexplained by the candidate or the owners of the RonPaul.com site, Ron paul did not register the domain RonPaul.com. Google searches for ?Ron Paul? bring up his official website, CampaignForLiberty.org first, and RonPaul.com in a close second, dividing his online reputation and clicks between two sites. Fans who enter in the candidate?s name followed by a ?.com? are directed to a fan page, not Paul?s official page.

Now, instead of focusing on his political and business endeavors, Ron Paul has now been thrown into a drawn-out reputation management debacle.

Create Your Online Reputation

Now that search results pull up hundreds of people with your exact same name, your name doesn?t hold much cachet in and of itself. Sure, people can search for your name or your company, but a casual user will opt for the ?BobSmith.Com? over ?ArchitectsLosAngeles.com? when searching for Bob Smith, an architect.

Claiming your domain name is like taking ownership of your own name. Brands with the proper domain name have one less hoop to jump through when connecting with users. A domain using your real name takes no explanation; users searching for a site with an unnatural domain will have to pass through an extra layer of confusion to find your web presence.

Claim Your Identity By Claiming Your Domain

Filling search results with accurately-labeled information also has the upside of pushing any unflattering web results below the fold. That embarrassing blog from high school that you forgot the password to, but still mysteriously appears at the top of the results for your name? You can begin to get rid of that by gaining control of internet content under your real name domain.

Claiming your online identity also means clearing up the spread of misinformation in the future. Many online directories draw their information from just a few sources, with no human double-checking. Spreading correct information is important not just for human eyes, but for the digital sources that aggregate your information.

Even your name isn?t the unique calling card it used to be in the pre-Internet days. Now you must struggle to differentiate yourself from the unexpected other Mac Pogues, or Channing Kennedys, in search results.

Stake Your Claim

For personal identities, services like Flavors.Me allow a quick aggregation of your most important social media accounts and information about your identity. The company offers simple, attractive homepages designed to lead people to the information they need fast. Claiming Google authorship through Google Plus adds another layer to Google results for your name and can push your identity over the edge into that coveted saturation level.

For brands, claiming your identity through Google?s Places and Plus pages helps maintain your identity across the search mammoth. Adding information to these listings will help place your brand or business in the numerous areas of Google?s search returns.

Start Today

Your online identity requires your input. Defending your web persona means playing a good offense; throw information out into the void early and often.

Have you had trouble claiming a domain or your identity online? Let us know in the comments.

Source: http://www.aboutus.com/online-reputation-management-domain/

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