It’s priceless. And it’s yours. However . . .

The way people see you online is not all up to you. Your reputation is in the eye of your reader.

While you have some control over where you show up and how you position yourself, [trust me on this] you really want people to have an opinion about who you are and what you do. Hopefully, a good opinion, but even constructive criticism is welcome when it leads to a higher level of service. In fact, it’s essential.

But, so is being responsive. If people are out there talking about you and what you could do better, you better be there to run and go do it. Hiding out and being oblivious only serves to keep the counter-culture spreading. That’s why you have to listen, be vigilant and responsive.

And, it’s not just people you have to watch out for. Try this one on: search engines. This may be a no-brainer for some, but for others it’s a revelation.

To see what others had to say about online reputation management, I sent out this twitter update:

working on a blog post about managing online pr – reputation, any links, tips, ideas welcome

wiredprworks

Thanks to Dave Taylor [check out Dave’s blogs Ask Dave Taylor – Free Tech Support, Intuitive – Strategic Leadership for the 21st Century and Attachment Parenting] for sending this reply:

@wiredprworks my tip: give up the illusion of control and think about leading through cookie crumbs and rewards for good behavior.

DaveTaylor

Give up the illusion of control

Let’s talk about losing control. Because you don’t have it. Not anymore. There is absolutely no way you can close off commentary about anything. If people want to talk about it/you, they will. And, they’ll help you out like Dave helped me when I live-tweeted the wrong twitter ID for @skydiver. Or, when he checked in to question a stat a speaker quoted. You are your community and they are you. Got it?

Glenn Raines suggested that people read B.L. Ochman’s What’s Next blog, a suggestion I second.

Finally, someone asked that I let them know when I would launch a reputation management blog. Well, I don’t have any plans to do that, but I did enjoy rounding up this list and would like to explore the topic in more depth. What would you like to know about online reputation management?

12 Online PR, Search Engine, Social Media and Reputation Management Resources

1. MarketingProfs says trust is the most important measurement of all
2. Brendan Cooper tells you how to own your google page
3. Compare reputations of the 60 most visible companies using the Harris Reputation Quotient[sm]
4. Brands and Reputation says the answer about how to best measure reputation is this: use a measure of reputation that designed to best assess your reputation with the stakeholder in question.
5. Three fundamental concepts to master when dealing with search engine reputation management: Monitor, Optimize and Engage from Top Rank Blog.
6. Ducttape Marketing supplies an online reputation management toolbox.
7. Marketing Pilgrim suggests using the best web content to fill up the first page of Google results, including getting a website with your name and starting a blog.
8. Business Week answers the question: Do reputation management services work and how much do they cost?
9. Top Rank Blog’s online reputation pr seo guide suggests you buy “yourbrandsucks.com” before somebody else does and give guidance on how to monitor and listen to dissenters.
10. Marketing Pilgrim’s online reputation monitoring beginners’ guide includes helpful shortcuts for online reputation management.
11. Lifehacker offers tips on how to get the most search juice from your Flickr (photo sharing), YouTube (video sharing), Digg (social news), Wikipedia (collaborative encyclopedia), Facebook (community) and Twitter (micro-blogging) profiles.
12. Wired PR Works online reputation management category houses a collection of articles

What do you think?

How do you manage your online reputation? Do you have goals in place?