“Reputation is only a candle, of wavering and uncertain flame, and easily blown out, but it is the light by which the world looks for and finds merit.” ~ James Russell Lowell

Online reputation management is a hot topic these days.  While it affects individuals of every profession and companies of all sizes and industries, direct selling companies and distributors face some unique challenges, as I describe in my latest article for Networking Times, Keep It Clean: Twelve Steps to Protect Your Reputation Online.

For one thing, the problem is universal in the direct selling industry. 88% of the DSA Global 100 have negative results on page one of Google for a search for their company name.  Over 75% have one or more negative words (“scam”, “pyramid scheme”, “lawsuit”, “complaints”, etc.) in Google’s instant search suggestions:

Now, it’s not that other companies and other industries don’t have that negative content out there — Google any telecommunication or utility company plus “complaint” and you’ll be stunned.  Look at just the Pissed Consumer page for Verizon:

It’s not that the negative isn’t there for them — it’s just not showing up on the first page of Google.

So what’s the difference?  It’s simple: a) these companies put out massive amounts of content, and b) mainstream media tends to ignore the direct selling industry except when there’s a huge (and probably negative) story.

Another challenge direct selling companies face is what we call “brandjackers” — professional internet marketers who create content targeting company names for SEO, often in conjunction with “scam”. They promise an independent review, and sometimes they’re even positive, but their ulterior motive is to sell something of their own:  leads, marketing tools, their educational product, or perhaps a competing opportunity.

Finally, you have to deal with the fact that the field is competing with the company. It’s certainly preferable to have distributors ranking ahead of competitors or negative sites, but it can be very frustrating when a distributor has their (probably unauthorized) version of your opportunity video ranking ahead of the official one, both on Google and on YouTube.

Are you or your company experiencing these yourself?  Want to know what to do about it?

1. Check out 12 Steps to Protect Your Reputation Online for an overview of the process.
2. Subscribe to my blog. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be expanding on each of those 12 steps as individual blog posts, including specific tips and resources.
3. If you need help now, check out Momentum Factor’s Online Reputation Management services and let’s see what we can do. You can also contact me directly and I’ll be happy to help.

]]> https://scottsocialmediaallen.com/online-reputation-management-presents-unique-challenges-for-direct-sellers/feed/ 0 https://scottsocialmediaallen.com/long-tail-keyword-research-101/ https://scottsocialmediaallen.com/long-tail-keyword-research-101/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:34:16 +0000 https://scottsocialmediaallen.com/long-tail-keyword-research-101/

I’m on a panel tonight at Social Media Club Austin talking about the connection between SEO (search engine optimization) and social media. I’ll be focusing on long tail keyword research, an essential core strategy for businesses looking to use social media to bring targeted traffic to their website (which, let’s face it, really should be one of the major goals of any social media initiative).

I’ve put together a presentation, a keyword research spreadsheet template and detailed instructions for using it. I know I should probably repurpose it all as a blog post, but I have to walk out the door in an hour, so this’ll have to do for now.

Image credit: Carol Foil

Subject: Get Your Website on the 1st Page of Google, Yahoo and MSN

Dear Website Owner,

How are you ? i hope that everything is fine over there, The reason of my e-mail that i did some analyze of your website. Your website design is really good and its also shows that you have done some SEO work on your website also , but still you don’t have any good ranking on search engines.

You must have to be on page 1 to get the maximum sales and revenue.

We are the purely organic SEO company, we can get your website on the 1st page of Google , Yahoo and MSN. And we will guarantee to get the ranking and traffic on your website.

SEO process is the investment returning process, means if you are investing something in SEO, so you will cover all the cost once your website on the first page. We will increase your business atleast 4 time, which you are doing right now.

Our Company Challenge – Our Price is the lowest and affordable price with the maximum service with quality and 24 x 7 customer support , includes Whole SEO, Directory Submission, Blogs, Social Bookmarking, Web 2.0. No SEO company will provide these service better than us with quality in lowest price, which we are providing and its our challenge.

So i want to chat with you regarding this. I have very good plans regarding this. Please let me know, if you are interested in this , so please reply me back.

I am waiting for your reply back with very excitement.

Please let me know, if you have any further query regarding this.

Thanks

Never mind the atrocious grammar. And by the way, if you can’t write English properly, you can’t do organic SEO properly, because organic SEO requires writing copy, and you’ve just proven to me that you’re incapable of that.

No, what really got to me was this: “still you don’t have any good ranking on search engines.”

For what???

The first step in SEO is understanding the marketing strategy for the site. Keyword research comes after that. If someone doesn’t know the strategy for my site, they can’t possibly know what (if any) keywords I’m optimizing for, and they certainly can’t know if I’m ranked well in search engines.

As it turns out, this site is actually ranked #1 for the only couple of search terms I really care about. See, search engine traffic isn’t really part of my strategy for this site. This site is all about closer engagement with people who find me through social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, my other blogs (which, by the way, are well ranked for the search terms they’re optimized for). It’s also about building my personal brand – Social media is my middle name.

How’s it working?

When I launched this site a year ago, the exact phrase “social media is my middle name” didn’t exist online…anywhere. Today, a Google search on the exact phrase “social media is my middle name” turns up some 9,000 search results. This site is #1 and probably 95% of the other search results link to this site.

The point is, it’s not always about search traffic, and even when it is, it’s not always about being ranked well for the most popular search terms. If you’re ever talking to a marketing consultant or SEO firm and the first question they ask you isn’t some reasonable variation of “What are you trying to accomplish with your site?” – RUN!