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7 Free Tools For Monitoring Your Online Reputation

Posted: 09 Nov 2013 11:59 AM PST


When you consider how much business and socializing is conducted online, it's no wonder that maintaining a good online reputation is a key element in being a success these days. It doesn't make a difference if it's for personal or business reasons; if you have a bad name online, your effectiveness will suffer for it. Having and maintaining a good reputation is important.

Consider these seven tools for your reputation-monitoring toolbox

The problem many people and businesses face is having the wherewithal to keep tabs on their online reputation. Here are seven free tools for monitoring your reputation and hopefully keeping it pristine.

Google Alerts
Let's start with the easiest method. After all, Google is the search engine used the most, right? Go to Google.com/alerts and set up a search query using your business name. You can put in filters so that you only get results from specific media types, and the results can be sent to a feed reader or your e-mail. Your results will update whenever your brand comes up.

TweetBeep
This is Twitter's version of Google Alerts. You get hourly updates every time your name comes up on Twitter. TweetBeep searches for Tweets that reference you. There's also a premium version that costs $20 a month.

IFTTT.com
This stands for IF This, Then That, something harkening back to the ancient medieval days of old school programming. It allows you to create a rule that says IF this happens, THEN your action happens. You can monitor any site with an RSS feed, and keep track of when your name or picture appears on the Internet. So if, for example, you wanted to, you could set up a rule (they call them "recipes") that says "If there's any new photos of me, then add the file to Dropbox".

UberSuggest.org
Autocomplete gives you a good idea what your image online is. Put simply, it shows ten autocompletes of the phrase you enter. So, for instance, entering "John Terra g" would give the first ten results of what follows the name and that letter. In this case, maybe it comes up with "John Terra gaming writer", "John Terra Google profile", and "John Terra goat sucker", etc. Right there, you can see that there's a problem that needs addressing.

MonitorThis
Yes, it sounds like the kind of thing someone would fire back when told something like "I'm going to monitor you!", but it is in fact a tool that tracks any mention of your brand name on 20 search engines. Once you set it up, it generates a file to import to your feed reader.

SocialMention
Give this tool your keyword, usually your brand, and it will show you all mentions, ranking them as positive, negative, or neutral. Unfortunately, SocialMention pulls data from so many sources, that irrelevant results are inevitable. This tool is best used if you have a very distinctive name.

WhoLinksToMe
Do you ever wonder what other pages are linking to your posts? WhoLinksToMe is a link search tool that tracks backlinks, enabling you to see what sites are linking to you. After all, part of your reputation is based on who's in your orbit. There are also two levels of paid subscriptions as well.

These magnificent seven tools are just some of the free resources out there for maintaining a good online reputation. Check into these and keep your good name!

Byline: John Terra has been freelance writing since 1985. His blog posts deal with everything from gaming to reputation.com reviews.

Photo Credit: intherough