Comments for Online Reputation

Comment on “If I’m Good, My Online Reputation Doesn’t Matter” by Tim

Tim — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:38:41 +0000

@Darren Slatten
Good points Darren. It’s an interesting argument. I guess my answer would be Applicant C:

- good referrals from friends and business colleagues
AND
- when I look them up in Google I find positive information

Thanks for the comment!

Comment on “If I’m Good, My Online Reputation Doesn’t Matter” by Darren Slatten

Darren Slatten — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:13:10 +0000

I can see what you’re saying here:

“But at some point, either the need for SEO help will diminish or the number of good SEO experts will grow, making it more difficult to rely entirely on referrals to build a business.”

…but I think the opposite sounds just as reasonable:

As the number of SEO companies increases, business owners will have more access to first-hand referrals and recommendations from friends and colleagues, making the business owners less likely to rely on Google when searching for an SEO company.

An example to support this theory would be the medical field. Everyone has health issues at some point, so when a person is “shopping” for a new doctor, they can simply ask their friends and family for suggestions and expect that virtually all of them have some kind of opinion to share.

I guess the question is… who would you hire?

ApplicantA:

- Personally recommended by someone you know.
- Google returns some anti-ApplicantA results from people you don’t know.

ApplicantB:

- Not recommended by anyone you know.
- Google returns pro-ApplicantB results from people you don’t know.

But yeah… nice post. I think you did an excellent job of translating my post into coherent arguments. Well done. =)

Comment on Should You Have Some Control Over Your Own Online Reputation? by Leslie

Leslie — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 16:15:32 +0000

Thought you might be interested in how executives view online reputation as well in the spirit of sharing. Since most people think primarily of consumers and how they are viewed, we thought it was important to ask executives where they stood when it comes to online reputation. I enjoyed the WSJ article too. But what’s a company to do? The research we found is that execs are stuck at Web 1.0. Best, lgr