Hello , from a rainswept NP Towers

It’s funny, when I started up my Internet Marketing & Social Media Mentoring program as an email only option, I didn’t think many people would take me up on it – I’m pretty happily surprised at the take up rate, that’s for sure!

I’m also surprised at some of the questions that are being asked – many of them are ones I hadn’t even thought people would ask.

Questions such as:

•  Which order should I attack things in when it comes to Facebook, SEO, Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn etc? (Short answer – start with SEO & Blogging, then the others)
• I’ve got front page listings for X keyword but no traffic – why is that? (Short answer – no-one is searching for that phrase)
• I’m blogging every day but get no interaction or visitors – why? (Short answer – you’re not blogging, you’re writing ‘company news’)
• I don’t use categories and tags on my blogs – there’s no point is there? (Short answer – yes there is)
• I just feed everything automatically into my Facebook page, so I don’t need to do anything else do I? (Short answer – yes you do)
• I can’t think of things to blog about so I don’t bother – what can I do? (Short answer – I’ll send you some ideas)
• My blog is on a freebie platform but has no search engine positions (Short answer – it won’t have)

Have you ever asked any of those questions?

Or any other question to do with promoting your business and website online?

If you have, you’d probably be interested to read my long answers – because they are long, informative and helpful. Not just quick retorts not tailored to you. But you can only get my long answers by giving the Mentoring a go.

If you’d like a quick snappy answer, feel free to drop me a line with your query and I’ll put you in my ‘freebie answers queue’ – you’ll get a response, just not as indepth. (Still helpful though, I hope).

While I have you, I’d also like to let you know about an offer my daughter Leigh Quantrill is running for your Facebook page right now – not only is her Facebook Page Management service a great price, but she gives you the chance to win it for free just by Tweeting. I’d love to see her get loads of tweets so please go find out more

Mentoring  and Facebook in one blog post – I think that’s enough for a Monday morning, don’t you?

Happy Monday, tell me in the comments below what you’re up to today!

A guest post from Simon Morgan

Reputation (Photo credit: krossbow)

It can be easy to see the virtual world as a separate place from the “real world” and even as a sort of wild west where your actions don’t have the same sorts of consequences as they might offline. The increasingly popular idea of reputation management and social media filtering is designed to combat the consequences of this mentality.

Why does the internet matter so much, when the common phrase “it’s just the internet” is often thrown around as a good way to deal with anything you don’t like online? It’s because they may be separate worlds, but there is great power in words in a medium where written text is the primary mode of communication.

The Idea of Truth
Offline, we have some distinctions between gossip and legitimate concerns and complaints. We understand the idea of people who are only out to complain and make life miserable for those around them, and when people behave this way online, we call them trolls. However, even the complaints are sometimes taken seriously, and they can affect your offline presence.

Many people take everything posted online at face value. If someone complains about you or doesn’t like you, the idea is likely to spread to others, and if someone doesn’t recommend purchasing from you, this will definitely happen. What’s “hot” and what isn’t is often decided online.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Why You Need a Presence
Some companies try to avoid this danger of being viewed negatively by simply not creating a website or having an online presence. To more connected customers, this is like sticking your fingers and pretending you can’t hear the conversation about you! If you don’t have a website, you’re probably going to be seen as backwards and slowly going out of business.

You can’t avoid the problem of establishing an online reputation by refusing to establish one. Even a simple, clean website will give people the idea that you’re connected, listening to what people say, and adapting to technology and new business environments.

Establishing a Positive Reputation

Of course, just being online isn’t enough. People need to see you and visit your site on a regular basis so they can get an idea of your site and what it highlights, who you are, and what is important to your business. That’s where the process of getting a positive reputation begins.

Never publish off-putting or low-quality content, as it will not attract positive attention. You won’t get any of the positive attention you need in order to become known as a good business. Keep a friendly and passionate tone about whatever business you are in, provide solid content (unique information that people can’t get elsewhere online when possible), and make sure you attract feedback from happy customers.

If you can manage to focus on each of these things while establishing your online presence, you can make sure that your online reputation reflects and supports your reputation offline, too. You don’t want to be seen as the individual who is too backwards to keep up with crucial developments online, nor as the person who releases low-quality content to try to attract attention. If you focus on greatness, your audience will come!

Author Bio:

Guest post contributed by Simon Morgan on behalf of Veribo.com – Veribo provide an Online Reputation Management tool. Simon is a freelance writer and has been actively involved as a web development consultant for over a decade.