There’s nothing earth shatteringly new contained in this infographic, but it’s the perfect format–and length–to hand to anyone in the C-suite of a Fortune 500 company.

It will serve as a great primer for online reputation management and provides some peer case studies that should be easy to empathize with.

On a side note, I’ve always found American Airlines Twitter team to be fantastic in their response. In fact, if you read the infographic, the main reason they faced a reputation crisis online was that their Twitter team was more on the ball than their ground staff.

Thanks to, and via.

As many SEOs now know, Google is planning to unleash a series of updates to its Penguin algorithm-update-thingy.

While Matt Cutts was about as transparent as he could be, without tipping Google’s hand to spammers, Greg Boser told a packed room at Interactivity Digital that he believes sentiment analysis will come in to play when looking at backlinks.

How will Google use sentiment analysis in its next update?

Well,  Boser speculates that Google will start using some kind of automated sentiment analysis to determine whether a backlink is not just authoritative, but positive or negative in sentiment. Why? Well, there are many industries that receive plenty of back links to their web sites, but they are usually from articles or posts that attack their practices or industry. Using sentiment analysis, Google will be able to add extra weight to those links that are neutral or positive, and devalue the negative links.

Of course, we don’t know if Google will start implementing automated sentiment analysis on backlinks–heck, it may already have started–but as an SEO, it would be a good time to start shifting your focus to making sure you acquire links that are positive in sentiment towards your page and desired anchor text.

That’s where Trackur comes in.

All of Trackur’s paid plans include automated sentiment analysis as standard. What sets us apart is exactly how we calculate our analysis of a page’s sentiment. We don’t just look at the overall sentiment of the page–a page could be positive towards one keyword and negative towards another. Instead, we take the keyword being monitored and automatically calculate the sentiment of that keyword on the web page in question.

What does this mean for SEO?

Well, in addition to finding any mentions of your company or product online, you can use Trackur’s automated sentiment analysis for improved back link prospecting. Here’s how:

1. Enter your desired anchor text as your “keyword” in Trackur.

2. Select only to view news, blogs, and perhaps forums.

3. Trackur will return matches to all pages that include your desired anchor text. You can then select to view only those that are positive or neutral.

4. Now you have a list of those bloggers/journalists that are already talking about your keyword and have nothing but positive things to say. You can reach out to them and ask for a link in their existing post, or persuade them to write about your company.

5. You can export the data to CSV so that you can slice and dice it in Excel. For example, you could view only those pages that have a positive sentiment and then sort by those that have the most influence! A double rainbow win!

6. You could even go back to step 2 and select Twitter only so you can find those tweeting about your industry with a positive tone! Or even target links/tweets from a specific country!

If you have any kind of developer skills–or already have your own SEO toolset–then you can take this to the extreme with Trackur’s automated sentiment analysis API. You can provide us with a URL and your desired anchor text and we’ll analyze that page for sentiment towards that keyword! A great way to help you–or your users–find quality, influential backlinks…with a positive sentiment!

Whether Google does indeed start implementing automated sentiment analysis in its algorithm, we don’t know. Either way, you’ll be a step ahead of your competition with fresh, positive, influential backlinks!

…probably not as many as you’d think.

In fact, for some demographics the amount of purchasing decisions influenced by Facebook friends doesn’t even make double digits.

Surprised?

Via Marketing Pilgrim and PPC Associates.

When I shared our $1M ROI infographic, I was asked if I could expand on how different departments and skill sets could benefit by using a social media monitoring tool such as Trackur.

I’m always happy to oblige!

So, up first, we’ll take a look at some of the ways HR (human resources, personnel, hiring managers etc) can benefit from monitoring social media.

Potential Employees

• Monitor the name of a potential employee and you’ll go beyond what they are saying, but what others are saying about them!
• With Trackur, you can monitor your company brand, but refine it to only show mentions that include the name of a potential hire. Are they bad mouthing your company before they’ve even started?
• Maybe you’ve not actually identified a candidate yet. Why not use social media monitoring to look for those discussing your industry and find candidates with the most influence and clout?

Existing Employees

• Do you have key employees that talk to bloggers and journalists on a regular basis? Get notified on anything they say and make sure they’re not overstepping the company line.
• Employees don’t like to be spied on, but employers shouldn’t have to worry about their public behavior having a negative influence on the company’s reputation. Small companies could monitor the online activity of all employees, but larger ones might have to pick those that have already been disciplined for unruly behavior.
• Why not monitor your company name for any signs of disgruntled employees? Or, look for updates from staff that mention taking a sick day from your company to go fishing.

Ex-Employees

• Look for any ex-employees violating any non-competes by monitoring the hiring news of your biggest competitors.
• Likewise, keep an eye out for any disgruntled ex-employees bad mouthing your precious reputation.

Industry News

• HR professionals would also be wise to monitor industry news and legal updates for the human resources industry. Stay on top of new trends and developments.
• Why not also keep a look out for any upcoming industry conferences that could offer a wealth of potential new hires.

As you can see, there’s a great many reasons why social media monitoring tools should be extended to your company’s HR department. With Trackur’s Premium or Ultimate plans, you can set up separate Profiles for your HR folks so they can track what’s important for them!

I'm an HR professional. Let me try Trackur!

We could all use a few more hours in our day, right?

I know you’re all super busy, so here are 20 quick tips for improving your online reputation. It will take you less than a minute to get a great refresher on how you should manage your online brand.

If you like it, please bookmark and share.

Thanks!

After years of speaking at the excellent Pubcon conference, I felt it was time to introduce a brand new concept that I have been working on for a few weeks: congruent marketing.

The general concept is that you can no longer attain success in Google, search, social media, or internet marketing by using disparate tactics. Instead, you must bring everything together under a harmonious strategy. Not only does congruent marketing make your brand stronger, but it makes you less reliant on any one source of web site traffic and revenue.

Here’s the presentation I gave:

While social media monitoring is important for any industry, those in the legal profession–lawyers, attorneys, etc–will find many benefits to tracking online conversations.

Here are 5 reasons why attorneys should use social media monitoring:

1. “Ambulance Chasing”

Let’s assume discussions start spreading about lethal side effects of a prescription drug. Using social media monitoring, you can set up alerts that match any online conversations about those issues.

Or, why not monitor for tweets, posts or updates from those in a car wreck, employment dispute, or [fill in the blank]?

2. Trademark/Copyright infringement

Help your corporate clients out by monitoring for unauthorized use of a registered trademark. Or, take a snippet of text from any document or web page and get an alert if someone uses it on the web.

3. Litigation evidence & support

Let’s say you’re knee deep in a case where the plaintiff accuses your client of rear-ending them and causing immense pain and back problems. Fortunately, their friend just tagged them in a photo of them skydiving. How much stronger did your defense just get?

4. Competitor research

A little more of a traditional use of social media monitoring is to spy on your competition. Keep track of other lawyers’ efforts to promote their practice, using social media. What are they blogging about? What meetings are they attending?

5. Industry insights

Lastly, keep track of legal news so you don’t get blind sided by a new bill or legal ruling. Go one step further and proactively advise your clients of any industry updates that might affect them.

These are just five of many reasons why your legal firm should include social media monitoring as part of its daily routine. What others would you add?

I'm an attorney! Let me try Trackur

When you think of social media monitoring, you likely focus on the benefits of catching an online reputation crisis before it flares up. Yet, there are many more reasons why you should listen to the web.

We’ve put together this infographic-lite to help you understand that there are many great ways to use social media monitoring to grow your business.

Help me get a $1M ROI for my business

If you want your viral video to actually go “viral” you need two things.

1. An awesome video, worthy of being shared:

2. A fan base that will actually share your viral video:

However, sometimes that’s not enough. Sometimes you need to make sure that the spark behind your video doesn’t get extinguished. How do you do that? It’s quite simple. You take the time to thank those that are fanning the flames:

Well done Kmart, well done. Your social media savvy is so amazing, I may just ship my pants!