Imagine that you are going to a baseball game with your girlfriend (or wife or significant other or whatever you do) and you pull a boneheaded maneuver like this kid does in the video below. Watch it and you’ll see what I mean.

In the past, this is just something that, at worst, got on TV and was forgotten about by everyone except for the girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend?) and the people who were sitting around these two at the game when it happened.

Guess what folks? This is not the past. This is the hyper-information age and everything matters. Why? Well, rather than this being just an unfortunate display of a guy who is essentially a wuss he is being written about here and over at Mashable and there is already a Facebook page for him. In other words, this guy started before the game as just another goofy kid wearing a really bad hat and having the cool facial whatever you call it but now he is known as “Bo the Bailer” thanks to the social media world.

Do you think this will go away for him? I don’t. Why? Because now he is labeled and his friends can unmercifully torment him with this image (especially in front of his girlfriend). Why would they do this? Because they are his ‘friends’ and because it got a lot of attention that things like this just never used to get. If you want to know how these things can impact a person’s life look up Steve Bartman and the impact of his ill-fated sports moment caught on tape. Darn near ruined his life.

Here’s the lesson. Everything you do matters especially since everything today has the chance to be the viral video of tomorrow. The trouble is most people don’t get that until it’s too late. Paying attention has NEVER been more important than it is in today’s world. Unfortunately we are ill-equipped to pay attention to the level required by the constant monitoring of all actions at all times. We are just human after all.

So “Bo the Bailer” will have his 15 minutes of shame fame and then he thinks it will go away. It won’t though because the digital memory is long and unforgiving and this is the kind of thing that can come back to bite you at the worst times.

Over-reaction? Maybe. My question to you is, if you were to hire this person for a job and saw this video of how he reacted then covered up in a time of pressure would you wonder how he would perform for your company?

Think about it.

I heard something very interesting on the radio today.

A local BP gas station owner had put together an ad which described the good work he did in his community. It also tried to shine some kind of positive light on the ‘parent company’ for his SMB (small and medium business) which is the now notorious British Petroleum. It seems like the area that I live in may be some kind of hotbed for BP ‘franchises’ which makes for an interesting quandary from a reputation perspective.

According to the radio ad I heard, this business owner has served his community and provided jobs to local residents. These are both good things which, in any other situation, would never be questioned. Now, one wonders whether we would have ever heard from this station owner had it not been for the BP fiasco. As a result, there will be those who are skeptical of the sincerity of the message even though my guess is that it was a genuine attempt to distance himself and his business from the BP mess (which he is completely helpless in) without sounding desperate.

Whether he is able to come through this storm with his business intact will be something for the next few months and years to hash out. The trouble is that with messages on Twitter and other places saying, “I can’t believe that people are still getting their gas at a BP station!” he may not be able to overcome it.

Here is the danger of this kind of closely-knit and intertwined reputation web that is being weaved online. We are likely to have wrong assumptions made regularly about just who is or is not responsible for company screw-ups.

I have experience with people who are gas station owners. I know more about them than the average person. As a result, I know that this poor guy who is trying to paint the correct picture of his business is working on thin margins and has profits squeezed by competitive factors all day long. Oh, and more importantly, he had NOTHING to do with the BP well issue in the Gulf.

Unfortunately, though, it could cost him his business because we have grown so quick to blame everyone rather than truly know the facts. The facts in this case will likely point to a small business guy who is a lot like you and me. He’s just trying to make a living but then is associated with something by default, which creates a ‘guilt by association’ scenario and the backlash associated with it.

Just like we didn’t have any first hand responsibility for the Gulf tragedy, neither did any independent franchise owners. They don’t deserve the wrath of the consumer. However, the ignorance of most people and their willingness to act on their ignorance is what we face now in this hyper-sensitive reputation cauldron of the Internet. It could actually be a good time to consider stepping back and taking a deep breath before we go around pointing our digital finger at everyone without knowing the facts.

All of this is to point to the idea there has never been a more critical time for companies both large and small to be listening to what is going on with online reputations. No matter the size of the business, there are factors happening online that can make or break a business whether it is deserved or not. If you are not aware of these things then you are to blame if they ultimately bite you.

Contact us today to learn how Trackur provides an easy to use, affordable, efficient and flexible way to monitor all of the online buzz happening around your business and industry. Who knows, the business you save could be your own.

For the past few posts I have been talking about various topics raised in a good article from the New York Times. Today will be my last look at the many different discussion points this article raises with regard to online and social media monitoring, the impact of these elements on individuals and companies and how society is changing because of the online world.

Here’s a quick question. Do you think that it is true that the younger an Internet user is the more likely he / she will be open online? If you said yes you are probably like most who make that assumption. Here is some info that might surprise you.

…two recent studies challenge the conventional wisdom that young people have no qualms about having their entire lives shared and preserved online forever. A University of California, Berkeley, study released in April found that large majorities of people between 18 and 22 said there should be laws that require Web sites to delete all stored information about individuals (88 percent) and that give people the right to know all the information Web sites know about them (62 percent) — percentages that mirrored the privacy views of older adults. A recent Pew study found that 18-to-29-year-olds are actually more concerned about their online profiles than older people are, vigilantly deleting unwanted posts, removing their names from tagged photos and censoring themselves as they share personal information, because they are coming to understand the dangers of oversharing.

To me this is good news because at least there appears to be some restraint in the age group where many feel that they don’t really care about what they put online.

So why this concern? Well, the ‘powers that be’ in the social media world like Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg claim that the societal move is toward greater sharing and more transparency. How could he see things so differently than the study quoted above? That’s easy. He NEEDS as much transparency as possible to make money off of Facebook users. The more open they are the more targeted they are for advertisers. Facebook thrives on that.

Here’s the trouble with this openness and transparency flag that everyone with a monetary stake in this game is waving. They are not the ones that get hurt by this move to being more ‘open’. Alessandro Acquisti, a scholar at Carnegie Mellon University, studies the behavioral economics of privacy and is looking into what he calls ‘decay time’. That is how long it takes for information positive and negative information to have impact on a person. Here are some of his findings

His research group’s preliminary results suggest that if rumors spread about something good you did 10 years ago, like winning a prize, they will be discounted; but if rumors spread about something bad that you did 10 years ago, like driving drunk, that information has staying power. Research in behavioral psychology confirms that people pay more attention to bad rather than good information, and Acquisti says he fears that “20 years from now, if all of us have a skeleton on Facebook, people may not discount it because it was an error in our youth.”

The bottom line here is that you really need to keep your nose clean online. If you don’t, then the impact down the line could be troubling at best and devastating at worst. Imagine losing that job opportunity for an indiscretion committed over 10 years ago (other than being in jail or something just as serious).

The article goes into some possible ways to keep people from screwing themselves in their online life like the idea of data expiration dates, mechanisms to help create a time buffer between the creation of bad content and hitting the ‘share it now!’ button even the idea of reputation bankruptcy. All interesting but also none are in place right now which is when people are making their great mistakes

There is a lot to consider because of the ‘new world order’ of data dissemination and storage. This is not the same world that I grew up in and if I decide to let the Internet put a ‘rating’ on my reputation (like credit bureaus do for credit ratings) I am rolling the reputation dice. I can’t afford to do that, can you?

Learn more about how Trackur helps you get your online reputation in order. It could be the best move you made online in a long time.

There has been considerable concern about online privacy for all of this year and that concern is not going away. The Wall Street Journal has run a series of articles pointing out the literally lack of privacy for visitors to virtually any site. It has also positioned those taking information from visitors as spies. A little harsh? Maybe but we have entered an age where this kind of assessment will be common.

To go the to the next level though, the New York Times has pointed out in their article on the online space and reputations that

Moreover, the narrow focus on privacy as a form of control misses what really worries people on the Internet today. What people seem to want is not simply control over their privacy settings; they want control over their online reputations. But the idea that any of us can control our reputations is, of course, an unrealistic fantasy. The truth is we can’t possibly control what others say or know or think about us in a world of Facebook and Google, nor can we realistically demand that others give us the deference and respect to which we think we’re entitled. On the Internet, it turns out, we’re not entitled to demand any particular respect at all, and if others don’t have the empathy necessary to forgive our missteps, or the attention spans necessary to judge us in context, there’s nothing we can do about it.

To a degree this is true but on other levels it is a bit over the top. There are things you can do to at least manage your online reputation. Having complete control is practically impossible but being able to control how your reputation is presented, especially in the search engines is achievable. How you ask?

1. Listen – You can’t do anything about anything that you simply are clueless about. If you find yourself a month or a year from now discovering something that has been on your ‘digital record’ for an extended period of time don’t cry foul. What’s foul is the fact that by not listening to the online buzz about whatever it is you want to protect (brand, person etc) YOU allowed something to sit in the engines and rot your online reputation. Nobody’s fault but yours at that point.
2. SEO – Once something appears in the SERP’s (search engine results pages) that is negative you need to give the engines something to feed on that they can put ahead of the undesired results in the rankings. Develop other properties like a Flickr account, YouTube channel, blog etc to generate interest from the engines. At this point, these properties can be seen as better options for ranking of results than the negative ones that you are less than happy with.
3. Create content – In the end it’s a war of attrition. If there is one or two negative results around certain keywords that are important to your online reputation you need to create content to fill the properties mentioned above. Don’t do this in a half-assed manner either. Have a plan and generate considerable content that will appease the search engines and help move the undesired results out of the SERP’s.
4. Behave – If you have done nothing wrong and you are just the victim of someone who is bitter, vindictive or just an outright liar, those things will eventually take care of themselves. All we can do is conduct ourselves in business and life in a way that would make any negative online ‘concern’ look so out of place that the person or entity that is creating the disturbance will be viewed as some kind of online miscreant which, in many cases, they are.

Here at Trackur we help you shorten the time between when something happens to the time that you are aware of it. The sooner you get on top of an ORM concern the better your chances are of managing the situation to your advantage.

Contact us today for more information about how trackur will help you get some semblance of control over something that spin out of control very quickly: your online reputation.

The United States is an interesting place.

While we promote the acquisition of money, prestige, power and all things material we are also a forgiving bunch. We like the underdog and we are very willing to give people and organizations a second chance even when all logic wouldn’t merit it. It’s a very cool thing that Americans keep alive but the Internet may be helping that ideal to fade into the past.

In my last post, I discussed how our inability to forget because of the Internet could lead to less of an ability to forgive. Thus, it stands to follow that our culture of ‘second chances’ could be grinding to a halt as well.

The New York Times article I am drawing inspiration from, takes this idea to the next level and, while I can see the logic, I hate the direction we are headed.

The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; to overcome our checkered pasts.

Now, many would ask that if you have a ‘checkered past’ then why would you deserve a second chance? Well, the basic premise of  second chances is that a person or organization has learned and, as a result, changed because of past wrongdoings. We don’t like to hand out second chances to people who are exhibiting a ‘checkered present’ that continues their ‘checkered past’. We may be forgiving but we’re not stupid.

But with the way everything is kept in the digital record these days the checkered past doesn’t get the chance to fade away like it used to and could actually keep people from showing just how much they have changed. The Times article explores this a little more.

In a recent book, “Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age,” the cyberscholar Viktor Mayer-Schönberger cites Stacy Snyder’s case as a reminder of the importance of “societal forgetting.” By “erasing external memories,” he says in the book, “our society accepts that human beings evolve over time, that we have the capacity to learn from past experiences and adjust our behavior.” In traditional societies, where missteps are observed but not necessarily recorded, the limits of human memory ensure that people’s sins are eventually forgotten. By contrast, Mayer-Schönberger notes, a society in which everything is recorded “will forever tether us to all our past actions, making it impossible, in practice, to escape them.” He concludes that “without some form of forgetting, forgiving becomes a difficult undertaking.”

OK, are you scared yet? The point here is that we need to be on top of our past just as much as out present. Why? Because we will need to exhibit that we have truly changed because that memory of our past misgivings will not be allowed to fade.

I agree this seems a little daunting but I think it could be a very good thing. For the good people who have made genuine mistakes in the past they will be able to exhibit their changed life. That is evidence of being worthy of a true ‘second chance’.

Those, however, who have relied on people’s short memories to give them a chance to “re-invent” themselves without actually changing (in other words, being the same wolf in a different sheep’s clothing) will be easier to spot and will be less likely to pull the same scam twice.

So this is scary isn’t it? I say only if you are still making the same mistakes and no one really wants to do that now, do they?

If you would like to learn more about how you can keep track of your online presence without breaking the bank, contact us today and we’ll be glad to assist you understand the ever changing world of online reputation and social media monitoring.

In today’s world of hyper information overload it’s just as easy to forget more than you take in. We take in data at such a rapid clip that it is humanly impossible to retain it all. What is doesn’t mean, however, is that our memories are shortened. Sure that sounds like a paradox of sorts but it’s the plain truth that while there is no way to keep track of everything we take in, we don’t have to because everything is part of the modern day digital record.

The result? A lot of things that would have been forgiven and forgotten with time in the past are now recorded for anyone to dredge up at any time and for whatever reason they need.

This should create significant caution on the part of anyone because the things that used to fade from memory and had little impact going into the future are now as fresh as the day they are brought back to life in a search query.

The New York Times recently did an article in this modern day phenomenon that I will be referencing over the next few posts here at the Trackur blog. Today will be used to “set the stage” by just triggering some thinking about our increased ability to ‘remember’ everything and what the implications could be.

Just think of a few things about yourself that you believe have become just dim memories to you and a select few. Maybe, it’s the drunken escapades of college. It could be that controversial stance you took on an issue that created a rift with your friends and family. Maybe it was the association with someone that turned out to be less than ‘up-standing’ or that boyfriend / girlfriend that was actually, well, crazy.

These situations are endless and we all have them. What is happening now though is that we are sharing them in real time in a digital forum that never forgets. As a result, it is even harder for other people to forget and, maybe more importantly, forgive.

So for today, think about where you have done something that you wish could fade into the distant past with fuzzy memories at best. Now, imagine that those things may be online somewhere and are not fuzzy but are, in fact, as clear as the day they happened.

Are you watching what you are putting online and, more importantly, are you tracking what is being said about you and your business online? People don’t forget like they used to because they don’t have to. Less forgetting means less forgiving which could mean more trouble.

If you would like to learn more about how Trackur helps individuals and businesses keep track of these potential online pitfalls, contact us for more information.

Don’t forget because everyone else won’t either.

Internet marketing is difficult to do well. Regardless of the size of your company it’s never as easy as the ‘experts’ claim it is.

In this particularly tough economy this reality is even more evident amongst the SMB’s (small and medium business) of the marketplace which make up about 95% of the businesses in the US.

The Internet marketing experts shout “Do this it’s easy!” “Do that or else you are not in the game!” It’s frustrating to hear these proclamations and not have the time, money or capabilities to take full advantage of the ‘opportunity’.

One area that no business can afford to not pay attention to is monitoring the online talk about the business. Customer experience is no longer an old-fashioned ‘word of mouth’ threat or opportunity.Now a bad review can spread digitally like wildfire and the trouble is that you may not even know it before it’s too late.

So SMB’s of the world be sure to at least be monitoring your business name, your own name and any names of importance to the business. If something is online that could be hurting your business you need to know before it inflicts too much damage.

Also, make sure you are monitoring review sites. Andy Beal did a great post on how to use Trackur for just that purpose. It’s worth the read.

While the SMB can survive (albeit not easily) if it is not truly involved in Internet marketing for its business, it cannot afford to just let the online space go unchecked. People are talking, their friends are listening and they are making decisions about what businesses they trust and what one’s they don’t.

The old adage is that a happy customer will tell one person about their experience but an unhappy one will tell seven. Don’t let that conversation go on without your involvement. You may just learn something new that can be useful today to build profits for tomorrow.

Please contact us if you would like more information regarding Trackur and its ability to help the SMB handle the digital age.

Know the competition better than you know yourself. This is something that is droned on about in business classes and business meetings a lot. However, there is precious little done about it in actual practice. With the advent of true online monitoring there are no more excuses.

Here are the top 10 things you need to be monitoring about your competition (oh and if there are any similarities between this list and the “12 Critical Keywords You Should Be Monitoring in Social Media” it is completely intentional and virtually unavoidable).

1. Competitor’s Company Name

People talk about your competition like they talk about anyone else. You need to know where the competition is cleaning your clock or they have stubbed their toe. Don’t just track your arch nemesis either because there may be up and comers to be alerted to as well.

2. Competitor’s Brands

Be sure to look for brand specific mentions because a slip up in performance in one area could be signaling a greater problem at the competition’s business.

3. Competitor’s Executives

If you should be watching your own leadership then it stands to reason that the competitor’s execs are susceptible to the same concerns. Do you think that HTC, RIM, Samsung etc etc don’t want to know if an Apple exec has screwed up?

4. Competitor’s ‘Voices’

Oftentimes a ‘celebrity’ of sorts will arise from a company in the social media space. Think about Frank Eliason with Comcast. Well, now that he has left the company what will happen to that customer service effort? It could plant the seed of doubt that causes a sale for you and a no sale for the competition.

5. Competitive Weaknesses

If there is an Achilles Heel for the competition make sure you are aware when it gets worse or gets better. This kind of business intelligence could mean the difference in competitive selling situations.

6. Competitive Strengths

Even the competition does some things well. Keep an eye on if there are continuing to improve or if they have stumbled recently.

7. Competitive Hiring Activities

If you see that the competition is hiring in engineering or product development that’s a cue for change. The earlier you have insight into where the competition may be going, the more effective your response can be.

8. Competition’s Disgruntled Employees

Every business has them. You hate them on your side but you love them on the other side because they can be the best leaks of important data around.

9. Competition’s Partners

If there is a supply chain disruption to your competition that could mean the chance to win business for your side. Whether it’s material delays, partner financial issues or just plain bad business you need to know.

10. Industry Chatter

While knowing what the competition’s customers are saying about their experience is incredibly valuable it can be just as important to see how the competition is viewed in the industry itself. Every industry has its good guys and bad guys. How is you competition viewed by its peers? It can be very telling.

Are you listening?

If you would like more information about how Trackur can help monitor the competitive landscape contact us today. We’ll be glad to assist.

It’s time for corporate America to wake up and smell the coffee. In the same way that the B to B space has been slow to pick up on search marketing and social media there seems to be a lag by the larger portion of the business world to engage in online listening for their business.

We’ve made it pretty easy for you here at Trackur. Sure the product is easy and even Andy Beal himself has outlined the top 12 keywords that you should be tracking. This is the complete ‘starter set’ for any business looking to truly keep track of what is happening in the online space so there are few, if any surprises.

So what keeps businesses away? It’s the usual suspects when it comes to the online world.

• Fear – Fear of actually knowing what is being said out there about your brand, your people and anything else about your company. This ‘head in the sand’ approach comes with risks that don’t need to be explained here. Just remember what part of your anatomy is really easy to kick when you have your head in the sand.

• Resources – Resources are always a critical consideration when undertaking anything in business. Resources include money, people, time and more. If done the right way, having an online listening ‘program’ will not take much of any of these resources. Just ask us and we’ll help.

• Knowledge – For some reason there is an impression that there is a secret sauce to online listening. It’s not like SEO or social media where the learning curve can be steep. No, in fact, all it takes to get going with an online listening program is some business acumen and a desire to get better. It’s not that complicated.

• Courage – Some people may wonder why in the world would you need to invest in this kind of business activity. As a result, there are naysayers for this practice as there are for anything that is ‘new’. Well, if anyone in an organization thinks that good business intelligence is ‘new’ they should be looking for work elsewhere. Many people have helped their careers by starting this kind of program, having something happen that was prevented because of their effort and getting recognition farther up the food chain than they ever did before.

All of the above ‘issues’ can be overcome quite easily. Are you interested in learning more about how this can happen? Contact us today.

In our world of “I can’t make a move unless I can prove ROI” we may have actually prevented more good business from being done than stopped bad business from taking place. It’s just a theory I have and there is no empirical evidence to support the claim. I just make observations based on reality and to me that looks like it’s a solid assumption.

So why would we do such a thing? Well, we like to make decisions based on safety rather than best judgments. Because of our current economic malaise we tend to turn to three other letters to guide out business decision-making. Those letters are FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt). It’s real easy to make decisions based on these standards because there is always room to say no. No is the easy way out.

FUD can be the great equalizer of ROI. Because of the fear that something as ‘new’ as an ORM solution wouldn’t be directly traceable to business events that make money (or prevent the unnecessary wasting of money) people shy away. They settle for inferior ORM ‘solutions’ that are free and their results reflect their level of investment. As a result, they can even be soured to real online monitoring that is robust enough to truly impact the bottom line.

Nowhere is this problem more troubling than in the SME (small and medium enterprise) space. This kind of company has between 100-1000 employees and revenues can range from $25 million to $500 million. Based on those numbers one would think that an investment to protect your business from the pitfalls of the online world would be prudent. Honestly, what is $4,500 for a year when it could make thousands or save thousands as well?

I spoke with someone today who gets it. In fact, I am probably going to talk to this person again just to learn more about how he got to the point where he helped an SME fully embrace all things Internet, including ORM, and is succeeding. It’s not some high-flyer e-commerce play that is all about buzz and branding and whiz-bang social media acts. Nope, far from it. This company is a B to B play that is highly technical and is far from sexy. They get it though, and they are seeing bottom line impact because of this online crusader who believes enough to fight through everyone’s FUD. He is showing ROI instead and winning the hearts and minds of those that can do something else: they can promote him.

So what are you doing to move the needle with your online activities? Are you doing just enough to get by because of fear, uncertainty and doubt? Why not step out and test a real ORM platform (OK …. like Trackur!). We’ll give you 10 days to test drive it and back it with a full money back guarantee. You see, we don’t suffer from FUD because we know that ORM drives ROI. Why else would we be in the business?

Don’t let FUD get in the way of some good old fashioned ORM ROI! Contact us today!