by Stephen Jeske
Reputation management still remains the domain of companies that provide in-house services to monitor and manage the reputation of businesses and individuals. Companies like Reputation.com offer free and premium services to monitor what’s being said on the web, protect your privacy, and remove inaccurate information.
To date, none of the major companies in this field have produced an app that specifically allows their clients to achieve this end. However, there are a number of useful apps for mobile devices that can be helpful in some ways for reputation monitoring.
This first is Google Alerts. A Google alert can be set up to monitor your brand, company name, and even your competition. A free Google account is all you need to get started. Alerts can be sent to your email, or you can create an RSS feed. There are many RSS readers, such as Feeddler, that can be used to read this feed on a mobile device. Naturally the search results are only based on the Google database, and doing a thorough job requires monitoring other search engines, social media, forums, and blog comments.
SocialMention bills itself as Google Alerts for social media. It works along the lines of Google, except the results come from a search of dozens of different social media outlets. Although there is no RSS feed, you can set it up to send an email to your mobile device.
Another way of going about monitoring what’s being said about your brand is to listen in on the conversation where it occurs. For example, Twitter’s mobile version can be used to search and listen in on tweets about your brand by using your mobile phone or tablet.
Likewise, Yelp offers a mobile version for iOS and Android phone that you can use for monitoring your brand, if that’s where the conversation is. Although primarily known for its restaurant reviews, Yelp also has reviews for Beauty and Spas, Health and Medical, Home Services, Automotive, and many other categories.
Foursquare is both an app and website that people use to find places to go, based on what other people say. It’s primarily oriented towards retail, services, and food and beverage. Companies in these industries can read tips on the app to discover what their customers are saying.
TripAdvisor is a yet another place that restaurants and vacation-related businesses should monitor on a regular basis. If you’re in one of these industries, you’ll most likely have a listing here, and there may even be some reviews. They have an app available for many different mobile devices including tablets.
Monitoring your brand’s reputation by visiting each site can be time consuming. For some it may be doable, but most will find it overwhelming. Though the market for reputation monitoring apps is still in its infancy, you can use existing apps indirectly to achieve your goals. Currently, the simplest method is to use one of the reputation monitoring services and use your mobile device to monitor any emails that the service may send.
Alternatively, you can use Google Alerts and receive email alerts or RSS feeds on your mobile device.
Stephen Jeske is an avid outdoor enthusiast with a passion for coffee. He frequently writes on a variety of topics including careers, small business, and reputation monitoring.
