Written By Barbara K. Mednick, Online PR Expert

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and twenty minutes to ruin it.” This infamous quote from Warren Buffet is more true today that when it was first coined due to the rapid growth of the Internet and the proliferation of social media.  That’s why online reputation management – a form of online public relations – is becoming increasingly important.

Be aware to protect reputation

Online reputation management is the process of following online references to a brand, company, organization or individual and having a plan in place to deal with negative feedback, if needed. Most businesses, organizations and individuals have a reputation online even if they don’t want one.

You should be aware of your online reputation so you can protect it. This is particularly important because online content could be misinterpreted and/or surface several years after it is posted.

Online reputation trends

Over time, several major trends have indicated growth in activities related to online reputation management, according to a 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project study:

• Online reputation-monitoring via search engines has increased – 57 percent of adult internet users now use search engines to find information about themselves online, up from 47 percent in 2006.

• Activities tied to maintaining an online identity have grown as people post information on profiles and other virtual spaces.

• 46 percent of online adults have created their own profile on a social networking site, up from just 20 percent in 2006.

• Monitoring the digital footprints of others has also become much more common:

• 46 percent of internet users search online to find information about people from their past – up from 36 percent in 2006.

• Likewise, 38 percent have sought information about their friends – up from 26 percent in 2006.

Monitor online reputation

Following are tips to monitor and evaluate your online reputation, according to Microsoft Online Safety. These can be applied to the name of a brand, company, organization or individual.

• Search your name – begin by typing your company or individual name into several popular search engines to see where you are mentioned and in what context.

• Focus your search – to get more precise results, put quotation marks around your name.

• Search all of your names – Search all variations of your name to make sure you don’t miss anything important.

• Expand your search – Use similar techniques to search for telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, etc.

• Target specific sites – Check online phone directories, business listings, genealogy sites, industry or civic organizations, etc.

• Read blogs – If any of your friends, colleagues, family members or coworkers have blogs or web pages on social networking sites; check them out to see if they are writing about you, your brand, your company or organization.

• Sign-up for alerts – Use the feature provided by some search engines that automatically notifies you of any new mention of your name.