LookupPage Blog | Professional Web Presence and Visibility

Online Tracking and Monitoring Tools – A Review

An important element of establishing a strong online brand is tracking of what is being mentioned about it across the web at all times. Tracking and monitoring of a brand has many benefits. It could provide valuable feedback about one’s product or service, and this type of feedback can point to what a business is doing wrong and help in making adjustments in an attempt to build a stronger customer base. It is also important to monitor any mentions of a brand online as some of them may become negative at one point resulting in an online reputation problem.

We have often highlighted the advantages of Google Alerts, with the most obvious advantages being that the service is free and simple to set up. A number of premium services out there offer meticulous monitoring services that offer quite a bit of features that Google Alerts does not cover. The question is whether these services are worth the money spent, and how they are different from one another. We decided to review 2 online monitoring services: Trackur and BrandsEye.

Trackur   

Tarckur is the first tool that we examined. One important feature that it offers that Google Alerts does not have is filtering., This enables the user to exclude specific domains from the online search it conducts for tracked terms. This is a valuable feature since it allows the person conducting the search the exclusion of websites that are controlled by that business, essentially reducing the results that he or she would have to go through. The user can also filter out certain keyword. For example, an alert can be set up for “Michael Jordan” that has to include the term “shoes” and exclude the term “Golf” allowing for a more specific tracking of what is being said online. This feature would help a large company that has a number of different products and wishes to track only mentions of the brand within a specific context.

BrandsEye  

BrandsEye, another online monitoring and tracking service, offers three packages each allowing the user to track a certain amount of phrases and receive updates in specified increments of time. Their tracking system does a lot of the filtering for the client as it automatically removes duplicate content and spam from its findings.

The BrandsEye system allows its users to “educate” the tracking system on what is important to them. It enables the user to customize the tracking so that each mention could have a different ranking on significance based on author’s name, origin, credibility and sentiment of the over all mention. These are all advanced features that would most likely only be useful for large companies. 

Both BrandsEye and Trackur are solid tools that offer more than Google Alerts does. While we agree that a professional or a business should be proactive in monitoring what is being said about him, her or it online, we feel that Google Alerts is a solid tool that is effective enough to monitor a personal brand or a small company. A large company that has a number of products and generates hundreds of mentions each day online could benefit from premium monitoring of its brand.   

Celebrity Twitter of the Month – Lance Armstrong

 Seven time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong is a unique athlete. Not only is he the only person to win the Tour De France more than five times, he is the only person to have won the tour seven consecutive times after recovering from advanced stage cancer. When Armstrong was 26 years old, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that at that point had already spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. He underwent several operations and opted for alternative form of Chemotherapy and that led to the remission of the cancer in his body.

By 1998 Armstrong was already deep into a training regiment that would spark his return to the Tour De France, The fact that Armstrong won seven tours in a row starting in 1999 and participated in yet another race in 2009 marks him as one of the greatest athletes of our time.

Lance Armstrong describes himself in the short Twitter Bio as “7-time Tour de France winner, full time cancer fighter “. Armstrong is tweeting on a regular basis about his daily life, travel, cycling and of course, the Lance Armstrong foundation, LiveStrong, a non profit organization which strives to inspire and empower those who have been affected by cancer. Armstrong has over 2.3 million followers on Twitter. He is using Twitter to engage his fans about topics that are important to him and to promote his organization via the micro blog.    

Lance Armstrong is an exceptional athlete that could get the attention of the world media in many ways. The Fact that he chose to have an ongoing relationship with his followers via Twitter is a complement to the technology and the recognition of how ground breaking it really is. Businesses and professionals are choosing to use Twitter as a part of their marketing effort because it is currently enjoying solid web visibility from search engines, meaning that a Twitter account could often rank highly within the Google CV of a professional or a business. Please Follow LookupPage on Twitter to learn more about online visibility social media optimization and online reputation management. 

Who Needs Online Reputation Management ? Carrie Prejean Knows

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, you will be only too aware of the controversy surrounding former Miss California USA, Carrie Prejean. Still, in order to fully understand what's been going on, here are the simple facts in black and white.

Carrie Prejean came under fire at the 2009 Miss USA Pageant when she answered that she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman, after Perez Hilton asked for her opinion of gay marriage. "We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised."

Hilton publicly vilified her for her lack of political awareness but there was also some speculation in the media that her response was valid because she answered honestly as opposed to giving the politically correct answer just to win the title.

Of course that’s not the end of the story. Just two months after winning her title, topless photos of Carrie started to do the rounds on the internet and pageant officials began to question whether Prejean was an appropriate candidate to represent the state of California. Donald Trump, owner of the Miss World beauty pageant, ruled in her favor and decided to allow her to complete her year in office. However, Prejean was officially fired in June 2009 for alleged "breach of contract".

There is no question that during this whole fiasco, Carrie Prejean's reputation has come under fire, which brings us back to the question in hand: who needs online reputation management?  In today's world of advanced online technology there are countless ways to ensure damage control and one can only hope that Carrie's team of advisors and public relation officers will do their best in ensuring that her reputation is restored as soon as possible.

Whichever side of the fence you are on when it comes to the hot topic of gay marriage, one thing is for sure: should you ever find yourself in hot water for expressing your opinions, remember this name – LookupPage.com – the place where you can control  information found  on the internet and professionally manage your online reputation.

45% of Employers are Using Social Networks to Screen Job Candidates

A recent survey by Harris Interactive for CareerBuilder.com shows that researching of potential candidates on social networks by managers and human resource staff, has doubled in the past year alone. Two thousand six hundred sixty seven managers and human resource employees took part in the survey and were asked whether the information they found on social networks regarding the candidate had an affect on their decision. More than a third of the participants said that what they had found on social networks influenced their decision to pass on a candidate.

The websites employers were searching through included facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Myspace and the number one factor that deterred employees was provocative photos followed by references of alcohol and drug use. Other negative elements potential employers were looking for were bad mouthing of previous employers and poor online communication skills. Employers do realize that people lead private lives. At the same time, they also prefer to hire people who are responsible enough in order to maintain a somewhat professional online reputation. Being careless at managing your own image online does not portray a job applicant as someone who would improve the image of his or her employer. 

  What can people do to maintain a positive online reputation?

1. Create top positive search engines results that you can control. LookupPage allows professionals to create a positive result that ranks high on major search engines and includes additional information regarding the job applicant as well as provide links to reports, images and recommendation letters. Other forms of content that can project positively on a potential candidate include blogging or twitting about a topic that has to do with the position one is trying to obtain.
2. Keep private profiles private. Social networks (including Twitter) offer various privacy settings that allow users to be visible only to friends and family who obtained the approval of the user.
3. Consider who your Facebook friends are. Facebook is a great tool to keep in touch with friends and loved ones. Adding people from your office as your friends on facebook means they can have access to most of your conduct on the social network. This has often backfired when people forgot their boss is also their facebook friend.
4. Keep track of your Google image CV. Removing negative images from search results is a tedious task but is often well worth the effort.

Best Selling Toy Needs Online Reputation Management

With the holiday season approaching fast, a best selling toy is facing a serious online reputation problem. A San Francisco based consumer lab named GoodGuide tested the Go Go Hamster, a furry hamster toy manufactured in China by Zhu Zhu and reached troubling results. The findings that GoodGuide reached was that one of the models of the toy contained a high level of Antimony on the toy's nose and hair, which may be linked to cancer, lung and heart problems.

The Go Go Hamster, a small hamster toy that squeaks and runs across the floor became a hit this holiday season partly because of its low price in a difficult economic period. It had already been marked as one of this season’s hottest toys. A speaker for Character Options the distributor of the toy in the UK said only a week ago that the company is expecting to sell north of 600,000 hamsters before the end of the year. The toy that became a hit partly because of its low retail price of £10 was picked up by speculators who assumed the toy would sell out and would fetch a higher price on eBay or Amazon.

Russ Hornsby, chief executive of the firm Cepia, said in a statement "We want to assure everyone already enjoying Mr. Squiggles or other Zhu Zhu Pets, and those planning to purchase Mr Squiggles or another Zhu Zhu Pet this holiday season, that the toy is 100% safe and in compliance with all US and European toy safety standards.” This statement on behalf of Zhu Zhu is a good start but the fact is that the Google Resume for the term Go Go Hamster is currently very negative

What can a business do if it is finds itself in an online reputation crisis?

Zhu Zhu would be smart to address the concerns of its customers in the most direct way possible. It would be of sound strategy to occupy themselves with the people who have already entrusted their children’s health with the company. By addressing the customer, the company is not only showing that it stands behind its product but also that it is thinking long-term and not only about short term sales for this coming holiday season. The company should follow what Comcast and Domino’s Pizza have done in the past and establish a twitter account so that people could contact the company directly and receive answers for their question. This would show the company is tackling the issue heads on and is not trying to bury the story.

 

Who Needs Online Reputation Management? Paula Deen Knows

A few days ago an unfortunate incident brought unwanted attention to Paula Deen. While trying to do her bit for humanity by volunteering for the pre-Thanksgiving ‘Hosea Feed the Hungry’ food drive in Atlanta, she was hit in the face by a piece of ham that was being tossed for loading (see the below video). She was certainly taken aback, but took it in good spirits, even managing to make a few jokes along the way.

    

Unfortunately, there followed several derogatory reports, most containing more un-pleasantries than necessary. Not only was a video posted online, but this scenario prompted some literary geniuses to post comments such as; “When pigs fly....they land on Paula Deen's face!” and “Paula Deen gets hit in the face with a rogue ham”. A bit cruel for someone who is volunteering time to feed the hungry. 

What does all this have to do with Online Reputation Management? 

Paula is a celebrity chef who may or may not care about what is being said about her on the internet. However, her name is a brand, and the internet has the ability to influence the opinions of the general public, one way or another. As that famous expression goes; ‘the word is more powerful than the sword’ and once comments have been written and “posted’, forever will they stay in cyberspace. Can you gain control over the results page of major search engines? Can you control what is being said about you or your business online?  Creating a profile on LookupPage is a great start for improving online visibility of a business, a professional or a brand. LookupPage Pro will guarantee online visibility on the first page of Google!

Interview with Gareth Lloyd - Director of Product and Digital Development for Workthing+

Workthing+  is an online service that gives jobseekers everything they need to manage their career in one place. It provides essential tools and advice that previously were only available to senior executives.

The Digital Development Director for Trinity Mirror's E-Recruitment businesses and a digital media expert, Gareth Lloyd talks with us on what makes Workthing+ so unique and how web visibility can affect a job seeker’s chances of landing a job.

What differentiates Workthing+ from other recruitment web sites in the Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment group? 

Workthing+ is much more than a recruitment website. It’s a comprehensive service for jobseekers, offering the kind of structured career search support that until now have been prohibitively expensive to unemployed people looking for work. We are not paid by recruiters advertising vacancies – our clients are the candidates themselves, so candidates are our sole focus.
Of course, we’ve also got over 50 job boards in the Trinity Mirror Digital Recruitment portfolio with over 4m registered candidates and 500,000 applications per month. Overall, we have a substantial presence in the market.

Workthing+ was launched approximately 5 months ago, how do you feel the job market has changed during this time?

The job market seems to have stratified to two extremes. There are an increasing number of people who have been out of work for many months – long-term unemployment is a real concern. And then there are other areas where candidates are really in short supply, and good candidates are being picked up really quickly. 

We’ve seen candidates who claim to have done thousands of applications, and then wonder why these are not resulting in interviews. Workthing+ is all about helping smarter candidates get ahead of the game – helping them understand that being a jobseeker is a job in itself, and that job probably requires a very different set of skills to those they would use in their normal job. The challenge for jobseekers is accelerating their jobsearch – and that means quality, focus and structure – rather than ‘spray and pray’. 

One of the biggest changes over the past 5 months is that jobseekers are starting to realize that they can’t always succeed on their own, and that generic advice and support from the Job Centre is just not enough to make a difference.

In what way would you say Workthing+ clients are different from clients of other online recruitment services?

Firstly, our clients are the jobseekers not the recruiters – so our responsibility is to help the jobseeker in whatever way we can.  There is no doubt it takes time and effort to find a job, and we are open and honest about that: Workthing+ members have to put a lot in, and if they do, they get a lot out. It’s the opposite of those job boards that allow candidates to do an easy ‘1 click’ application – as though that’s all it takes to get a job. So, we appeal to the more serious jobseeker, someone who is willing to invest in their job search and career.

Are you guys happy with the rate in which subscribers are finding new jobs?

All the indication from our exit polls and other data indicate we have got a good strike rate. Now, there’s a grey area where we can’t be certain if a person got a job because they were a Workthing+ member, or whether they would have got the job anyway. Our members like and continue to use the service – we have a 70%+ renewal rate each month – and the feedback in terms of success rates is good.

What would you say is the biggest issue that job applicants struggle with when searching for a new job?

Candidates simply are not experts in the recruitment market – hopefully they don’t make a career out of looking for a job! Even if they are expert in their own field, they don’t understand how the process works and how recruitment consultants, HR departments and employers operate. So they don’t know what to expect and how to take control of the process.

How important do you think it is for a job applicant to have positive results come up on a Google search for their name?

Extremely. Any misrepresentation of your name or other negative results could be the difference between being offered a job or being passed over for someone else. Not only do these results need to be positive, they need to be accurate. Having some positive professional results is a good validation for a future employer that you are who you say you are, and you know what your CV claims – it’s virtual reference-checking.

Will having no results on Google ever become a deterring factor for an employer?

Most substantial employers would expect professional hires to have a relevant online presence, and would be confused if you had no web presence. Everyone who’s ever been online has a digital footprint – whether they realize it or not. The way I like to look at it is there’s no excuse for ignoring your online presence any more than ignoring what you wear to an interview. There’s a lot that can be done for free, requiring minimum time and effort. And for the more senior professional, services like the premium LookupPage offering are a valuable way to take control of your online presence. 

 

Gareth Lloyd

Digital Development Director, Trinity Mirror

Gareth is the Digital Development Director for Trinity Mirror's E-Recruitment businesses, managing over 50 recruitment websites. His career includes company directorships and C-suite roles in listed companies, fast-growing owner-managed businesses and as a director in a leading global consultancy firm. He has spent half his media and advertising career in Sydney and half in London, and has specialised in e-recruitment and digital media for the past 6 years.

Over 20,000 Businesses Are Now Listed On The LookupPage Business Directory

LookupPage is proud to announce that over 20,000 businesses are now listed on the LookupPage Business Directory. LookupPage allows professionals and businesses to create at no cost, a positive result on search engines that can rank well and provide valuable external links to any website they wish to promote.
 
The fact that people are searching online for just about everything they need, leads to more businesses competing for web visibility. Online businesses are investing time, effort and money in achieving optimal search engine rankings for their business name because they understand that search engine ranking can dramatically effect the amount of business they will receive. LookupPage is a great tool for establishing a positive search result for businesses and professionals. That is precisely the reason they choose to list themselves on our business directory.


If you do not have a LookupPage for your business, you can easily create one following these steps:

1. Go to the LookupPage homepage at www.LookupPage.com.
2. Enter an email address and a password in the right-end signup box.
3. Select "I'd like a business page".
4. Enter your business and personal name.

In less than a minute your profile will be up and running. At this point all you have to do is add a logo or additional information to your profile so people will know more about your business and why you are great at what you do!

If you are interested in guaranteed first page ranking on Google for your business, you should consider LookupPage Pro. An excellent example of a Premium business page is www.OxfordCarService.com .We encourage you to Google "Oxford car service" so you could see what LookupPage Pro can do to the web visibility of your business.
 

What are the benefits of upgrading to LookupPage Pro?

1. Your business, products and services information promoted across all leading search engines with guaranteed visibility on the first page of Google!
2. Comprehensive visitors' analysis and user information - know when your business is being searched, from where and by whom.
3. Unique domain name [www.YourBusiness.com - or similar]
4. Advertisement free interface and much more.

How do I upgrade to LookupPage Pro ?

1. Sign into your account at http://www.lookuppage.com/lookup-page/login
2. Click the "My Account" tab.
3. Click the "Upgrade / Renew your subscription" link.
4. Chose the "Pro" package and purchase.

 

What Is Retweet To Share Tweets (Twitter’s New Feature) ?

Twitter is testing out a new way for all of us to retweet the content we like. In the video at the bottom of the post, Chris Voss reviews the new feature that will soon be available to all Twitter users.

The new retweet button tracks who has retweeted your content and allows you to see it within the original tweet. It also saves you time by  presenting any tweets mentioning your name at the top of the screen as they occur so you no longer have to refresh the page or click on @yourname.

LookupPage was invited along for the beta testing of the new Retweet buttons and here are our reactions:

1. While we agree that the button completes the task of re-tweeting extremely fast, we wish we still had control over the message itself. Up until now, we could shrink the original message and insert something of our own into the retweet whether it is our opinion or summary. The new feature only allows for   a retweet of the entire message as is.

2. It is fair to assume people are going to be happy with the ability to hide someone else’s retweets. This is similar to an option that has long been around in Facebook If someone retweets a lot and you want a break from seeing them in your timeline, a single click will hide that person’s retweets all together.

Twitter is an excellent tool that helps quite a bit with establishing an online brand and generating business leads. LookupPage Blog has recently explored quite a few  aspects of twitter use that you are welcome to read:

What is Twitter and why following LookupPage on Twitter is a good idea

Twitter for business – Does it work ? 

NFL is wrong for going after twiitter use

Lasting Affect of Viral Video on Online Reputation – Elizabeth Lambert Case Study

Elizabeth Lambert has become famous in the past week but it is doubtful that her family is proud of how she succeeded in doing so. The twenty year old junior soccer player for the University of New Mexico is featured in a video that has gotten over 10.2 million views and over 24,000 comments on the web. The Video shows Lambert throwing a fist and pulling the hair of other athletes in the course of game play. The fact that the video shows similar behavior in more than a single match landed Lambert an indefinite suspension from college soccer.   

How will this video affect the online reputation of Elizabeth Lambert?

The video has become extremely popular, surpassing previous viral video sensations such as the Balloon Boy and JK wedding dance. As a result, people are not only emailing this video to one another but also posting in blogs and discussing it online much like what we are doing here. It is fair to say that the more popular this video becomes the harder it will be to remove from Google search.

LookupPage Blog recently addressed the importance of commenting in creating an online presence. The fact that over twenty four thousand people commented on this story will not escape the [virtual] eyes of search engine bots. It is highly possible that the name Elizabeth Lambert will be associated with this rather violent video for several years to come.

 

 

Twitter Trending Topics and Their Effect on Online Reputation

Twitter trending topics are a great way to know what is on people’s mind and what they are twitting about right now. The fact that these lines are being written on a Sunday morning, 12 hours after the airing of "Saturday Night Live" in the United States has a lot to do with “SNL” being a trending topic at the moment on Twitter, as many people are simply reacting to the popular sketch show.

SNL is television show broadcasted across the United States for over 34 years and as a result, a Google query for SNL returns 10.5 millions pages. The fact that SNL is a trending topic will not necessarily affect its Google Resume, but what happens to the web visibility of an unknown person or company that for one reason or another becomes a trending topic on Twitter?

The short answer: becoming a trending topic on Twitter for an unknown person or business could have an immediate and lasting effect on the way this entity would show up on search engines. 

Trending topics on Twitter are often marked with hashtags (#) as the person who is originally twitting is interested in further input or the continuation of the discussion about the topic at hand.  When explaining what a hashtags is wthashtag.com says, “Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets, similar to how tags work for blogs”. 

If a professional or a businesses that had limited visibility on the web becomes a trending topic on Twitter even for one hour, this would create thousands of hashtags, or essentially thousands of tags that a search engine would associate with that name. A business that becomes a trending topic for doing something negative could be facing a serious online reputation problem, as this negative association is not coming from one source but many. Although it is not a small company, AT&T is certainly feeling the affects of letting its customers down across the United States. Google #attfail to learn more.

Proper Link Building With Social Media Profiles

Teenagers now days establish an online presence at a young age. The social media outlets through which young people communicate online keep changing with time. Five years ago Myspace was extremely popular, and five years from today, Facebook may not be as powerful as it is today.

Social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn allow people to interact with each other but at the same time, they also play a major role in establishing people’s online presence. Chances are that if someone does not have a website or a blog under their name, this person’s Google CV will begin with his or her social media profile.

Social media profiles for the purpose of online reputation management (ORM)

Search engines index social media tools often and tend to rank these results high, leading professionals who are trying to establish or improve their online reputation to create informative profiles with links to additional profiles. Links between positive results can improve a search results significantly if they are created with care. Using anchor text to create a link between two profiles will generate better results than using a generic term after all the idea is to create a content cloud in which a search engine robot can derive several positive results for the same brand, business or person when searching for it online. This is one form of SEO for a personal branding.

Social media profiles for generating business leads

Facebook Fan pages and business Twitter accounts are two examples of social media tools that are meant to increase the probability of generating business leads. Wefollow allows every Twitter user to list themselves under five professional categories making users a part of yet another online directory that people can search through and where businesses strive to be in the top ranking. Linking a Facebook Fan page, a Twitter account and any other social media profile to your business, professional or LookupPage site where people can learn more about your professional portfolio, can surly enhance the chances of generating valid business leads.

Social media profiles for job search 

In addition to a solid resume, an applicant can improve his or her chances of getting a job by creating favorable results when being searched online by a potential employer. Many employers Google their applicants as an initial background check as it is free and takes very little time. Social media tools such as LookupPage and LinkedIn in can assist in creating an online resume that not only ranks well but also provides links to letters of reference, reports, designs and photographs.