Product Description

The explosion of social media blogs, social networking sites, and video sharing sites has ushered in a new era of digital transparency that puts the power to enhance or destroy a reputation in the hands of the consumer. This timely and practical book shows you how to harness the power of social media with crucial, proven tactics and strategies for every phase of online reputation management. Using step–by–step instruction and tested techniques, the expert authors unveil a detailed blueprint for building, managing, monitoring, and repairing your reputation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100934 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 378 pages

From the Back Cover
People Are Talking About You Online

What are they saying? How do you find out? How do you respond? And how can you use the conversation to your benefit?

The explosion of social media—blogs, social networking sites, video sharing sites—has ushered in a new era of digital transparency that puts the power to enhance or destroy a reputation in the hands of the consumer. This timely and practical book shows you how to harness the power of social media with crucial, proven tactics and strategies for every phase of online reputation management.

Using step–by–step instruction and tested techniques, the expert authors unveil a detailed blueprint for building, managing, monitoring, and repairing your reputation. They detail important public relations, search engine optimization, research, and online content creation strategies and provide a seven–step action plan so that you can develop the skills necessary to monitor and manage your reputation. You′ll learn how to:

• Navigate the new rules of engagement in a transparent world

• Define who you are and develop your personal or corporate brand

• Create positive PR buzz with your online content

• Gain visibility in web search results and harness SEO tools

• Understand the pros and cons of e–mail before you hit "Send"

• Use the latest Internet tracking methods and understand how information spreads online

• Apply solid strategies for reputation repair when things go wrong

This is sure to become the definitive guide for members of any company or group who want to join and shape the often brutally honest conversation across social media about their brands, products, and people."
—Tom Giles, Editor, Technology & Science, BusinessWeek.com

This is an indispensable guide to managing your reputation online. With compelling case studies and tools to use right now, it′s a must–read and a surefire wake–up call!"
—Dr. Leslie Gaines–Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist, Weber Shandwick

Radically Transparent illuminates a path that leads to an engaging conversation with your customers. Read this book so that you can participate, measure, and influence what others are saying about you."
—Bryan Eisenberg, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?

Branding has evolved from a one–way monologue to a two–way conversation. It′s vital you know the strategies needed to join the conversation and build your radically transparent reputation."
—John Battelle, national bestselling author of The Search

One of the best written books I′ve seen on a vitally important topic: the underbelly of transparency in the age of Google. How do you control your digital identity when everything is findable online? Read this engaging book for practical, persuasive answers."
—Debbie Weil, author of The Corporate Blogging Book

In this new world of instant connection and networked customers, understanding what people are saying about your company, your products, and your competitors is vital for business success. Reputations, like trust, are built over time, but can be destroyed in an instant. Follow carefully what this book says—the career you save might be your own!"
—David L. Sifry, founder and Chairman, Technorati, Inc.

About the Author
Andy Beal is a consultant and one of the world’s most respected experts in online reputation monitoring and management. He has worked with Motorola, Lowe’s, Quicken Loans, NBC, GlaxoSmithKline, and SAS. Founder of the award–winning Marketing Pilgrim blog (marketingpilgrim.com), Beal has been featured in Dow Jones, Washington Post, and BusinessWeek. He is a frequent speaker at such trade shows as Search Engine Strategies and Direct Marketing Association, has published more than three dozen articles, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and BusinessWeek.

Dr. Judy Strauss is a consultant, international speaker, former entrepreneur, and previous marketing director of two companies. She is an award–winning author of 11 books and numerous scholarly articles on internet marketing topics. She coauthored E–Marketing, the first textbook on internet marketing. She currently teaches e–marketing, communication, and strategy topics to MBA and undergraduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno. She has won numerous awards for teaching, writing, and entrepreneurial activities.

Customer Reviews

The first of its type
If you work in a company where the internet or some kind of online service is not your primary business, chances are that the owners, directors or your boss are of the generation where "online reputation" means very little.

The days of controlling a company's message through a big press agency and brochures, press ads and maybe the front page of the website are, of course, long gone, but top executives are, in my experience, generally behind the times when it come to this truth, simply because in order to have become top execs, they are from the aforementioned generation.

So, whereas your average 15-year-old can research, manipulate and develop their own online rep instinctively (and without knowing that this is what they're doing), companies have a very particular conundrum: They have the business sense, but those who have the reputation management skill tend to be on a different planet to them.

When a company I was working with needed to start to understand online reputation management from a business point of view, we looked around for a guide to help us pull together SEO, buzz generation, forum management, reputation repair and so on, and one simply didn't exist.

We pieced together what we needed from online white papers, blogs, our own experience and a big dose of common sense, and we muddled through, cajoling forum owners, putting out online press release and so on, but how I wish I'd had this book at the time.

With sections on reputation, brand development, buzz generation, multimedia, copywriting and crisis management, I'd go as far as to say that every company that doesn't have a senior web expert should have a copy of this book to help them avoid and manage such issues. Try explaining these things to litigious-happy top execs who are used to silencing their critics the old way, and you'll realise that you need every tool in your box, and there is a LOT of backup material for those who are trying to get their companies to "do the right thing" here.

Its only shortfall would be the fact that precisely because a lot of what it discusses is so new, some techniques will date quickly, and some are by their nature experimental.

But to encourage a deeper understanding of the issues in order to make your own decisions, this is thoroughly recommended, not only for those who work in companies that need to start taking their reputation management seriously, but also if you just want to start filling the Google results page with wonder, not embarrassment, when someone types your name in!

An important read for the "one man band" as it is for larger businesses
If you are a blogger looking to raise your credibility, a self employed plumber looking for leads or a life coaching looking to become a trusted authority/expert in their field this book will help you. Whatever your business if you are thinking about going online as a way of bringing in new customers you need to make sure you do it right. If anyone has been saying bad things about you or your company you also need to know how to manage that and deal with the damage.

This book is as relevant for the individual business owner as it is for the corporate giant. We all need to make sure that what people say about us online is relevant and helps to promote who we are not tear us down.

I was about to start a PR campaign by sending out one press release and then I read the chapter "your online press room" and everything changed. Now I know how to do things to ensure I gain the maximum exposure and look like a pro

Discover the rules of online reputation management
Andy Beal and Judy Strauss have written the referent book on the market for all of us involved in online reputation management.

Authoritative, practical, down-to-earth, 100% relevant and easy to read, this book is simply a must for individuals and organizations concerned about their reputation and branding in these uncertain times.

Discover the new rules of online PR and develop your own personal and corporate brand before others do to your detriment!