I found out about Twitter search from Seth Godin’s blog. I had been shooting the breeze with Twitterfox before that. In blissful ignorance, I was oblivious of the existence of the twitter.com sub-domain, with a search prompt that allows anyone, Twitter member or not , to search through all public tweets using keywords in the age-old search engine style.

The search portal gives users advanced filtering similar to that of larger search engines, with ‘advanced search’ that allows one to specify date ranges, chosen sets of keywords, language, twitter members, referenced twitter members and location.

“This is pretty big”, I thought as I perused search results and discovered what people were saying about topics I had specified. I marvelled at the sheer bone-headedness of myself for not having ever really questioned if Twitter had had a search feature.

This is a topic very close to my heart, as I believe that SMO, ORM and SEO are all interlinked and need to be used together to benefit the client. As an account manager, I always try to ensure that my clients are fully aware of what each of the services entail, how they complement each other and how the combination of these can rocket your marketing efforts sky high.

When a client comes to you to help them shape their online presence, they need a partner; someone who is going to work with them to achieve their goals. It`s not just about rankings, it`s about conversions, ROI and brand awareness. Online reputation is just as important as advertising your brand and increasing your sales, and working together with your client to explore every possible angle is not only great, it`s essential.

Google Suggest has recently been launched (not on Google.co.za yet though). It has many pros and cons, which are already being debated feverishly among online communities. But then, when do online communities (especially marketers) ever keep quiet about their opinions of Google? Some are praising it for its useful hints and time-efficiency, while others see it as a reputation management nightmare. After reading about five or six articles on the topic (quite opinionated ones I might add), the area that interested me the most was the effect that it will have for the industry of online reputation management.

Creating a thriving presence online among an array of social media sites can be taxing on your time and resources. There are so many choices out there that it can become confusing when deciding on which platform/s you want to create your profile, and with which communities you want to get involved. It`s best to keep your number of profiles down to two or three. This is because you want to be able to dedicate your focus, valuable resources and opinions to only a few areas, as opposed to spreading yourself across as many sites as possible.

If you answered yes to the question, then this is a necessary read that contains some helpful resources for healing the damaging effects of bad press. I came across an article by Jeff Quipp on the Search Engine People Blog, which discussed burying negative posts that may have surfaced online about you or your company. It lists an extensive array of sites that can be used to your advantage when building up profiles on various online platforms in order to detract attention from the actual negative article that is being circulated, and to push it off the first results page. Removing negative press from the first page of the SERPs can be an exhausting process, but it`s worth it in the end as it could well save your reputation.

I`ve read many posts on the importance of social media and getting into the “click”, as well as how to get into the “click” and what to do when inside the “click” of a desired community. Now, I agree with most of them (as I`m an easily persuadable person), so I thought I would add my 2 cents worth on the methods and importance of creating brand awareness using the “clicks”.

There is an online community for everything you could possibly think of, from rabbit owners and their furry friends to skateboarders and well, their skateboarding, and one of my personal favorites; the psy trance community. Your choice of community depends on which ones best match the company you`re promoting. In this post I`m going to discuss two ways of creating brand awareness for a company.

A corporate blog can be a potent business tool for many companies, as long as effort is made to keep it up to date and relevant. A corporate blog can act as that vital connection between the organisation and the public (especially if it is an international org.), as well as a portal of views and advice on the particular industry or services offered.

With blogs being rather easy to setup, many companies have invested their time, knowledge and commitment to corporate blogs. But a major concern is how long they will last in today`s demanding working world? For most people, the working day is already pretty full, crammed with new assignments, meeting after meeting, and business travel etc. Without being specifically assigned to the blog (sometimes even when they are), many corporate members move it to the bottom of their to-do list, and the task often gets forgotten.

Online reputation management can be a very hazardous job in its own right. A lot of companies are happy to hand over the reins to outsider management agencies in order to solve their reputation blunders. These days they`re spoilt for choice because there are many ‘qualified` professionals who claim they can fix all your problems in a jiffy. Cheap, speedy services are easy to offer, but are they that easy to deliver on? When companies find themselves in a rather uncomfortable position with the public, they tend to want to take the quickest and least damaging route out of the limelight. Little do they know that this route could be more damaging than they can afford.