ToolBox -

By: Tanya Gonzalez

Many business owners are jumping on the social networking bandwagon, creating profiles for their companies and offering support through their pages. However, social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter can oftentimes get out of hand. People can write comments, put up pictures and give away information about themselves that can come back to haunt them.

It’s important to remember that online slander can and often does extend to social media sites. If you as a business owner have a personal site, chances are your clients – and your enemies – can find you and use any bit of information that is even remotely incriminating to your detriment.

Your competitors and enemies can also put up gossip and negative comments on their own sites, questioning your company image and morale.

Since there are millions of users on social networking sites, it’s crucial to run a tight reputation management campaign and seek out any negative slander you can find. Once you befriend someone, they can see your page, their friends can see your page, and anyone else can see it for that matter unless you put up strict privacy settings – which would defeat the purpose of advertising your business online.

Not to worry though, there are numerous techniques available for free that you can research to protect your company’s good name. Books and websites about reputation management are also available at minimal costs. You can also employ a top reputation management company to monitor your site as well as any negative press on others.

You can never be too careful when it comes to your company’s reputation. One small rumor can destroy your company and make it nearly impossible to bounce back. By keeping a good reputation management campaign going strong, you can protect yourself and your business from enemies who want to bring you down.