The short answer is yes you should.

Here’s the long answer:

The internet is one of the most powerful tools we have today. It has changed the way we pay our bills, shop for things, make reservations, talk to relatives and send correspondence. Our children are playing video games online with other children around the world.

Then social media was created, which is the most powerful tool in the world. Social media has changed everything. Businesses use it to advertise, celebrities use it to communication with fans, and people use it to vent or update friends on what is happening.

The things you post online or things that others post about you or your company can be found by anyone who can access the internet – whether they use a computer, smart phone, iPad or Kindle Fire. So as business owners, we need to be aware of what we are posting. As business owners, we also need to be aware of what others are posting about us.

How Your Business Reputation Gets Damaged

How many businesses in the United States have the same name as your business — or a similar name? If there’s even one other business out there that could be confused with your business, and they aren’t treating their customers or employees correctly, your business could be damaged.

Some people post negative comments online about bad experiences they have with businesses. Most won’t waste time giving the street address, city or state of the business. They just give the details of what happened and how the business won’t correct the problem. So how are readers to know if the complaint is about your business or another one? If your business is the one they know, they’ll assume it’s about your business.

How to Control Your Online Reputation

Your online reputation is as vulnerable as your credit rating. To check your credit rating, you just need to pull your credit report from three sources.

Controlling your online reputation can be much more time consuming. There are dozens of search engine and social media sites to search every day.

People who worry about their credit rating hire companies to watch out for their rating. Businesses who worry about their online reputation can now hire an online reputation monitoring company to watch out for their reputation.

Contributed by: David Wanders www.myevpllc.com