Social Networking and security. . .or lack of when promoting your brand

The information era has brought on a new age of public relations for businesses The internet provides with the perfect platform to manipulate your company's image, and strengthen bonds with your customers. I'll show some examples how companies have accomplished this using various websites, as well as how they have had their images manipulated maliciously by outside parties. To begin understanding the importance of your companies digital footprint, consider these questions.

If you type your companies name into Google, what is on your first page of results? Do you even get your company, or just some random links that vaguely shares some similarities to your company name? 

What's on the next page of results after that. Is finding information about your company exhausting?

Does Google find links to consumer review websites? Are these displayed prominently on your first page of search results? How do these reviews reflect on your company?

Ultimately, by answering these questions you should get a better understanding of the information that's readily available about your business. If you can barely find your website through Google or other social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook) you ought to work on that. It's important to understand your customer, and facilitate a conversation through these services.

There are many tools that exist to manage these interactions between your company and the denizens of the internet. Such include :

http://socialmention.com/

https://www.ubervu.com/

https://www.trendrr.com/

There are many more that can be found, functioning on a similar premise: to help companies understand who is mentioning them, and when. This all comes down to your companies digital footprint. What's readily available online about your company, and the ease of access to information pertinent to your company. 

All of this information can be manipulated, for better or worse. You can improve your digital footprint, or scathing reviews from websites like Yelp can destroy it. An industry has arose from the demand for image security, where you can go for assistance in managing your digital footprint. For example, 

http://digitalmediamarketing.com/index1.html

Digital Media Marketing is a service that professes to distinguish your company's online presence from it's competitors. This isn't a unique service, many others exist as this is a growing market. 

 People need to control their images online, but often don't realize that on the individual level you maintain control of your own digital footprint. Personal information you release on the internet will stay there, and the flow often comes exclusively from the individual. Every individual should partake in this online "grooming" by understanding what they post on the internet is permanent, and that nearly anything you post under your name can be found with little effort.