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Does your organization have a good rep – or a bad one? There's only one way to know for sure. Follow these five steps to find out where your organization stands – virtually speaking -- and how to fix a bad rep before it costs you members, supporters, donors, or sponsors.

1. Become a Search Engine Detective.

Every good opposition researcher knows where to find dirt online – at a trusty search engine. Google or Yahoo! your organization, and see what you find. Is your own Website presented high in the search results? What else is showing up on the first page – and if it isn't your content describing your organization – whose is it? Be sure to search for the obvious problems, such as your company's name matched with an issue on which you've gotten a bad rap. To keep tabs on the state of your reputation, be sure to use a tool like Google Alerts so that you are notified when content is posted online about your organization.

2. Buttress Your Press.

Type "Hillary Clinton," "Barack Obama," or "John McCain" into your favorite search engine, and see what they have in common. Hint: It's not their politics – it's their search results. The first thing you'll notice is that the top search result (after sponsored listings) is news. Your organization is no different. Whether you're generating good or bad press – it's going to show up at the top of your search results. While you can't change bad press – you can leverage press releases as a way to highlight good news about your company. Post press releases on your Website, and be sure they can be found online. Press releases can enhance your online reputation – so be sure to use them well.

3. Flyspeck Your Wikipedia Article.

Wikipedia currently contains 2,323,764 articles on every imagineable topic, and possibly one about your own organization. According to Wikipedia, it is a conflict of interest for an organization to create its own Wikipedia article, to edit its own article, or to pay someone to do so. However, it makes common sense to monitor your article if you have one, and to encourage your unpaid supporters to either write or enhance your article – in a neutral manner using reliable source information – as necessary.

4. Talk Back.

We now live in a world of user-generated content, where all of us are online publishers and any of us can make positive or negative comments about ourselves and those around us – using text, video, or photos. In a talk-back virtual environment, we have a responsibility both to monitor what others are saying (and showing) others about us and to be responsible about what we say and do online. After you snap that photo of your work colleague doing a keg stand at the company picnic, think twice before you post it to Facebook, MySpace, or Flickr. It's just this kind of content that sets you and your company up for the online reputation hangover.

When user-generated content is posted about your company online – and especially if it's incorrect – don't be afraid to set the record straight. Remember, however, that not every blog post is worth responding to; Earl Nobody's blog does not carry the same weight as the Daily Kos. Remember these two rules when responding to user-generated content (luckily for us, they rhyme): Be polite and be right.

5. Take Control of Your Reputation.

The strategies of search engine optimization and keyword advertising (see Sean's blog post) can be extremely useful in helping you put your virtual best-foot forward. The takeaway here is simple: remember that your online reputation comes from what people say and what people FIND indexed online. Smart companies still make mistakes, face lawsuits, layoff employees, and get their reputations bruised along the way, but they know how to use their content, create new content, and apply search strategies strategically to avoid long-term pain.

Have a question about how to improve your organization's online reputation? Contact 720 Strategies' Michael Cornfield, at or 202/962-3955. And, download our online reputation backgrounder.

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