What is YOUR online reputation?

I hadn't given a single thought to reputation management until I was reading one of my favorite blogs recently. Mindy, the author, sells advertising on her blog, which is the source of her family's income. She frequently participates in Momversations, which are video discussions between successful mommy bloggers on selected topics.

In one particular session, the ladies were discussing "Post Baby Body." In the clip, which is edited together with the other women's responses by the Momversation website, Mindy made a comment about how the changes to a mom's body are like changing from a girl to a woman (I'm paraphrasing a bit.) One viewer took this comment out of the context in which it was meant and was actually offended by it. This viewer had her own highly trafficked website, No Pasa Nada, so she wrote a post harshly criticizing (and unfairly, I might add) Mindy and ended up with over 100 readers posting their displeasure over the comment, as well.

The scathing comments continued on the website until Mindy wrote a follow-up apology on her own blog. She attempted to comment on NPN's blog post, but the author had closed the comments. After Mindy's apology, NPN opened comments back up and Mindy was able to confront her critics. She commented that these hurtful comments were putting her integrity and livelihood in jeopardy by tarnishing her online reputation. NPN finally closed the discussion and comments and appears to have moved on. But, what if she hadn't moved on? If this woman had decided to continue her tirade, she could have launched an all out campaign against Mindy and her blog, effectively cutting off her revenue source and putting her family's financial security at risk. (Thank God she didn't. I applaud NPN for not going any further, BTW.)

The Internet is such an enormous part of our lives now that we look to the web to be our reference guide on all things. With the incredible number of personal blogs and watchdog websites, there are a lot of opinions floating around on the Internet. You can find entire sites dedicated to consumer complaints against companies. Some of these vitriolic tirades are well-deserved, but some are isolated incidents and some are even competition-inspired fabrications.

So, what to do when your name is smeared? Call the experts, of course. Oh, yes, there are experts in online reputation management. Check out the site if you don't believe me. You can actually pay public relations consultants and web experts to monitor and correct negative online attacks on your reputation. As it turns out, all publicity isn't good publicity.

See all the fun things you can discover when you have nothing better to do with your day?! I'd LOVE to know what you think! ;)