Barack Obama and His Online Reputation

I’ve Googled Barack Obama the day after he made history when he clinched the Democratic Party presidential candidacy. There were almost 50 million occurrences of him in the Internet (now, there are over 55 million). Showing prominently on the first few pages are his blogs and websites – mostly from social networking websites – and news about him from his early campaign to his most recent victory over Hillary Clinton. I would not wonder if he wins the presidential election this November.
He definitely knows how to use the Internet as a campaign and fundraising tool. Obama had harnessed the power of ORM or Online Reputation Management.

What is Online Reputation Management? It is similar to web site marketing, but instead of promoting a website for a keyword, the emphasis is on a name or a brand, with that name as the targeted term. Anyone can Google anybody or anything. What comes up could either make or break you. There’s an adage that says: “Perception is reality.” And whether you’re a politician like Barack Obama, or the CEO of a huge corporation, or the average recent college grad applying for jobs, the image you project of yourself or your brand is being affected by internet searches.

I’ve read a blog (well, technically, a lens) in Squidoo that discusses the importance of Online Reputation Management and how people could easily form their perception of you or their favorite brand. It says people have become adept at utilizing search engines to find information, and at the same time the sites are being relied upon to form opinions and make buying decisions at an ever-increasing frequency. Online Reputation Management deals with marketing, public relations and search engine marketing. Landing on the top 10 search result and maintaining visibility with good publicity which displaces negative publicity is the goal. This results to positive web presence, helping you own top spots in search engine rankings.

Benefits of Online Reputation Management to CEOs

Your online reputation is important if you wish to market anything online. People discuss you and your company with family, at church and their favourite watering hole, now they are taking it online. Positive and negative references about you in social settings can easily be overcome or forgotten while the Internet records this feedback forever,” states Paul Rushing, a Lensmaster and an Internet Sales Manager from Georgia.

An online reputation refers to the perception of a name or a brand that is being proliferated by the web pages in the top of the search results for said name or brand. In a world that has come to rely heavily on the Internet as an authoritative source of information, the idea of managing an online reputation is becoming increasingly important.

Online Reputation Management enables you to protect and manage your reputation and brand. Maximizing your company’s website, utilizing press releases, newsletters and webzines, joining forums and social networks – these are ways that an online reputation can be managed all the way to that job you’ve been wanting, or the sales goals of next quarter, or that political office you so covet, the Presidency of the United States of America.