Companies in 2010 have realized that protecting their online reputation is an important element of any marketing or public relations plan. This applies to the smallest micro business as well as large multi-national conglomerates. All it takes is one client reading one bad review online to lose huge chunks of revenue — and that’s something no company can afford in these troubled economic times. Companies with hefty PR budgets can afford to pay for online reputation management services from established firms. Smaller companies will need to find their own tools for monitoring and tracking their online reputation.

There are some simple tools available to everyone. Setting up a Google alert for the business name as well as the name of key executives is an easy way to monitor what is being published on webpages and blogs. However, that’s only part of the picture. Companies are going to need to invest in using social media tools to track what is being said on facebook, twitter, and other social sites. There are far too many tools available to list them all. Identifying which sites are most likely to be used by a given demographic is the best way to narrow down the work involved in keeping track of the web. Companies should focus on monitoring those specific sites, but should also have tracking in place that casts a wider net.

It’s also important to keep track of new developments in the field of online reputation management. New tools are released all the time and new social media sites go live. Staying on top of those trends is vital in order to know what, and how to track. Many rep management companies maintain blogs and publish articles on their websites to give advice on these matters. One such example is the elixir interactive blog . Following blogs like this will be an immense help in locating tools and strategies for reputation management