Did you know that 78% of people search for information about a person or business before deciding whether or not to contact them. Also 74% of people admitted they would refuse to do business with someone or a business if they discovered any negative information on them.

This has massive repercusions for people who own businesses on the Internet. A shocking photo uploaded to Facebook or the private tweet sent to someone could be made public at any time!

A US restaurant chain called Chipotle recently hit the headlines with an online reputation incident that rocked the world. Their facebook account was allegedly hacked making it look like an employee posted a message saying they ran over a cat on her way home from work. People went crazy about it and it could have easily led to a sudden loss of sales - a nightmare for any business.

James Winsoar, owner of Nottingham based search engine optimisation company JW Enterprises said, "What would you feel if you looked through the search results that appear when people search for your company name? Many people would find negative comments linked to their business posted by angry customers or aggreived employees on internet review sites such as Google Places, Yelp or Tipped".

"The good news is that businesses can do something about it. There is the legal route which can be taken if there are slanderous comments but it can be expensive to hire a lawyer. A more sensible method is to set up blogs, social bookmarking profiles, and wiki's where people can ask questions and learn about you or your company. Post articles, videos and press releases that describe you or your company in a good way".

Many customer complaints can be resolved by encouraging communication. Most complaints escalate as a result of poor communication. Thankfully this can be resolved in exactly the same way that the negative comments can be pushed further down the search results and onto page two or three where people will be less likely to read them.

By the use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter communication with customers becomes easier and can be done in as few as an hour a day. Facebook can be linked to Twitter to make sharing news with customers more automated, and likewise your Twitter posts can be synchronised to Facebook. Many businesses are finding that use of Twitter for customer service is great for building up trust and managing their online reputation.

Be warned that you cannot copy and paste positive testimonials you have received onto the review sites. Anti-spam measures are written into all the leading review sites. Review sites expect genuine customers to post reviews from their own computers and from different IP addresses. Having people post good reviews about you is a sure-fire route to achieving higher rankings and a more favourable online reputation.