If you’ve heard me talk or read my articles you know one thing that I firmly believe in is Social Media. This new method of marketing your business can help you reach new customers and stay on the pulse of existing ones.

If you’re a photographer who wants to compete in this fast changing and competitive online marketplace now is the time to start getting your feet wet with Social Networks like Facebook, mySpace, Twitter, Flickr etc.

If you don’t understand how social media works I urge you to find a friend, colleague or consultant who can teach you how to leverage the power that Social Media Networking can offer.

There is no better way to obtain real-time feedback about you or your brand than there is through what is called Reputation Monitoring.

REPUTATION MONITORING
So you’ve spent all this time building your online reputation now you need to protect it. As the old adage goes “the best offense is a good defense” and through the use of some very clever programs you can stay connected with your customers in real-time. You’ll know when they are happy, when they have questions and even when their upset with your or your service, you can then respond quickly before things get out of hand.

The simple fact is the web has made it possible for consumers to hide behind the glow of their computer screens and easily voice their opinions through the use of blogs, forums and social networking sites. You need a way to protect your good name.

Since Twitter seems to be all the rage these days let me start by sharing two very simple online tools can help you stay on top your Twitter Relationships

First let’s look at TweetScan.com – TweetScan is a FREE service that allows you to easily search public messages and user profiles. You can also set TweetScan to automatically send you an email alert when someone mentions your name or a keyword that you specify within your account.

Benefits of using Tweet Scan:

• Get updates via email, rss, or use our Click button
• Use it to find lost or multi-user replies.
• Scan up to five phrases for daily or weekly delivery
• No ads(in emails) or spam.
• Turn it off at any time.

If you are looking for a little more robust solution head over to EasyTweets.com

EasyTweets has 3 types of accounts ranging from $24.00 to $99.00 per month but also offers a free version that will allow you to get your feet.

EasyTweets is a serious Twitter Tool and includes the ability to manage multiple Twitter accounts, schedule your Tweets, Search Twitter, Create Email and SMS Alerts and much more. You can manage your entire Twitter world within EasyTweets.

If you are serious about building your Twitter Network this is a must have tool.

If you need an all around Reputation Monitoring Tool I suggest checking out Trackur.com. Tracker scans hundred of millions of websites daily including blogs, videos, images and forums and will report its findings based upon the criteria that you enter into your account.

Trackur has several plans to choose from depending on your needs and the size of your business ranging from $18.00 to $197.00 per month. They do offer a 2-week free trial.

Trackur will scan the web daily for you and report back its findings, good, bad or ugly.

Trackur.com was built by Internet Consulting and reputation management Guru Andy Beale and is definitely worth checking out even if it’s just for the 2-week trial. I think you’ll quickly see the value in it.

You’ve worked hard to build your cyber-reputation and you need to work just as hard to keep it.