Barack Obama for Virtual President

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…[More]  

Tags: barack obama, brand, google, image, Internet, online reputation management, perception, squidoo