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So, the other day I posted about how you can fit LinkedIn into your SEO and Web marketing mix through optimizing the links within your profile as well as linking back to your public LinkedIn profile, participating on LinkedIn Answers, and optimizing member profiles. Of course LinkedIn is built around individual members, so business interaction is very individual to individual ... there's something kind of nice about this, more personal feel.

Conceptual LinkedIn Company Pages.

It's interesting how aspects of our lives come into play. Prior to joining this Web revolution, or evolution, depending on your point of view, I worked in the world of consumer packaged goods. I developed and managed some of the office products that most of you probably use everyday. I became fairly familiar with even more products that I didn't manage, but was naturally exposed to. One of these was the Rolodex brand card file products after that parent company was acquired.

Even though I didn't manage the product line, there was always something intriguing about the products. In this highly electronic world we live in, business cards continue to change hands every day. At some point or another, I'd guess that nearly every TV sitcom has someone pulling a card or looking up contact information from a card file; or at the very least, one is seen prominently on someone's desk. It just lends credibility and is something we've grown to expect.

By no means do I see business cards disappearing anytime soon--so pull those boxes back out of the trash. But, keep in mind that even business cards can only take you so far. Beyond business cards, everyone (and every business) should make sure that they are adding LinkedIn.com to their marketing mix.

While there are a number of services that can help keep you up to date with your contacts--probably better actually--the mix of features as well as the huge and continued adoption of LinkedIn by professionals makes it a worthwhile Web marketing venue.

So how can LinkedIn fit into your SEO and Web marketing mix? Here are three key areas to focus on.

Links & Linking

Every LinkedIn profile is able to add three links to other sites. These could be anything--perhaps to your company home page or to your blog. What many may not realize is that these links are live, direct, and not "nofollowed" on the public profile page...which is the page that is openly available to search engine spiders.

Rather than using the default choices that LinkedIn provides when adding links though, select "Other:" to add relevant anchor text to your links. Of course, you also need to make sure that your public profile is set to actually show these links within the Web site section of your profile. Since these public pages are accessible to search engine spiders, they'll also pass PageRank and contribute to overall link popularity.

Now that you've added links, be sure to link to your public profile URL from other sites when appropriate. This way you'll drive a little traffic to the profile, and depending on the link, also flow a little PageRank through the profile page to your chosen Web site or sites.

Answers

SEO of course has a strong focus on-site and in regard to search engine spiders. But SEO is also part of the much bigger picture of search engine marketing (SEM). This becomes especially clear when looking at the social media arena. And no where is this more evident than in the LinkedIn Answers section.

The Answers section provides members a forum for asking as well as answering questions posed by other members. While search engine spiders may index and even return these pages, more importantly, these pages are seen everyday by real live human beings who may well be potential customers. Participating within the Answers section is an ideal opportunity to demonstrate thought leadership within your industry, draw additional attention to your Web site (since you did of course add a link to it from your profile as discussed above), network, and further build your brand image.

Optimization

Did I mention that your public profile may be seen, indexed and more importantly, returned within search results? What this means is that you have one more opportunity to rank, and not only rank, but rank via content that you control. LinkedIn is a great reminder that optimization is mostly focused on-site, but we should never lose sight of opportunities to optimize content we can control, residing on sites that may lead visitors to our site. And actually, LinkedIn may provide even more than one opportunity to rank since every employee's profile within a company may be one more potential search result.

Now this isn't a license to spam your LinkedIn profile. What it does mean is that it may be beneficial to give a little more attention to the summary information that you provide. Write it intelligently but also incorporating strong keyword-rich signals that are related to your brand, industry and Web site that you wish to be found for.

Best of all, even if LinkedIn decides to "nofollow" all links within profiles, or even block search engines from indexing member profiles, LinkedIn will still serve as an online marketing and networking channel to connect you and your business with potential clients and customers, which in the end, is what SEO is really all about.

But as I said earlier, don't go throwing out your business cards, or your card files. Who knows though, maybe in the future, business cards will look a little differently than they do today, and perhaps something more like this:

Brian R. Brown
http://www.linkedin.com/in/brianrbrown

Certainly allows for plenty of white space.

Concerned about what your customers say about you online? Well, you should be.

You probably think you have your bases covered by allowing product reviews and client testimonials through your Web site, but the truth is that the blogosphere can make (or break) you as a company if Google includes a customer's blog post in the SERPs (search engine results pages).

Prominently positioned customer blog posts in the SERPs that either love you or hate you can be more powerful than product reviews for several reasons, the most obvious one being that many blogs act as word-of-mouth advertising when things go right--and when they go wrong.

While some bloggers may have a reputation for always pointing out things that are wrong with the world, make no mistake about it: "acts of kindness" do get talked about, in a big way! You may have already overheard some of the positive buzz about Zappos, a fashion retailer of shoes and handbags, probably due in part to its free overnight shipping, very liberal return policy, and enthusiastic customer reviews. Here's a blog post you may not have heard about, "I Heart Zappos."

We all understand that sometimes bad things happen to good people, and Zaz LaMarr (the writer of the post) could be any one of us. In her post, she described how she purchased several pairs of shoes for her ill mother. Some didn't fit, but she didn't get around to returning them. Shortly afterward, her mom passed away and LaMarr still hadn't gotten around to mailing them.

When Zappos followed up on the shoes, LaMarr wrote back and explained the situation, ending with: "I'd send the shoes as soon as I could." Not only did Zappos arrange for UPS to pick up the shoes, but the company also sent a floral arrangement with condolences.

The result of Zappos' kindness? The customer that it treated like gold also happened to be a blogger with readership. Word of this good deed is spreading around the Web faster than the speed of a T-1 line, and her post is currently in position No. 12 in Google for "Zappos," and in position No. 9 in Yahoo.

Still not a believer that blogs are powerful? One commenter to her post declared, "I am going to go buy something from them and refer them to this post as the reason for my purchase. If only more companies acted this human."

What better way to build your reputation than to get back to basics and be nice to people?

On the flip side, some companies are earning their reputation as unfeeling, corporate giants. I can't think of another industry that has more problems with that image than the airlines. Search Google for "Spirit Airlines" and the No. 3 ranked result is a blog post headline that reads, "Do Not Fly Spirit Airlines."

What started out as a complaint over a $5 fee attracted a blogstorm; not only were several other horror stories relayed in the blog post's comments, but other posts like this one about the "Spirit Airlines Story" have attracted attention outside of the blogosphere in places like The Chicago Tribune, consumer complaint groups and more.

What was so bad?

Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza reacted to a well-written customer complaint letter by saying "Please respond, Pasquale, but we owe him nothing as far as I'm concerned. Let him tell the world how bad we are. He's never flown us before anyway and will be back when we save him a penny." The customer got ahold of the comment because Baldanza hit the "Reply to All" button.

Instead of apologizing or trying to deal with the situation in a better manner, Spirit Airlines blew off its customers and people reacted. While airline execs could have done something to resolve the issue, blogs don't seem to be important to them. Company spokeswoman Alison Russell was quoted as saying, "We wouldn't respond to a blog post. She goes on to say: "This goes back to the larger question of the veracity of everything you read on Internet blogs. Our customer service is great."

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "De Nile is a river in Egypt." How many travelers do you think are going to steer clear of Spirit Airlines after they read that damning post (in a No. 3 Google position)?

The lesson here, folks, is that the cliches you've heard about being kind to one another holds true--even (or especially) on the Internet.

Reputation monitoring and management have become hot topics and will only continue to grow. These are becoming important areas for all businesses, large and small, to focus on as more and more people turn to the Web to communicate through blogs, their own Web sites, as well as the ever-growing opportunities for online consumer reviews and ratings.

Here is a quick Reputation Management 101 rundown of five tips in each of five different areas to get you started:

Pre-emptive measures are best

The old adage of prevention being the best cure carries a lot of weight here.

• Always strive to view your site through the eyes of your visitors
• Make sure that contact information is available, easy to find, and working
• Respond to messages in a timely manner
• When issues do start to crop up, fix them before they become widespread
• Strive to achieve that level at which customers, clients and visitors are singing your praises publicly for you

Places to monitor

Start creating bookmarks of specific sites to monitor.

• Use Google and Yahoo email alerts, as well as regular manual searches, in all major engines to search for your company name, product and brand names, or mentions of your URL
• Especially if you have a local presence, look for local Web sites to monitor
• Keep an eye on the blogosphere, and set up RSS feeds for monitoring
• Don't forget general or topical forums
• Also keep an eye on sites with consumer reviews and ratings

Dos

There are many things you should do, but here are some especially important ones to keep in mind.

• Decide whether a response is warranted
• Decide whether a response or discussions are better suited for offline, one-to-one conversations
• Take time before responding to remove any chance of emotions tainting your response
• If at all possible, have someone else read your response before posting
• Use responses as a way to reach out to your audience, even if the conversation needs to be handled offline

Don'ts

Of course, no list of dos would be complete without a list of don'ts.

• Don't get defensive
• Don't attack or get personal
• Don't shirk blame or avoid responsibility
• Don't pretend to be someone else and make posts that appear to be from "satisfied customers" coming to your defense

Reminders

And to round out our list, here are some key things to keep in mind.

• Remember that what you say privately could be made public by others
• Remember that most of the people posting negative comments are looking to express their frustrations, seek acknowledgment and be valued
• View this as an opportunity to build stronger relationships, to show goodwill and to show that you care
• People have always been able to say negative things about you or your company; now it is just easier to do it publicly, but it is also easier for people to tell everyone how great you are as well
• Set and keep a schedule for monitoring, and automate as much of it as possible

For a more detailed view, including some specific sites to look at for monitoring, you may want to check out Andy Beal's resource, Free Online Reputation Management Beginner's Guide, over at Marketing Pilgrim.