1) The Internet is our first stop for every kind of information today
Today people not only search for information but also trust what they discover online. Decisions are made basis the information found online. Across the categories, online shopping is influenced by the quality of reviews right from restaurants, hotels to even automobiles, etc.
2) Boundaries between online and offline are disappearing
As the online world becomes more and more integrated into our lives due to smartphones and social media. Today host of activities are happening online for the offline world. E.g., You need food, but you research restaurant reviews online, or you need to travel somewhere. Such offline businesses like restaurants, tour operators, hotels also need to keep up their image. If offline stores are not selling anything online, they are generating inquiries that result in business offline. So people are checking for information about you, your business, your services, etc. online, whether you like it or not.
Similarly, as an individual, you are leaving your digital footprint online when you use social media or undertaken any online activity. This essentially means that you may end up leaving an online mark, positive or negative in more and more ways now.
One may wonder why people will search online about you:
Common reasons include:
- Employing searching job boards like Monster.com etc. for hiring prospective employees
- Landlords looking at online profiles on social media like Facebook and LinkedIn for potential tenants
- Colleagues sharing professional achievements and opportunities
- Young people looking for partners online on matrimonial sites like Bharat matrimony for marriage
- Websites like tinder for dating etc
So no matter whether you are active in the online world or not, there is a lot of information available about you that people are seeing.
3) Your online profiles are forever
If someone gives your business a negative review, you can’t wish it away or delete it. Any such negative review impacts you over the long term, especially if you are unaware of it.
So it is not only important to keeps tabs on what people are saying about you online but also take corrective actions to put your viewpoint forward factually. This is exactly the reason why you need to monitor not only what others are posting but also what you are posting yourself. E.g., the US immigration services now collect social media data of immigrants to screen all people entering the united states.