A while back, we discussed various free online tools that allow you to monitor your brand’s reputation online. These tools enable you to search blogs and websites that have mentioned you and your company. But how often do you Google your business?

There are several reasons you should keep up with your brand’s ranking on Google. First of all, if you run a business online, it’s likely that you put effort into search engine optimization. So, a common reason to use Google here would be to check out your keywords. Say your site sells parts for cars and you want to check your rankings for certain keywords you focus on, such as “ford explorer shocks” or “cold air intake.” To get an effective idea as to how your site and pages are ranking for these keywords, you should be using Google at least twice a week to check up.

In addition to the monitoring tools mentioned in the link above, you should also randomly check Google throughout the week to see what’s being said about your brand online. There are several third party sites that house reviews and coupon codes for websites that show up in Google searches. While some of these sites offer positive effects to your company, some of them can be so negative that they result in damage to your business.

Sites like epinions.com and measuredup.com allow consumers to create a profile about your company and review their experience. Back to the car part store – let’s call it “shopcarparts.com.” If you Google “shopcarparts.com” and you find a negative review about your company, what do you do? Keep in mind that if you see it on Google, customers (and potential customers) are seeing it, too.

Over at the Personal Branding Blog, they suggest sending out a press release as a way to control your Google results. Although they discuss sending out a personal press release, which may or may not be relevant to your business, it’s still a great idea to build off of. Not only is a press release a good way to gain results in Google, it also provides links and anchor text that boost SEO value.

These are just a few reasons it is important to use a site as simple as Google to keep up on your customer service and marketing endeavors. Are there any other suggestions your business has used? We’d love to hear them in the comments!

Everyone that seems to have an opinion about BP’s oil spill (either hopeful or negative) seems to be expressing those thoughts through the internet.  The world has taken to the blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter, Photobucket, YouTube and other web 2.0 channels to spread their message. There is no doubt that BP has heard them loud and clear but can they even begin to control this social media spill?

Orange8 agency posted the below Sysomos MAP which shows the general sentiment levels for “BP” throughout the blogosphere. The graph shows that in January and February the sentiment levels were generally neutral or positive.  However by the end of April you could see the growing trend of negativity. In May the negative sentiment only grew stronger, as 51% of all “BP” related blog posts were negative. An alarming trend that will probably rise or remain stable until the oil spill has been controlled.

The question is what can / should BP do? Let’s look at the raw numbers of media being produced revolving around the BP oil spill. *Current as of writing this post.

• According to Icerocket.com, there have been more than 97,00 blog posts discussing BP since mid-March, with 1,084 new posts per day.
• 2,992 links in the last 30 days were shared on Digg.com containing the words, BP Oil Spill.
• 3,940 videos have been uploaded to YouTube containing the exact match of “BP Oil Spill.”
• A fake Twitter account was created in mid-May to parody BP’s efforts in cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BPGlobalPR. The account currently has 134,792 followers which is 1,036% greater than the official BP Twitter account, BP_America.

• BP’s official Facebook Page has been averaging over 155 comments per BP wall post. The vast majority of these comments are argumentative or negative in sentiment.
• There are 317 Facebook pages that include “BP Oil Spill” in the title. The largest five groups (all negative) cumulatively have over 57,000 supporters.
• An additional 480 Facebook pages exist that include “Boycott BP” in the title. The largest five groups cumulatively have 478,000 supporters!

So what is BP to do with all of this negative press? Is there anything they really can do? BP won’t be able to control the public’s response, the snowball of negativity, frustration and anger has gained far too much momentum to be stopped. The one thing that BP can and has started to do is be open, and to give raw transparency. Toyota was responsible with their mishap earlier this year. They addressed the problem and didn’t hide anything from the public. Running a TV ad campaign to address how committed BP is  to cleaning up the Gulf of Mexico was a horrible idea. The campaign failed because in the public’s opinion, the time and costs to produce the campaign only took resources away from the clean up effort.

I’m sure BP is leveraging every resource in their possession to clean up the oil spill, now their executives just need to stop thinking about addressing shareholders and attempting to sway the public’s opinion of BP – because at this point, they are only wasting their breath. The evidence is in both the social media trends and the free fall of BP’s common share price. BP can only eliminate the negativity by cleaning up the mess they caused in the Gulf of Mexico.

If the BP oil spill has got to you as much as it has the rest of the web, you can always download the Oil Spill Firefox Plug-in from creative agency, Jess3.com.  The plug-in bloats out any mention of “BP” in your browser.

Memorial Day is about honoring the men and women that have died for our country as well as those who serve or have served in the military. As we approach this Memorial Day, we’d like to take some time to tell you about two members of the Supplies Guys family that will be leaving for Iraq on a 12-month deployment.

SFC Sean Paige – NY Army National Guard
1st Platoon, Platoon Sergeant

Sean Paige is our Sales Manager at The Supplies Guys. In this role, Sean oversees all sales and customer service representatives within the company. As Sean confidently leads this aspect of our company, we are proud to bid him farewell as Platoon Sergeant of the 442 Military Police Company.

SGT Adam Schafer – NY Army National Guard
1st Platoon, 2nd Squad Leader

Adam Schafer is the Government Sales Representative at The Supplies Guys. Adam works individually with all of our government accounts to provide each office and division with attentive customer service. Adam’s dedication to his customers are an indication of his work ethic that will undoubtedly be carried over to his role as 2nd Squad Leader of the 442 Military Police Company.

As Adam and Sean prepare to serve in Iraq, we ask that you keep them in your thoughts this Memorial Day, in addition to those that have served and died for our country. We want to thank Sean and Adam for their service to our country, as well as the hundreds and thousands of men and women that have done the same. You will be missed!

Google TV wasn’t the only big thing announced at Google’s I/O keynote. In addition to their new web TV, Google presented version 2.2 of their Android OS, codenamed Froyo.  Although there is an existing version of the Android OS, this update is so big because Google is bringing HTML5 and Flash to the plate. With Apple knocking themselves completely off the roster, this could be a huge win for Google.

The absence of Flash on the iPad has been a major complaint since the device’s release in early April. But, Flash isn’t the only thing Froyo has on Apple.

To start, this Android OS will have the ability to run web apps as well as native apps. It will also be much easier to transfer desktop apps directly to the mobile device. Froyo has a “Send-To-Android” feature that enables links, maps, etc to be sent directly to your phone rather than via text or email, completely eliminating the need to launch a relevant application. Google also improved their voice commands to actually search for the number of the business you are searching for.

Another major upgrade to the Android OS is the addition of wireless tethering and hotspot functionality. This allows the user to grab an Internet connection from their Android mobile device right to their laptop. TechCrunch reports that Google is giving wireless carriers the ability to control how much tethering will cost, or if they want to disable the option entirely on certain models.

What seems to be the most impressive part of Froyo’s debut was the live comparison of the updated Android OS against the old version as well as the iPad. You can see it for yourself in the video below. The updated Froyo OS is all the way to the left, moving much faster than the old OS to its right, and the iPad to its far right.

With so many exciting and useful updates that appear especially useful for the businessperson on the go, version 2.2 of the Android OS may win a lot of hearts that it didn’t have before. What do you think? Will Google be able to rise and conquer or will Apple hold its ground?