This is a Guest Post by Craig Kilgore. Craig is an SEO with Mainstreethost. Craig has been practicing SEO for roughly 5 years with Mainstreethost. You can follow him on Twitter @ckilgs or contact him via email at ckilgore@mainstreethost.com.

In a report by The Wall, Twitter is on pace to surpass the 500 million user mark by the end of February of 2012. This report is based on Twopcharts’ “Estimated time until account 500,000,000 is registered” countdown. With Twitter growing at a pretty rapid pace and more and more people turning to the social network, what does this mean for your online reputation management strategies? First and foremost, as a business or website owner, if you are not on Twitter, it is time to rethink joining.


Why do you need to join and become active on Twitter?

The simple answer to this question -- it’s where your customers are and it’s where they’re talking. It’s where your past customers are and it’s where your potential customers are. What are they talking about? They are talking about positive experiences and more importantly, less than positive experiences encountered through your products, services, customer service and basically every other step along the way.
In today’s age of consumers turning to the internet and to their social circles for recommendations on businesses, products and/or services, it is more important than ever to be managing your online reputation.

Take a look at the following screenshot from a Time Warner Cable (@TWCable) search on Twitter:





































While Time Warner Cable might have a much larger client base than others, it is very evident that their customers are turning to Twitter as a means of communicating / complaining about products and services being offered. I can tell you first hand that Time Warner Cable is pretty good at responding to Tweets and rectifying situations that arise on Twitter.

I am not even close to being as big as Time Warner Cable, why should I be on Twitter?


If the fact that Twitter will soon be surpassing 500 million users isn’t enough to convince you, keep in mind that their end goal, as announced in December of 2011, is to reach 7 billion users worldwide (yes, the entire world’s population).

Conclusion

If you aren’t a Twitter user (personal or business), I hope this post encouraged you to consider joining the quickly growing social network. Regarding online reputation management, Twitter is just one of the many networks that consumers turn to for information sharing and consumption. While you can’t keep your customers from sharing their experiences, you can monitor what they are saying about your business, reply to their comments and ultimately show others that you are aware of what people are saying and that you do care.

Stay tuned for my follow up post on this topic: Tools to Help Monitor and Manage Your Online Reputation on Twitter