If you run a company that offers products, services or has any type of brand and are not monitoring the conversation on blogs, microblogs, forums, Web sites or anything around the online social space – you are not listening to your customers and have no idea how you are being perceived (or in reality if customers like you).

The days of customers just calling or emailing you to tell you what they think are declining. Today, due to growth in social spaces likes Twitter, Facebook and even blogs; people are now conversing about products, companies, events and ideas online more than ever. This could mean hundreds or even thousands mentions of your company may be happening, each and every day, without your knowledge – both good and bad. It used to be if someone had an experience, either good or bad, with a company, service or product, they would tell their handful of friends of the experience. Nowadays, they may tell their 300 Facebook Friends and 500 followers on Twitter instead. The average person’s reach is much further thanks to the power of social media. As a result, it is important that you and your company are online monitoring and managing your reputation.

What does it mean to monitor the conversation and manage my reputation? Simply put you need to:

• monitor and read what is being said online
• reward the positive
• work to turn the negative into a positive

How do I do this? It is actually very easy. All you need to do is come up with a list of terms related to your company, such as company name or product names and enter them into one or more of these free online tools that will show you what is being posted as content online.

• Addict-o-matic allows a user to create a page that displays the content around the keywords on any social media topic on channels such as Twitter, Friendfeed, YouTube, Google Blog, Wordpress, Digg, and Flickr.
• BlogPulse.com is a blog search engine that also analyzes and reports on daily activity in the blogosphere.
• Google Alerts is Google’s tool that provides email updates on latest relevant Google results.
• Google Blog Search is Google’s index of blog posts. The advanced search tab allows you to search based on additional criteria.
• Social Mention pulls user generated content from the web into a single view. It searches blogs, microblogs, bookmarks, comments, events, images, news, videos and audio online.
• Trendpedia searches blogs to find out who’s discussing what, where, when and how and displays it via a blog trend chart.
• Tweetbeep is like Google Alerts for Twitter.
• TweetGrid creates a Twitter search dashboard that updates in real time.
• Twitter Search is formerly Summize and is Twitter’s official search engine.

What companies are already doing this? Countless companies are doing this today. I have seen first hand how companies are monitoring the social space and working to manage their reputation. Last month, I had several horrible days of flying on United Airlines. I had several flights delayed or canceled in a four day period. It was basically one problem after another – almost to the point where it seemed intentional and just plain comical. I posted close to 20 entries on my personal blog in real time about each incident, since I had little to do, but sit at an airport anyways. I never called United Airline’s Customer Service Department, but was shocked when a few days after my trip they emailed me. They had read my blog and emailed to have a conversation about my experience. They said they found my blog funny and were sorry I had such a bad experience. They worked hard to help ensure I remained a loyal customer to United Airlines and I am today. Their proactive approach showed me that they were more than just a business. They were a business who cared about their reputation.

It does not always have to be a negative experience either. Last November, I blogged about my love of the lip balm made by the company, L’Occitane. I titled it was my Official Blog Product Endorsement and in the post even joked, that if the good people of L’Occitane are reading this blog post. I love your products. Please send me some free samples. Well, they were reading and although I did not get free samples, I did get an online coupon to use. Again, this company did an excellent job of recognizing my loyalty and making me want to go out and tell the world about how great they are as a company and about their amazing products.

Where should I start? Remember to start in steps. The first step is going to one or more of the tools I listed above and see what, if anything, is being said about your company. The next step, is setting up a strategy of how you will deal with these conversations. Some comments will require no attention at all. Others will need immediate response. The best to attack are the negative, as these are an opportunity to turn an unhappy customer into a happy, loyal customer. Happy and loyal customers are customers who spend money and improve our bottom line. Good luck!