From the Mail on Sunday, 11/01/09

"Web reputation will make or break you"
written by Nic Paton

Landing a lucrative contract in future could depend on a firm's online reputation.

In the same way that buyers and sellers give each other ratings on sites such as Amazon, businesses - particularly those operating online - could find themselves being marked, says Honathan Winter, founder of Oxford workplace consultancy Career Innovation. 'This means people must make sure they "own" and manage their internet reputation in a way that they have not done before,' he says.

One entrepreneur already actively doing this is Daniel Lyddon, creative director at film and TV company Seraphim Pictures, based in Bridgend, South Wales.

He maintains profiles of his company and its work, including endorsements from clients, on a range of professional websites such as wecando.biz, linkedin.com and ecademy.com.

'It shows we are a reliable brand and it is simply a good referral,' says Daniel, 25. 'It is like online word-of-mouth, basically. Managing your reputation an what is said about you on the web will become second nature.'

A big challenge, says Ian Hendry of London-based wecando.biz, will be to have mechanisms in place to ensure ratings are not affected by unfairly negative comments or by someone being malicious.