It used to be that anyone thinking about doing business with you would first consult with their colleagues or friends to see if any of them had worked with you before.

If not, they would likely turn to the Yellow Pages and give you a call. That would put you in a good position because you have total control of the information they receive about you and your company.

Then the Internet came into play and that same propect for your business would get online and visit your website. He or she would see what you were all about, what kinds of products or services you had to offer and then contact you if interested in doing business. Again, you were in total control of the information your prospective customers found as it was your website. Still a good situation for you.

Nowadays, things have shifted again. Web 2.0 sites have flourished. Popular destinations like YouTube, Twitter, HubPages and Squidoo have become incredibly powerful and they consistently show up at or towards the top of Google and the other search engine rankings.

What this means to you as a business owner is that people find this information, trust it (because they figure it is put there by your customers and not you!) and believe it to be true. Good-bye to any control you had before.

Before you start thinking that this is all speculation, it isn’t. This is the new reality all of us must deal with whether we do business online or in a bricks-and-mortar business and the implications are significant. We no longer can control what is being said about us on social media sites. Instead, we must first become aware of what is being said and then join in on those conversations with the hopes of influencing them. Let’s not forget that it is entirely possible that it is your compeition and not your customers that are posting nasty remarks relating to your business.

Sounds pretty daunting, doesn’t it? The good news is that the solution is fairly simple. Rarely will a visitor go past the first page or two of Google to research you. Ideally, your content must dominate the first ten to twenty search results so you control what they see.

Eric Haaranen offers seo services and runs a very popular internet marketing tools review site. Eric always offers free reports on all of his sites. Click a link to visit.