Simon Wharton of PushON has declared war on BD Recruitment.

A litany of sins committed against Simon when he clearly directed the agency on his wishes has provoked his wrath.  There are only so many unsolicited and irrelevant CVs any man can take.

Within a short time his irate blog post was only a few positions below BD’s site on Google.

The lessons are straightforward: managing reputation online is a constant 24/7 occupation.  It is one where just one voice can have a detrimental impact.

I placed a piece for Simon in What’s New In Marketing, an online magazine that was run by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, on organic search marketing some time ago.

One of the respondents was an electronics company that had read the piece and was clearly interested in Simon’s ideas.

When Simon brought up the URL there was a whole page of disastrous economic news following it.  The company had had a bad year but had recovered – their online reputation had clearly not and they were totally unaware of it.

I believe many businesses neglect their online reputation, not realising the round the clock damage their brand is suffering.

What is perhaps most surprising about this first story is that I came across it through Twitter today, a full year after the blog post about BD Recruitment.  And do you know BD Recruitment has not stopped bothering Simon and his angry post is still a few places below their website on Google.

Sometimes PR is seen as separate from what a business does with, or perhaps doesn’t do, with their website.

I think it isn’t appreciated how integral to PR a website or a blog is.

There is of course the ease or difficulty of a potential client finding a website they have been alerted to from a piece of PR, be it online or offline.  This mechanism is key.  If the client is lost at this stage after interest has been aroused, then it is a criminal waste.

But once they arrive at the website, does it offer them the content that will further strengthen their interest?  Websites should be packed full of engaging and helpful information.

Take Kintish, the networking training company, it has an abundance of articles and tips.  Will Kintish seems to be perpetually adding material and building and improving his site.

You might appreciate this already.  But websites affect “traditional” PR much earlier in the process.  When I pitch it is useful to put a web link.  When asked by a journalist what is the website and I do not want to give it because the site does not offer anything new, then I am already in danger of losing the journalist’s interest.

It is also an issue of confidence as well as information source.  The confidence to be able to call upon a resource to back up the PR efforts.

Anybody engaged in PR has to see their website as central to their campaign, even more so in this climate.  Unfortunately for them and many PR agencies the website is still seen as another chore, amongst many chores that are not key to their business.

I am looking for the definitive or at least an insightful book on online PR

Does anyone have any suggestions?  I have looked at Amazon and nothing has really impressed me.  I need to revisit Waterstones.

Ideally published in the last year or so and of a reasonably high level, not an introduction.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

The Manchester Evening News is using its online muscle to try and persuade Frank (the City owner) to keep Sven.

The MEN is using Twitter, Flickr, a linking strategy to blogs (such as this) that are supporting the campaign and the makings of a viral campaign combined with the newspaper and the accompanying image to stick in your window.  There is no irony here this image is in my window!

A reflection of how things have changed.