Andy Beal, considered one of the world’s most respected interactive and search engine marketing experts, specializes in SEO, business blogging, reputation management and business coaching for search engine marketing firms. Mike McDonald of WebProNews caught up with Andy recently in Las Vegas at PubCon, and had the chance to chat with him about reputation management and what steps businesses can take to effectively guard their portrayal throughout the blogosphere.Word of mouth advertising is playing an increasingly important role as social media and the blogosphere are becoming primary sources of information for the researching consumer. Andy touches on three major points in protecting a company’s reputation throughout the virtual community: monitoring content, reaching out to bloggers, and leveraging the support of those loyal to the company. Operating effectively within these three realms could be the difference in how a company is perceived by the consumer public.