3 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation

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5/15/123 Tips for Managing Your Online ReputationApril 08, 2010 by Antony Mayfield 217Antony Mayfield is iCrossing‘s Senior Vice President, Social Media, leading the company’s services and innovation efforts related to the social web. He is also the author of Me and My Web Shadow, a newly released everyperson’s guide to the social web. You can find him on his blog or Twitter. The measure of your reputation is what you do plus what others say about

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5/15/12 3 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation
1/11 mashable.com/2010/04/08/managing-online-reputation/
¿ Tips Ior Munuging Yoor Online Repotution
April 08, 2010 by Antony Mayfield 217
AntonyMayfieldisiCrossing‘sSeniorVice
President,SocialMedia,leadingthecompany’s
servicesandinnovationeffortsrelatedtothe
socialweb.HeisalsotheauthorofMeandMy
WebShadow,anewlyreleasedeveryperson’s
guidetothesocialweb.Youcanfindhimonhis
blogorTwitter.
The measure of your reputation is what you do
plus what others say about you. That was one of
the first things I learned in PR. A reputation can
be managed, and can be influenced by the things we do, but it can never be designed or
decided upon by its holder. Reputation is earned.
As the social web has distributed the power and influence formerly held by the mainstream
media, it has created the need for personal reputation awareness. And despite being a long-
time user of social media, I found I learned some new things as I navigated these waters for
myself. Below are three tips that I found useful.
1. Yoo Are Yoor Network
In the course of writing my book, I had a call from a BBC researcher asking for background on
social networks. The breaking story that day was that personal details and embarrassing
photos of the newly appointed head of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, MI6, were
splashed all over one newspaper. The source? His family’s Facebook profiles.
It made me think about my own family’s personal details and images. What if I became a
story? What would a journalist find? My profile’s privacy settings were locked down, but sure
enough, a few clicks showed that my wife’s was wide open.
It was a clear lesson: If you want to manage privacy, reputation, and your security to any
extent, you have to think about those around you — especially those who are not as tech-
savvy.
±. II Yoo Cun't Ðelete, Compete
5/15/12 3 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation
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Although it’s a good idea to ask people to remove
embarrassing content about you, in the majority
of cases the best course is to make sure that you
are the first and best source of information about
yourself appearing on Google and other major
search engines. “Crowding out,” or pushing that
embarrassing party photo down in the search
rank can be achieved over time. This approach is
best combined with an ethos of developing a
thicker skin.
The time may soon come when so much content about our lives is online that we get
suspicious if we find no unpolished or slightly embarrassing bits about someone when we look.
Why are they so perfect? What are they hiding?
Reputation is a messy and uneven business. Playing the content game is often preferable to
an all out war — a battle you will most likely lose.
¿. There's u Cottuge Indostry Aroond "Repotution
Protection¨
In discussing online reputation with friends and colleagues, they predicted that there would be
services that offer “the digital equivalent of tattoo removal.” While I didn’t doubt that there
would be demand for this kind of thing, I wondered about how it would be realistically
implemented.
There is, in fact, a small industry growing up to help people manage how their privacy is
affected by the web. At the high end, rich and powerful celebrities now hire digital security
specialists to help them lock down everything from their voicemail inbox, to their e-mail and
Facebook accounts, and to look for the weak points where stalkers or prying journalists might
try to get some juicy information.
For the rest of us, a host of services promise to safeguard your identity and reputation online —
I even get one service free with my credit card. It tells me less than my Google Alerts, though,
so I’m broadly skeptical about the effectiveness of services like this. At best, they should be
combined with an effort to develop personal web literacy and an understanding of how to
manage online reputation responsibly.
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Conclosion
It is incredibly important that we help our friends, colleagues and families understand the
social web. They make up our most valuable social networks. And when you understand
networks, you understand that their success and well-being is intrinsically linked to your own.
As Howard Rheingold says, “What you know or don’t know about networks can influence how
much freedom, wealth and participation you and your children will have in the rest of this
century.”
It should be the goal of every web-savvy professional to have their online reputation precede
them.
1or more sociol medio cooeroge, follou Moshohle Sociol Medio on
Tuitter or hecome o fon on 1ocehook
More sociul mediu resoorces Irom Mushuble:
-4StepsforManagingSocialMediaAttention
-How5BrandsAreMasteringtheGameofFoursquare
-ZenandtheArtofTwitter:4TipsforProductiveTweeting
-TheTaoofTweeting
-4TipsforReducingSocialMediaStress
ImagescourtesyofiStockphoto,danwilton,tingberg
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28 Comments
1. Craig Agranoff
@raphael hahah thanks so much! I guess we saw this around the same time. I
was also going to tell the readers here that my first book entitled Do It Yourself
5/15/12 3 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation
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Online Reputation Management is now available on amazon, so thank you for giving the
link. Here is a link to our book page aside from Amazon…
http://doityourselfonlinereputationmanagement.com/
April 08, 2010 Reply
Anonymous
Congrats on the book, Craig – I will take a look…
April 09, 2010 Reply
2.
Anonymous
The best way to manage your reputation online is to not act like an utter asshat
offline.
I mean, if there are no pictures of you pissing on sleeping bums, then nobody can post
them.
April 08, 2010 Reply
3. SJBain
I couldn’t agree with this more!
April 08, 2010 Reply
4. John McTigue
I can’t say I agree with #2. Not exactly a white hat strategy using seo to push
competitors or non-believers off the page. I think it’s better to address those
nay-sayers directly, let them have their say but rebut them in comments and new blogs.
Don’ t be a search engine bully. Be transparent and authoritative.
April 08, 2010 Reply
5. Rob_ReputationDefender
Good advice Antony. Like you, we believe that the best approach to managing
your online reputation is a combination of monitoring your name online and
proactively publishing positive, engaging content that promotes your personal brand.
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Sadly, the proactive component of online reputation management is something that
people ignore – often to their detriment. If you invest a conscious effort into building a
strong digital identity, you will be better able to defend yourself against online attacks or
any embarrassing content that may come up.
Rob Frappier
Community Manager
ReputationDefender
April 08, 2010 Reply
6. Erik B
This is still ignoring the real problem which is that we don’t have enough
control of what we post. We should be able to post what we want with a
reasonable expectation of privacy.
There should be no reason online life can’t be more akin to real-life where you have a
secret you tell a friend. You have to have some amount of trust in that friend not to
screw you, but you’re still taking a chance they’ll tell others.
What we have online currently is – friends that may or may not tell people stuff, and
then facebook that definitely will.
And now to my self-promotion. I’ve been building a (open-source) decentralized social
network that should be in beta in the next week or two. Check it out if you’re interested
in your privacy. http://get6d.com
April 08, 2010 Reply
Anonymous
Control is paramount – I would like to see Facebook and other
networks need to give more control and make it easier for *all* users to
understand how to manage who sees what.
Thanks for the point to your decentralised network, Erik – looks fascinating. I
think that as more people learn how to manage their online presence,
become more social web literate, they will demand the kind of approach you
are offering.
April 09, 2010 Reply
7. WowJackassDotCom
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I help run a website that tracks the reputation or in-game behavior of World of Warcraft
players. Players are able to make submission (which are moderated) to the site
and others can vote up or down on the submission, no real life identity items
are published. We have been criticized by some but have received mostly praise for
help keeping a record of a player behavior. The site is called http://wowjackass.com
April 08, 2010 Reply
Anonymous
That looks really interesting – thanks for the point!
April 09, 2010 Reply
8.
raphaelcaixeta
I hate to sound like I'm spamming, but my friend's book on Amazon talks about
this exactly. It's a good read. http://bit.ly/afjejz
April 08, 2010 Reply
9. Jimi Bostock
A great article and very timely. I am about to launch a digital agency that will
offer online reputation services and so I do believe that it will become a
service like any other.
I have become very interested in the impact of the real-time web on the Google search
returns and have been playing around with it for a while now. One can achieve amazing
results with a bit of smarts and a lot of hard work.
I have also recently had to help a friend who had been, well let us call it less than
sensible, in their web activities. They suffer from bi-polar and in a ‘manic’ phase they
had gone a bit crazy and, as you know, they left a huge trail of less than falttering stuff
across the social space.
It was a real pleasure to help them crowd out the issue and they now are back to looking
like a normal person if you search their name.
So, yes, a great and timely article
Jimi Bostock
PUSH Agency
Brisbane | Canberra | Sydney | Australia
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pushagency.net
April 08, 2010 Reply
Anonymous
Sounds really interesting, Jimi – will you be putting together a case
study on how you did that? I’d love to find out more…
April 09, 2010 Reply
Anonymous
That sounds really interesting, Jimi – will you be publishing a case
study?
I’d be fascinated to find out more. Good luck with the launch of your
agency…
April 09, 2010 Reply
Anonymous
Good luck with the launch of your agency, Jimi – would you be
publishing a case study of how you did that at some point. I;d be really
interested to find out more…
April 09, 2010 Reply
10. Damian Davila Rojas
How HR Professionals Analyze Your Facebook Profile
http://idaconcpts.com/2009/09/11/how-hr-profess…
April 08, 2010 Reply
11. Peter Yasni
This poll might be interesting, too:
Do you think that you have your own reputation on the internet under control? =>
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http://www.yasni.com/
April 09, 2010 Reply
12. Online Marketing Agency
Well, yes, it makes sense to be careful with what goes online about you. But I
think these pieces of advice are ..for beginners and for a personal use first of
all. When it comes to a public person things are more complicated in terms of online
reputation maanagement.
April 09, 2010 Reply
13.
Anonymous
I would say that companies have to think more about their reputation online as
well as individuals…
http://fairtradephotographer.blogspot.com/2010/03/microstock-why-would-reputable-
company.html
April 09, 2010 Reply
14. Kristen Tom
These are great tips! It’s kind of scary and amazing how we can just find out
about people through the internet these days.
April 12, 2010 Reply
15. Lewis Ham
Thanks for the article. This is great for me as I’m approaching graduation. Also
a quick question, you made a point about your wife’s facebook being wide
open. Mine is as well, but I don’t think I have any embarrassing photos. So are there
other down sides to staying open in the eyes of potential employers?
April 12, 2010 Reply
16. Peter Yasni
Do you know yasni.com?
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With a free Exposé, you can actively manage your reputation and your credibility. You
can organize your web links, profiles and images to ensure your best impression on new
employers, partners or business contacts alike…
Take a look…here you’ll find 5 good reasons to create a free Yasni Exposé:
http://www.yasni.com/expose
April 15, 2010 Reply
17. Bruce A Flinn
Anthony, your title for this post “3 Tips for Managing Your Online Reputation”
led me to believe your were going to share some insights into actually
managing ones online reputation. Managing to me begins with knowing what content is
really out there that needs to be managed. How does one find that content? Where
does one go and what tools does one use to listen for content and then do something
about it? If your intent for this post was to in fact help me manage my reputation then I
find it lacking any real substance that leads me to that end.
Tip number three isn’t even really a tip it’s more of a statement. I don’t have the budget
to hire a high priced digital watchdog team so I fall into your category of “For the rest of
us, a host of services promise to safeguard your identity and reputation online”. This is a
great starter line but where’s the list of services?
A more relevant title for your post would have been “2 Tips to Minimize Your Digital
Exposure” as what I read are some good pointers for controlling your exposure through
privacy settings and what other people may say or post about you.
There was the mention of Google Reader and your credit card service which you say
was lacking in robustness anyway. The only takeaway here that leads one to do any
reputation management is in hoping to push Google listings down by providing better
content yourself and then you say – “This approach is best combined with an ethos of
developing a thicker skin.”. How does developing a “thicker skin” help one manage their
reputation?
The post was a good idea unfortunately it fell short of delivering any real value. A little
time spent researching and then listing some of the above mentioned services would
have been worth the effort and completed the thought.
April 16, 2010 Reply
18. Patrece Jones Follow
About Online Reputation..true so true..we joke and say it “wasn’t us”..or it was
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our “evil twin”..especially when our fat & or non-flattering pics hit walls & pages lol.
Actually 16 yrs ago we were & still are a victim of identity theft. Our accounts-files-
folders have been hacked numerous times over the last 2 yrs.and we believe we know
who & why. We agree in preventative measures as apposed to “backstroking”. Not that
we changed our open-book persona, or M.O. as “calling em” the way we “see em”. Your
tip of “Crowding out” is helpful to others. Our extra time online is protecting our minor
children’s profiles. They are not allowed to post pics of themselves for starters, nor are
they allowed to add any new friend or stranger. We monitor their text & content
regularly..KPJ
November 03, 2011 Reply 0 Flag this comment
19. jensanmx Follow
:D
November 09, 2011 Reply 0 Flag this comment
20.
Anonymous
Hi John. You are right that it is important to let people have their say, but I feel
it is also the case that sometimes it is better to move on. Accentuate the positive, as the
song says, and over time you may push negatives into the background. That’s not to say
post lots of content for the sake of it, but by making the most of the positive things
about you you’re going to push.
If you’re covering up legitimate criticism, for instance, that can come back to bite you
any way.
One example I came across was someone who had a picture of themselves posted on a
pornographic site. They weren’t naked, but it was disturbing to them nonetheless.
Eventually they were able to use the threat of legal action to get it removed, but imagine
if they hadn’t been able to that – I would say crowding that content out would be utterly
legitimate.
If we take Clive Thompson’s description of Google as a “reputation management
system” to heart, then “compete” is always a legitimate approach. If the network thinks
that the criticism of you is relevant (worth repeating and linking to) you won’t be able to
push it out of the results. But if people are more interested in the white papers, blog
posts and presentations you are contributing to the commons, as it were, than they are
in the account by a former colleague of a mistake you made in a previous job, then
hurrah! People will see positive things about you first.
That’s not white hat/black hat or anything – that’s being useful, and growing your
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reputation as a result.
April 09, 2010 Reply
21.
Anonymous
Thanks, Rob – the best defence is indeed to be present in the first place so
that you can have your say…
April 09, 2010 Reply
22.
Anonymous
Yes – just as complex as managing your reputation in the offline world!
April 09, 2010 Reply

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