Predictions made decades ago about the
world becoming a global village have come true. Now more than ever
before our reputations are our most valuable asset. Prospective
employers, business associates and potential mates search each other online
to learn more; usually soon after the first contact.
First go to a computer,
preferably not your own computer, and put your name into Google, then
Bing, then Yahoo search engines. You may want to use various versions
of your name, a maiden name, or with and without your middle initial.
Also if you are known by a nickname or shortened version of your
name, plug those in as well. You can go as deep as you like on each
of these search engines, I recommend that you search up to page
three or four.
What do you find? Good, bad, ugly? If a search comes
up showing you dancing on the bar at your last party, you've got some
work to do. Likewise, if you have ever been arrested, your face - the
worst picture taken on the worst day of your life - your mugshot may appear on the very
first page of Google.
The permanence of the web creates a major branding
challenge: once negative information is out there, it's difficult to
remove. If you've created the questionable content you can delete it
and -- eventually -- it will be removed from the caches of Google and
other search engines If you don't control the content, the first
thing to do is ask the person who does control the content to remove
it.
Create your own content and drive the bad stuff down
in search engine rankings. No one, usually not even your worst enemy
will bother to search past the first several pages on any of the
search engines; most readers will stick to the first page or two.
Creating a robust social media and online presence guarantees that
the top results will be the ones you want people to see. Studies have
shown that video, in particular, is prized by Google and will rank
highly, so you might want to consider a video blog. Traditional
blogs, because their content is updated frequently, are also
search-engine-friendly. Creating profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter also helps.
There are certain reputation repair and management
tasks that you can easily do yourself; and tasks that you may need
help with. The basic principle is to bury negative information by
providing positive information to take its place. Take a close look
at the pages returned in a search. Would you want your grandmother or
your nine year old daughter to see it? If the picture of you dancing
on the bar is on your own Facebook page, take it down, or tighten
your privacy settings. Follow suit with Twitter if you need to. If
you don't have a Twitter account, create one to tweet positively and
intelligently. Your Linkedin account is one of the vital parts of
creating your positive online presence. You are creating your own
personal brand, make sure the information that you share with the
world positively reflects who you are. Making comments on popular
blogs with well considered responses may also help build your online
reputation.
If
information online is untrue and defamatory you may be able to have
it taken down. Forcing a company to remove defamatory information may
not be easy, but it is possible. Possibly you can file suit; contact
the hosting company and request that the information be removed; or
as we suggest -- bury negative information by piling positive
information on top.
There
are companies that specialize in reputation repair and management.
Some of them do all the work for you, others do some of it; still
others provide you the tools to repair and manage your reputation
yourself. I recommend a company called Brand Yourself because I
have had first hand experience with it, and know that it works. Click here or click
the logo and try it yourself.
A pro se litigant, first recommended Brand Yourself to me.
He had a criminal charge which had been dismissed, but it continued
to haunt him. He is a chef in a competitive market, and was not being
offered positions for which he was well qualified because of the
negative information gleaned from the pre-employment pre-interview
internet search. We can say that with confidence, because after he
went through the Brand Yourself process, he began receiving the type
of job offers he deserves.
In
a second example, someone I know managed to bury two mug shots, by
using the services provided in Brand Yourself. We know it works.
Brand Yourself offers a free service, which works just fine, but you
have to patient. You can upgrade to their paid service, and see your
online reputation improve faster. Either way, you receive an alert
every time anything changes when your name is searched.
