How To Be Your Own Best Reputation Defender
I think there are several people that do not understand what is going on these days with online reputation. I think there are misunderstandings and misconceptions about the world of Reputation Management. As a person that works in the reputation industry I can tell you the sort of Horror stories I have been privileged to hear about. Before a person can properly defend themselves, they really should understand the landscape involved with online reputation. Let’s take a closer look and see what we can understand and learn about online reputation management.
The funny thing about online reputation management is that people assume if it is in print, it happened. Yet anyone with any agenda can slime anyone on the net with negatives. If you are a business, a customer can easily go to the next business that doesn’t also have a negative displayed. People come to the quick and easy decisions that are just easier for them. That means they will avoid you. Just because they don’t have the time or inclination to look any deeper into it. Negative attacks are on the rise, and people and businesses will need to protect themselves. Employers, schools and even loan companies will check for online “clues” as to what kind of person you are.
Many people as I have said earlier believe that if someone wrote something then it must be true. Take the case of the lady with a nail in her tire. I looked at a situation where a lady had a flat tire. She took it to the tire shop on some afternoon and had to wait 1 full hour to get it fixed. She went immediately online calling the company a bunch of frauds. So, if you read her negative report you couldn’t help but wonder just how she was defrauded. well, it turns out that is was the fact she had to wait the hour. With all due respect ma’am, that is not the legal definition of fraud. I think if I remember my law classes, there are 7 things to prove when it’s fraud. I bet she didn’t have 1 of them. Yet people will go all around the net saying things like this that are patently on the surface not true.
When I speak to people and mention the lady and the tire company, everyone wants to say that the search engine results should come out as they may, and should be displayed in whatever order they come out. Well, i would say that the place these negative reports belong is at the company where they were made. If it was made at ripoff report it should reside there. When it comes to a first page result in Google, that tells me there is something wrong. Usually it is that the company or person has a very weak reputation profile and needs to make it stronger. When a nail and a tire makes front page search engine news, that is an in your face something is wrong with your reputation profile even before the incident. So fix it.
Everyone reading this article is at risk. They are at risk for losing a job, business deal, insurance, school loan you name it. But what can such behavior gain? Not much. So, it is a negative really to put anything on the net that could be construed negatively in any way. If you aren’t proud to show your mom, do not show the world. Public people, business people and other high profile need to know this. the net is like a snake, it looks interesting but it can bite you and ruin you on the topic of reputation. One way to make your reputation presence stronger is by creating Twitter, Linkedin, Face Book, a blog or website presence. There may be other things to do as well, join the BBB. a club, the Chamber of Commerce. All these things should show up on your profile, and will take the spot of a weak potential negative.
If you have a weak presence on the net, you will be utterly horrified when anyone goes online and writes negative remarks about you, and in 3 days they are #3 in search results on your name, or business name. The best first response is to ask the website to remove it, but they may tell you it is not their policy. But under NO CIRCUMSTANCES go to the website and try to argues what happened. Now there will just be two comments, more interest in the situation and you have just validated in some way what the original accusation was.
What you need to do first is realize why this happened. It happened because of a weak presence. This could be for a website or for an individual. We cannot keep people from getting mad and going online to vent their frustrations. But most of the time even the person who did this can’t get the remarks removed. So, once you realize that a weak presence is to blame immediately start to fix it. You can get an online reputation company to help you, or you can do it yourself. Or, I guess you can do nothing, but the page will just sit there indefinitely.
When all is said and done, you are the master of your universe. You need to take charge and make accounts at Linked in, Face Book, Twitter, a website, the BBB, the Chamber of Commerce any many similar sites. Good Luck! Don Banks
Looking to find the best deal on reputation defender, then visit www.yoursite.com to find the best advice on online reputation defender Pick up a Free Reputation eBook.. This article, How To Be Your Own Best Reputation Defender is released under a creative commons attribution license.
