Who Is The 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.

When people hear that I do Reputation Management, they are astonished and think it is a bad thing. They usually think we erase the negatives that someone rightfully put up against someone. It seems strange to me that most people believe that anyone attacked negatively must deserve it. People never ask me what the details of a situation are, they just automatically assume the person is guilty. People come to the quick and easy decision. If you have a negative against you, most people will not read it, or ask what happened. They will assume it is true, and avoid you ot your business. It happens everyday when people try to get a job.

I say, well, what about the case of the lady and the tire company. A lady takes her car in to a tire company, on some normal afternoon. She has a nail in her tire. It takes the technicians 1 solid hour to get to her car and fix it. She then goes online, telling about what Frauds this company is. The problem is, that no one reads the story, they only see the company name and Fraud words. The fact is the company fixed her tire, it was just a timing issue. Maybe, like in most cities the afternoon has a bit of a wait. Maybe she felt “trapped” because her car wouldn’t work, and she was stuck there till it got fixed, which it was. But she goes online talking about fraud. This is an example of how out of control this all is. Some people fault Google for putting this like #3 against the company, and I can understand that. But they do it for a reason. There simply isn’t enough information about the company good or bad. So, something that might not have made it to the top of a search, now does it easily, because there was no other reputation material there. But, in this day and age, you either need to be no where on the net and under the radar, or in full view with tons of rich content.

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.

We all need a strong reputation based presence on the internet. That is because we will get Googled when we go for a job, loan, even insurance. What I mean by that is that everyone needs a full expose’ of who they are and what they are about. If you are a BUSINESS, OR A PUBLIC PERSON ETC. YOU NEED TO have several elements covered. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, a Blog, a business site and maybe a few more of the high profile sites like the BBB, a College page or something else. And by all means do not ever place anything on the net that you would not want your employer to see. As tempting as it seems to “show off” how crazy you have been or can be, DON’T! It can only be used against you.

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, your website, the BBB, the Chamber of Commerce any many similar sites. Good Luck! Don Banks

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