What Does the Internet Say About You? The definitive guide to researching and discovering your online reputation.
Created by Bonnie Landau Landau Design Email: bonnie@LandauDesign.com website: www.LandauDesign.com blog: www.SimpleWebToolbox.com reviews: Landau Design Reviews
Š2010-2014 Copyright by Bonnie Landau. May not be reproduced without Permission. All rights reserved. Please respect our copyright.
WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................. 1 1. Online Reputations Gone Bad................................................ 2 2. People are using this to research you and your business ...... 5 3. Create a Strategy For Your Research .................................... 6 4. Research Your Online Reputation 5. Don’t like what you see? 6. Create a Strategy to Protect Your Online Reputation
Created by www.LandauDesign.com ©2010-2014 Bonnie Landau. May not be reproduced without permission.
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WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
Introduction Have you checked your web presence lately? You have one you know. Or didn’t you know? If you have an account with any of the popular social media sites, or your name has ever appeared in an article, on a website or in an offline phone directory – you have an online presence. And since your name and/or your company name are already out there, sites are compiling information on you for others to view. Monitoring your online presence is known as Online Reputation Management (ORM). ORM has sprung up a whole new industry where those who specialize in search engine optimization can assist you in combating negative marks in your online reputation. Unfortunately most individuals or companies do not begin monitoring their online reputation until they have a negative remark that appears. The purpose of this report is to teach you how to be proactive in monitoring your online reputation, so that you can shape and mold it, and overcome any negative remarks that may appear.
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WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
1. Online Reputations Gone Bad The following stories are cases from our clients whose online reputations were damaged. These are companies or individuals who did not investigate their online reputation until the negative information was brought to their attention by a third party. They now have an ORM strategy to monitor what is said about them online, and they have a plan when they find an unflattering remark that surfaces. Dating gone bad: A local psychologist broke up with a woman that he had been dating for several months. She was not happy about the breakup. In the weeks following several potential clients told him of a listing on RipOffReport.com that was coming up third in the Google search results. The listing said some very slanderous things about him. Unfortunately, whoever listed the information did not leave a name, and RipOffReport.com refuses to remove the information, even if the original publisher admits it is false. The psychologist had a hunch it was this woman, but he had no way of proving it. A date gone bad has now affected lead generation for his business. Unfair business reviews: A local electrician was called to a home for a wiring repair. The customer requested they do a repair that was illegal based on the current building code. The electrician refused to do the repair, and the customer was enraged. The electrician left. In the days following reviews began popping up in business directories such as Yelp and Angie’s List which painted the electrician in a very unfavorable light. Not only was he said to have an unpleasant personality, but the reviews claimed he did not even know how to do the work properly. The electrician tried calling this customer to explain again why he could not do the repair, but the customer had found an electrician who would do the illegal repair, which the customer said fueled his case. The only resolution the electrician had was to put rebuttals onto the review sites. This helps if people read it, but his previous 5-star rankings were seriously damaged. Disgruntled employee gets even: A small delivery service fired a driver after a series of auto accidents. The fired employee did not agree with the decision, and decided to seek revenge through social media. In a series of tweets, blog comments and reviews on business directories, this individual spread rumors about the company owners as well as slanderous remarks about their management practices. By the time the reviews were
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WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
discovered there were over two dozen remarks on sites with page rank of 6 or better. After 6 months of SEO and online reputation strategy, they have only just begun to overcome this negative press. Job lost to night of fun: A twenty-something graphic designer was applying for jobs in the Los Angeles area. While her interviews went well, she was never offered a position. After almost ten rejections, she finally asked the hiring manager why her qualifications didn’t meet the needs of the company. Reluctantly the hiring manager confessed that they did an online search to find out more about her, and they found a photo gallery of her on Flickr depicting a night of partying and not-so-modest behavior. The photo gallery lost her the job since the company was concerned about their own reputation. Thankfully the gallery was managed by a friend, and she was able to have the photos removed, and within a few months was offered a job. A note of caution about social media Remember that with the introduction of social media into the mainstream, anybody can write anything they want about you or your company. Through business directories, blog comments, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., individuals are voicing their ideas and can craft stories to impress others with their opinions. How you treat employees and customers is no longer just a passing moment. Angry individuals can come back to haunt you through your online reputation.
Created by www.LandauDesign.com Š2010-2014 Bonnie Landau. May not be reproduced without permission.
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WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
2. People are using this to research you and your business… People take what they find online as factual. Search engines have become the standard by which people are judged. Who is using the Internet and what are they researching? •
Potential employers research online before hiring employees.
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Co-workers research to learn more about each other.
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Potential dates research you before they meet you.
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Businesses research potential customers.
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Customer research businesses they are considering using.
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Schools research candidates for degree programs.
Statistics about Online Reputation information: •
According to a survey by CareerBuilder.com, 1 in 3 hiring managers will research social networks in the hiring process. (source: ComputerWorld.com)
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77% of employers will Google a candidate during the hiring process (source: FredStutzman.com)
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98% of executives use the internet to research reputation of other companies (source: marketingprofs.com)
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87% of global executives admit to having erroneously sent or received at least one electronic message (private email, text, or Tweet). companies (source: Marketing profs.com)
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Google never deletes pages that have been index, and The Wayback Machine keeps all versions of old websites.
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The Library of Congress holds an archive of ALL tweets on Twitter, and they are compiling a comprehensive archive of websites considered to be of public interest. (Source: Library of Congress)
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Facebook maintains an archive of every post and every message that you personally did not delete.
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3. Create a Strategy For Your Research When should I check my online reputation? It’s a good practice to do a monthly check to assess your online presence. Sites are always indexing information so they are constantly adding new information. It’s best to set up Google Alerts to help you track when a new piece of content has been indexed. Make certain you have a strategy that you follow through on in the time planned. How should I research my online presence? There are many ways to research people and companies online. The most effective means of implementing this research should include: •
Google search for terms ands URLs
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People/Business data aggregators
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Business Directories
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Phonebooks
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Social Media networking directories
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Social Media communities
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Social Bookmarking Communities
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Content Communities
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Consumer complaint sites
Notate everything you find Use an Excel spreadsheet to assist in tracking what you find. Copy and store links to specific pages, and make notes of requests for content changes that you submit. By tracking you know what sites you need to recheck, and when you have found a new source of information. While tracking your progress is tedious, down the line it will save you time since you will know exactly where you’ve been and what you’ve checked.
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WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
4. Research Your Online Reputation The following resources show you where to research your online reputation. We have provided URLs to pertinent websites, and explanations for how to improve your search. The first time you research your online reputation it could take a whole day, or even more, depending upon how much content you find. But if you notate what you find and where you find it, the months following you should only have to spend 2-3 hours updating your information. Setting up a Google alert will further save you time since you will be notified when new information is indexed, and you won’t have to spend time hunting for it. A. Google Search The quickest way to find out where you’re mentioned online is to do a Google search. Google is considering the primary search engine in the world, with 77% percent of market share. It’s been called a “reputation engine” rather than just a search engine because people believe what they read if they find it in Google. If you have a common name, say Karen Smith, then be sure to put your name in quote (“Karen Smith”) plus do searches on keywords that describe you. For example, “Karen Smith” + “Accountant” + “Los Angeles”. This will help narrow the search and find information on just you. When searching Google, you should: •
Search for yourself
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Search for your company
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Search for your spouse
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Search for any URLs that you own
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Search by usernames that you use
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Search for your children’s names (especially if grown up)
Don’t assume that just because you can’t find it in Google, the information you seek isn’t somewhere online. While Google is a comprehensive search engine, the way it delivers search results requires it to weed out less popular sites. So using other tools to research your online reputation is equally important.
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Set up Google alerts for the terms that find the most results. This way you keep abreast of each new mention. Set up a Google Alert and information about Google Alerts. B. People/Business Data Aggregators You should also do a search on some of the popular people/business engines. These are sites that crawl the web gathering information on specific individuals and companies. The most popular people data aggregators include: •
ZoomInfo
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Pipl
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PeekYou
PeekYou adds to your search capabilities by allowing you to search by username as well as given name. C. Business Directories •
Yelp
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Angie’s List
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Google Business Directory
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Yahoo Business Directory
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Best of the Web
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City Search
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Business Week Business Directory
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Masterseek
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DMOZ Open Directory Project
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Hoovers
It is especially important to check for consumer reviews in business directories. Business directories that have high page rank, such as Yelp, will come up near the top of search engine results. If you have negative reviews, these may come up when somebody is searching for your specific company.
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D. Phonebooks •
Switchboard
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Zabasearch
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White Pages
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411
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Superpages
E. Social Media networking Directories Just because you have not signed up for social media networks does not mean you or your company are not already mentioned. You should search each to make sure. If you work for a small to medium company, also search for key executives to see what their online presence shows, and to determine if you should add yourself to the directories. •
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Spoke
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PlaxoJigsaw
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VisualCV
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Fast Pitch
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Biznik
F. Social Media Communities •
Social Mention (allows you to search across networks)
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Trackur (social media monitoring tool)
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MySpace
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Friend Feed
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Friendster
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Classmates
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G. Social Bookmarking communities •
Digg
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Stumbleupon
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Sphinn
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Delicious
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Ping.fm
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Technorati
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Yahoo! Buzz
H. Content Communities •
Flickr
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YouTube
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Veoh
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Squidoo
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Hubpages
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Bebo
I. Consumer Complaint Sites It’s so important to make certain you or your company are not mentioned on these sites. While we all hope to never be found here, it is not uncommon for individuals to use these sites to get back at businesses or people by filing false complaints. •
Consumer Affairs
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Rip Off Report
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Complaints.com
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The Squeaky Wheel
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My 3 Cents
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i Rip Off
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Better Business Bureau
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Planet Feedback
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FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection
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But doesn’t this take a lot of time? Yes, monitoring your online reputation does take some time and effort. But just like marketing, accounting and sales, it should become an integral part of running your business. The Internet has become a fixture in all businesses, and if you do not monitor what is being said, you may only find out once negative information has become established. Landau Design can help you research your online reputation (more information). For $399 we will do all the research and deliver to you a comprehensive report with all sources that we find. We will provide a list of pages that we find questionable. We will also provide a ½ hour phone consultation to help you formulate a strategy for countering any erroneous or negative information. Find out about more about our Online Reputation Report Service. For monthly maintenance you can use an ORM monitoring service that allows you to see an aggregate report without your having to repeat your searches. Reputation Defender is a company with a very good reputation for providing this service.
Created by www.LandauDesign.com ©2010-2014 Bonnie Landau. May not be reproduced without permission.
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WHAT DOES THE INTERNET SAY ABOUT YOU?
5. Don’t like what you see? If you see information online that you find erroneous, sometimes you can have it fixed. All the directory sites have procedures for correcting listings. Usually you can find the information if you click on FAQs or Customer Support links on the site. If you see information in an article, blog or website that you feel is erroneous, you need to contact the author of the piece. They may or may not change it, but it’s always worth asking. Business directories that allow reviews will often not remove the reviews, but sometimes the original author can remove them. If you know the individual responsible for a negative review, you might go back to the person and see if you can reconcile the issues so they might remove or change their review. If you cannot contact the author, most of these business directories do provide a format for you to provide a rebuttal to a review. Many sites will not remove erroneous information, such as RipOffReport.com. In that case, the only way to combat it is with a thorough SEO campaign that will drive down the erroneous search results so they are buried so deep nobody will actually look that far. This is a commonly used strategy to counter a negative online reputation. If you have a serious online reputation management issue, there are ORM companies who specialize in SEO for quickly countering a negative online reputation. They can help you launch an SEO blitz that will quickly increase your page range and bury the negative information.
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6. Create a Strategy to Protect Your Online Reputation • Research yourself once a month to keep on top of the information. • Set up Google alerts so you know when a new entry has been made about you. • Be mindful of what you do online. Posting photos of yourself partying or writing abusive comments on blogs will catch up with you. • If you’re concerned about something you’re going to write, consider using a pseudonym to protect your privacy. • Seek out your critics and resolve their issues with you. If they refuse to change their negative reviews, then research how you can post a rebuttal so everybody knows your side of the story. • Use common SEO strategies to increase your positive visibility in the search engines and increase the positive reputation that you are building. At Landau Design Reviews we offer SEO services to help your website rise up in the search engines.
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