Wall Street Journal Talks ‘Webtribution’

When you were young, did your parents ever tell you, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”? I know mine did. Unfortunately, it would appear that those life lessons haven’t stuck for many people who are using the anonymity of the web to harass and slander their enemies. A recent article from Elizabeth Bernstein at the Wall Street Journal put a name to this phenomenon: Webtribution.

In the article, Bernstein highlights the stories of numerous individuals who have had their reputations ruined online by anonymous attackers, including Sue Scheff, whose book, Google Bomb, features a forward from ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik.

From the article:

For much of human history, exacting retribution on your enemies—as opposed to fantasizing about it—was too much of a hassle for most people to bother with. It involved duels, poison or, at the very least, clever rumors that took ingenuity to create and patience to spread. By the time you had devised a revenge plot, you typically had cooled off and come to your senses.

That’s not the case anymore. Thanks to the Internet, vengeance—let’s call it “Webtribution”—is easier, and nastier, than ever. And it’s also a whole lot more prevalent. The Internet permits us to be impulsive and anonymous. It requires a minimum amount of work: You can ruin someone’s life while sitting on the couch watching TV. And it provides a maximum amount of pain.

In a sidebar to the story, the Wall Street Journal features a list of tips to help individuals who have been attacked online repair their reputations. We’re especially fond of the last tip.

• Find out what people are saying about you. Search for yourself on search engines weekly and set up Google alerts and Twilert (for Twitter tweets) on your name.
• Sign up for free Web sites that allow you to create a brand for yourself, such as LinkedIn, Ziggs or Naymz.
• Buy the URL for your name from a site such as GoDaddy.com.
• Don’t respond online or in email to anyone who has said something bad about you on the Internet. This will only feed the fire.
• If someone has defamed you, check out the code of conduct regulations for the site where the comments were posted, and report the comments if they are a violation of the site’s abusive language policy. Copy the relevant regulation in your complaint.
• Create a blog and keep it updated. The goal is to make sure this new, accurate content rises to the top of a search of your name.
• If all else fails, hire an online-mangement service such as ReputationDefender to manage your reputation online.

Thanks to the Wall Street Journal for covering this issue, which is increasingly important in the digital age, and for giving ReptuationDefender a shout out. If you have a reputation management problem that you need help with, please feel free to send us an e-mail, or give us a call at 1-888-720-9980.

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