ReputationDefender CEO Michael Fertik will be on air with Fox Radio affiliates across the country tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.  Grab your thermos of coffee and tune into your local station for a good review of proposed legislation supporting Internet Privacy.

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We have just received a batch of our popular “I look this good online too” and “I googled you” t-shirts.  I have had customers ask for these t-shirts and we’re always glad to provide one.  We’ll send one of these great American Apparel Tees to you if you call the ReputationDefender customer support team and ask!.  We also welcome pictures of you sporting the look around the world.  Here’s one of my favorites.  It’s a picture of our office manager and friend Enji at Machu Picchu!  If you have a good picture of yourself wearing ReputationDefender gear, send it along to our blog team.  We’d love to hear from you!

I am also told that our own Michael Fertik is currently roaming the streets of London sporting an “I look this good online” t-shirt.  Track him down and he’ll arrange for one in your size.

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I happened across a helpful post on the LinkedIn blog by my old colleague Adam Nash.  Adam, who is leading many of LinkedIn’s headiest product initiatives, uses the post to endorse the power of the recommendations tool most LinkedIn users are already familiar with.  The whole post is worth checking out but I liked this sentence in particular, perhaps because it feels like so many of the things we have been writing here for the past few years:

“Your professional reputation and relationships matter – and not just to you.  That value extends far beyond your profile itself – it carries over to every interaction, every message, and every piece of contributed content.”

When I present to groups around the country, I always tell them to start their online reputation management with LinkedIn.  In our opinion, it remains the best all-around solution for professionals who want to establish themselves online.  Here are three LinkedIn tips for those who are just getting started and want to create a strong reputation.  I’ll post again later on with some additional tips for power users.

1 – Set a custom URL that features your name and mark it public.  I think that selecting your full name is best (e.g., Owen Tripp) as it lends authenticity and quality SEO to your page.  A senior guy at LinkedIn recently described this to me as “hanging your shingle on the Internet”.

2 – Write a few recommendations before you even start receiving them yourself.  This is important because it a) shows that you’re not somebody who is simply a “taker” within the LinkedIn community and b) gives people who view your profile a sense of the type of people you want to work with, and what traits you admire in them.

3 – Spend a lot of time thinking about the keywords you use, especially in the specialties section of your profile.  As my colleagues here at RD know, I can’t stand the word “strategic” because I don’t think it doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot. But I really love seeing specific skills that are “searchable”.   Some good examples: technical writer, business intelligence and data warehousing, food operations manager.  Some bad examples: growth focused team player, excellent collaborator, all purpose marketing contributor.  Sorry guys, but nobody searches LinkedIn for “excellent collaborator”.  You get the idea.

So go on now – get your LinkedIn profile cranking.  And when you see the power behind that tool, please check back with us and we’ll teach you some of the advanced tips and tricks.  You can always give our MyEdge team a call too at 1-888-720-9980.  They love talking about this stuff!

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Everyday, millions of people around the world log on to the Internet to work, to shop, to be entertained, and to connect with others. Unfortunately, only a small percentage know that while they are web surfing, their web habits are being monitored, analyzed, and sold without their consent to companies across the globe. The result is personalized web advertising so precise that two individuals looking at the same website from two different computers will see two different things.

A recent article for the New York Times highlighted why companies absolutely love this kind of marketing, while consumer advocacy groups absolute hate it.

From the article:

For decades, data companies like Experian and Acxiom have compiled reams of information on every American: Acxiom estimates it has 1,500 pieces of data on every American, based on information from warranty cards, bridal and birth registries, magazine subscriptions, public records and even dog registrations with the American Kennel Club.

Patrick Williams, the publisher of the personal finance magazine Worth, recently asked Acxiom to find the names and addresses of 10,000 Americans from each of 11 cities who had houses worth more than $1 million, net worth of over $2 million, lived within a few miles of other rich people and subscribed to business publications.

“They are the scariest data research company around — they know far too much,” said Mr. Williams, who said he was very happy with the amount of information it gave him.

[...]

Paul M. Schwartz, a law professor and privacy expert at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, said the unwitting participation by consumers makes online marketing different from offline.“Interactive media really gets into this creepy Orwellian thing, where it’s a record of our thoughts on the way to decision-making,” he said. “We’re like the data-input clerks now for the industry.”

In response to criticism from Congress, a consoritum of advertising industry trade groups, sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, Disney and Verizon, have recently tightened self-regulatory measures for web tracking. While this is a good step forward for protecting consumers, there is still a long way to go.

Here at ReputationDefender, we take great pride in helping individuals protect their privacy online. To this end, we will continue to be at the forefront of Internet privacy and Reputation Management issues. Make sure to check back to the ReputationDefender Blog, or to follow us on Twitter, for more important news updates.

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The ABA’s annual conference has kicked off in Chicago.  We have Noah, Tom and Rich from the RD team helping talk about the importance of proactive reputation management for legal professionals.  If you’re downtown, you should stop by and tell them we sent you — they’ll hook you up with a limited edition “I look this good online” t-shirt.

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