Entries Tagged 'Careers' ↓

Apple iPhone Will Let Users Unlock Doors?

With your Apple iPhone you can listen to music, watch movies, play games, and, soon enough, even unlock your doors. In a newly published patent application, Apple revealed plans for what some are already calling the iKey, which would use a pin code to unlock electronic locks in a user’s car, home, or office.

PleaseRobMe.com helped show the social media world the folly of using location-based social networking websites when you were away from your home, but Gowalla and Foursquare may be the least of your worries if someone can steal your iPhone and have keys to your home. For its part, Apple has included security features that could trigger an alarm for unauthorized use of the iKey.

UK Government Pushes Facebook for ‘Panic Button’

Following the murder of 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall by a man whom she met on Facebook, the UK government is pushing Facebook and other social networking websites to include a “panic button” that would help users get immediate law enforcement assistance if they believe they are being victimized. Facebook first discussed the possibility of adding a panic button, similar to the kind found on the social networking website Bebo, back in December.

Conan O’Brien Invited to the Wedding of his New Best Friend on Twitter

After turning 19-year-old Sarah Killen into an Internet celebrity overnight by selecting her as the first person that he would follow on Twitter, Conan O’Brien has received an invitation to join Killen and her fiance John Slowik, Jr. at their wedding. Considering the positive response that Conan has gotten for his interaction with Killen thus far, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him don a tux and make a speech for the young couple. In fact, he could probably turn it into a web-only video special. Who needs The Tonight Show, right?

Twitter Takes on Phishing Scams

As Twitter has grown, so too has the website’s phishing problem. In particular, the recent spate of “Is this you?” direct message phishing attacks have prompted Twitter to rexamine how it’s protecting users from scammers. After analyzing the problem, Twitter has come up with a few fixes that they hope will make it harder for phishing attacks to spread. For one thing, Twitter will be rerouting all direct messages through its anti-phishing service before allowing them to be sent. Also, Twitter will be replacing bit.ly and other short URLs with their own, twit.tl, to signify that the link is secure.

Classmates.com Faces Privacy Lawsuit

In an attempt to play catch up with Facebook, Classmates.com opened up its public content to sharing on other social networking websites. Ironically, this move did help Classmates.com did catch up with Facebook in one way; now, both websites are facing class-action privacy lawsuits. According to Wired, the lawsuit alleges that Classmates.com switched their privacy policy so egregiously that they have violated Washington state and federal laws. Here is a PDF of the suit – http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/03/classmates.pdf.

Job Hunters Struggle to Get Past the Automatic Job Application

This article from the Miami Herald discusses the frustration that job seekers have in applying for jobs through websites and in-store kiosks instead of through pen and paper applications. When applying for a job online, there are a number of preset filters that make it impossible for many job seekers to even get their application seen. This makes the job hunting process seem futile and causes some people to give up on themselves. One of the things that could help individuals who are unemployed cut through the clutter and connect directly with an employer is proactive personal branding online.

Sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter offer valuable networking possibilities for users that understand how they work. Additionally, setting up a blog can help you get your name out there and distinguish yourself as a respected voice in your industry.

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What would you say if I told you that a few misguided tweets or a hacked Facebook account could cost you millions of dollars? As the 2010 NFL Draft approaches, this is the unfortunate reality that many hopeful draft prospects are facing.

In a very well-written and deeply researched article for FootballOutsiders.com, Mike Tanier makes the argument that NFL prospects have no privacy and that even the most minute indiscretions online could cost them a higher spot in the draft, meaning a lower salary and a lower chance of picking up endorsement deals.

Tanier even goes so far as to outline a few eerily plausible scenarios in which players could get burned, both through their own fault and through sabotage.

Quoting from the article:

• A star college quarterback sends a text message to five friends, bragging about his performance against a rival school. One of the friends forwards it to another set of friends, and one of them sends it to a few other people. The message finds its way to the blogosphere, then to ESPN. Soon football fans around the Internet are questioning the quarterback’s character and judgment for “distributing” inflammatory bulletin board material.
• An angry crank with an axe to grind against a top defensive prospect searches the Internet for dirt on his prey. An ordinary Google search turns up not just public data, but postings from the defender’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. The crank establishes an anti-prospect Web site, mixing out-of-context postings with some facts and a sprinkle of innuendo. Maybe he goes a step further, impersonating the player on a phony Twitter account and tweeting vitriol to a confused public. The line between what’s real and what’s fabricated is blurred by reporters and draftniks, who inadvertently cite some of the false or highly distorted information. The prospect’s reputation is tarnished by a cyber-smear campaign. By the time he realizes it, the damage is already done.
• A team hires an investigator to check out the top prospect in the draft, and the investigator isn’t above bending a few laws. In addition to standard background checks, he calls in a few favors with major Internet advertisers. He suddenly has access to the prospect’s “clickstream” information, a full record of the athlete’s browsing and chatting proclivities. Chat sessions at 3 a.m., just hours before kickoff? The general manager may find that interesting. Perhaps a GPS search of the player’s iPhone will provide other revelations …

As a professional athlete, you must live in the public eye. This hard truth is even more apparent in the face of the Tiger Woods scandal. However, these draft prospects are not yet professionals. By and large, they’re just regular college kids who don’t understand the long-term ramifications of their actions online. What’s more, they have grown up in a world where the Internet and digital technology is omnipresent. The thought that something they share on Twitter could be used against them often does not occur until it is too late.

That’s not to say that NFL teams are wrong for using the Internet to research players. To the contrary, if they are going to invest millions of dollars into a player, they have a fiduciary duty to research his past behavior and ensure that he is not going to cause any problems for the team in the future. Just as a recruiter might do a Google search of a job candidate, an NFL scout is going to dig deep to find out whether a player will be a good fit. The difference is, if an NFL prospect is pegged as a bad apple, he’ll not only lose millions of dollars in the draft, but may have to carry that reputation with him for the rest of his career.

Here at the ReputationDefender Blog, we frequently talk about online reputation management for everyday professionals. Whether you’re a dentist, contractor, realtor, or lawyer, it is important to monitor your name online and take proactive measures to establish a strong professional brand. When you look at professional athletes, however, these issues become even more critical. Hopefully, players learn the importance of online reputation management before it’s too late.

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Are you a social media super user? Do you care about Internet privacy? Are you interested in helping men and women from around the world gain control over their identities on the web? If you said yes to any of these questions, then we invite you to consider joining the ReputationDefender team.

Since our inception in 2006, ReputationDefender has grown by leaps and bounds to become the world’s leading provider of online reputation management and Internet privacy products and services.  To ensure our continued growth and success throughout 2010 and beyond, however, we need to make sure that we continue to bring on the best and most passionate people possible. That’s why we’re putting out the word that we’re now hiring!

ReputationDefender Team Members Anna and Marisa at the Stanford Start-up Career Fair

That’s right. Even in the midst of “The Great Recession,” we’re hiring, and we want to make sure that we hire only the best. So, if you are looking to join a venture-backed company with national press coverage on CNN, Fox News, 20/20, Good Morning America, the Today Show, and Dr. Phil, we encourage you to check all of our open job listings today.

Currently, ReputationDefender is seeking new hires in a variety of areas. Our open positions range from part-time and full-time internships to managerial level roles in technology, customer support, and sales. If you think you’re a good fit (or if you know someone who might be), drop us a line, because we’d love to hear from you.

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Proactive online reputation management is something that all professionals should be considering, no matter what field in which they work. Just take a look back through the archives of the ReputationDefender Blog. Over the past year, we have talked about the importance of reputation management for teachers, realtors, and even contractors. One area we haven’t talked about, however, is the legal field. So, is reputation management important for attorneys? You can bet your Juris Doctorate it is, and today we’re going to explain why.

Attorneys, perhaps more than any other professional besides doctors, rely on their reputations to find success in their career. This is especially true if you are an attorney working in private practice, where your name is literally tied to your professional identity. That being the case, imagine the kind of problems that a disgruntled client or cutthroat competitor could cause if they were to launch an all-out attack on your name. How much business would you stand to lose if the first Google result for your name was an anonymous blog post calling you a liar or a cheat? We’re guessing the answer is a lot.

To prevent this from happening, it is important to promote your positive reputation on the web and develop a strong buffer against cyber attacks. Check out these five tips to help you figure out how.

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1) Own Your Own Domain (Plus Variations)

It’s a good bet that you already have an online presence via your law firm’s website or, if you have a private practice, your own private homepage. If you do have a website already, you should work to leverage it for the maximum reputation management value by filling it with strong, search-engine optimized content about your professional history, education, and experience. You should also consider how your URL (the web address of your website) is constructed. For example, if you are Attorney Joe Johnson and you are operating the private practice Johnson Law Group, LLC, you may use the name of your practice as the URL, i.e. JohnsonLawGroup.com.

However, you should also look into setting up websites for other possible URL’s such as JoeJohnson.com, JoeJohnsonAttorney.com, and JoeJohnsonLawyer.com. If you don’t have time to build out these websites separately, you can simply redirect visitors to your primary homepage. In this way, you can help ensure that your name will be protected in multiple incarnations and be available for multiple search queries.

2) Share Your Expertise

On your way to becoming a licensed attorney, you probably spent a lot of sleepless nights poring over your thousand-page textbooks. Don’t let that effort, nor the money you spent on law school, go to waste when you’re not actively working with a client. Setting up a personal blog, or contributing to other blogs focused on your legal specialty, is a good way of not only demonstrating your expertise, but taking up another position in your Google search results. Additionally, if you can secure a regular position as a commentator at a widely-read blog, or if you can turn your own blog into a go-to resource for legal scholars, you are vastly increasing your odds of bringing in new clients.

The important thing to remember about blogging as an attorney, however, is to be careful about offering specific legal advice. If possible, focus on broader legal analysis related to your expertise. To offer more direct advice, provide a link to your primary homepage, or give your contact information in your byline.

3) Own Your Profile On Lawyer Review Sites

Google ranks consumer review sites very highly, a fact of life that small business owners of all kinds have had to learn. For attorneys with positive reviews, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and could even mean an increase in clients. However, one bad review, especially if it is the only review, can cause significant problems for your online reputation.

As the web has become more and more niche-driven, a number of profession-specific review sites have popped up. For attorneys, some of the most well-known review sites include Avvo, Martindale-Hubbell, and LawyerRatingz.com. Avvo and Martindale both allow attorneys to claim their profiles and add content to help demonstrate their expertise and experience. On Avvo, attorneys can also use the website to answer questions and give general legal advice, which can also help positively promote their reputation online. While it is possible for unscrupulous reviewers to game the system and skew ratings, by joining a review website, you can more effectively manage the blowback from a negative review.

4) Put Those Research Skills to Good Use

In law school you learned how to research. As a licensed attorney, you can use this valuable skill to research your own name on Google and other search engines to keep track of how you’re appearing in search results. Staying on top of news about you online is one of the most important things you can do to help prevent negative stories from spreading too quickly. A simple way of monitoring your name on the web is to set up a Google news alert for your name or the name of your practice.

Of course, there’s more to searching the web than a simple vanity search. At ReputationDefender, we developed MyReputation to scour the web for any and all information about our customers online. If you want to really know what people are saying about you online, MyReputation is the best way of finding out.

5) Don’t Forget to Use Discretion

Assuming that you take our advice and begin proactively using web tools to defend and manage your reputation online, you should always remember that what you put online will be there forever (or at least you should think of it that way). If you are blogging, use discretion about the information you are sharing. Obviously, this means no talking about your clients and doing the best to keep too much of your personal brand from slipping into your professional identity.

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According to the Associated Press, a Pennsylvania teacher has been suspended without pay for 30 days because of a picture posted to Facebook. Why the harsh punishment? The article says the teacher “appeared in a picture someone else posted on Facebook that included a male stripper.”

The context of the picture, which was taken at a bridal shower, is not entirely clear. Was she in the background of the picture minding her own business? If so, that doesn’t seem very fair. If she was front and center waving around a wad of ones, the school board probably has a better case. On the other hand, it’s not like she brought a stripper into the classroom. She was celebrating with her friends in her spare time, right? Unfortunately, in the Internet age, that doesn’t make a difference.

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about teachers getting in trouble over Facebook or Myspace pictures, and it probably won’t be the last. By now, it’s a known fact that social networking for teachers is a risky proposition. In this most recent example, the teacher wasn’t even responsible for posting the picture online and yet she still found herself in hot water because the picture became public.

If this teacher had been monitoring her reputation online, she may have been able to spot the photo before the school board did and ask her friend to take it down. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to, and now she has to forfeit 30 days of income. To many out there, myself included, it doesn’t seem fair that teachers are so harshly scrutinized for content about them online, but that’s the way it is in the age of oversharing, and that’s why proactive online reputation management is so important.

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