Education Week has a nice article that looks at the ethical dilemmas facing students in the digital age. The article profiles Howard Gardner and a team of researchers at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who are looking at how social media is creating new challenges for teenagers. Quoting from the page:
It’s a familiar scenario: A teenager snaps a picture of underage classmates drinking alcohol at a party. The photos go up on a social-networking Web site and land on the desk of an athletic coach or a school administrator. The students pictured are suspended from school or booted off their teams.
Researchers here at the Harvard Graduate School of Education say stories like that one illustrate one of the ways new digital media are raising distinct ethical challenges and temptations for young people today.
“Even though many young people may not be ready to participate in the wider communities that digital media open up to them, there is no controlling information about yourself or others that gets posted,” said Howard Gardner, the project’s co-director.
In a recent article Computerworld magazine waded into the world of online reputation management to see what all the hubbub is about. ReputationDefender’s CEO Michael Fertik is sourced extensively throughout the article, and provides expert commentary on Online Reputation Management. Computerworld’s approach is good for their readers; it introduces ORM to a broader audience and looks at the realities of dealing with our digital dirt in a wired society. The magazine set up a simple test of three items to be removed and then graded their progress. From the article, the three items they threw into the Internet and then tried to haul back out were:
• A recent college graduate with a distinctive last name would like to get rid of an entry on someone else’s long-abandoned online journal.
• A freelance writer is mistakenly identified as a movie critic on Rotten Tomatoes, a popular site that aggregates movie reviews from print, TV and the Web.
• In an interview seven years ago, an IT professional gave a quote to Computerworld that included a salty phrase.
None of these items is particularly salacious, save potentially the first, and they are not uncommon problems for the average web user to encounter. What’s more interesting is the process that Computerworld has to go through for each individual item and the mixed bag of results they end up with.
The article is a good read for those new to Online Reputation Management, and for those curious about the steps necessary to even begin trying to restore, maintain or establish an online identity. ReputationDefender has a variety of services and products to help you maintain your good reputation online.
ReputationDefender Blog caught a compelling article from CNN yesterday reexamining the story of former Army machine gunner Colby Buzzell. Buzzell, who was deployed to Iraq in November of 2003, began blogging about his war experiences anonymously to share with the world the reality of the war.
Buzzell’s candid style and frank language was compelling and his first-hand experiences were shared unfiltered for anyone to see. Unlike traditional media, Buzzel’s blog provided a fully accurate view of the brutality and severity of combat. Whereas a nightly newscast might mention a firefight, Buzzel could actually desribe it with detail.
Because of their intense nature, it wasn’t long before Buzzel’s posts began receiving mainstream attention. Buzzel’s gripping first-person account of an ambush on American troops in Mosul, in particular received siginificant exposure. Unfortunately, it was this same post which drew the ire of his superiors.
From the CNN Article:
The “Men in Black” post attracted media attention, and Buzzell was flooded with e-mails and interview requests from around the world. Based on his descriptions of the Mosul attacks, his commanding officers soon figured out that he was the blog’s author.
The Army confined Buzzell to the base and began monitoring his posts. Then, after he posted an anti-Iraq war rant by Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra, they ordered him to stop blogging.
Buzzell’s Iraq blog lasted just 10 weeks, but it helped pave the way for others to follow.
While the story goes on to explain that the Army’s official policy toward blogging is positive, they encourage soldiers to express themselves, it is interesting to see another example of a blog leading to punitive action. While it is understandable that the army would monitor a soldier’s blog for the sake of mission security, it still provides a compelling refutation of the “anonymity” of the web.
While Colby Buzzell was able to turn his blog into a book and a freelance writing career, others haven’t been as lucky. Just because you don’t sign your name to a blog or a forum, it doesn’t mean others won’t still be able to figure out who you are. This is why taking an active stance in the management of your online reputation is critical to success in the Internet era.
Wanted: Good men and women to serve as a part of a historic Presidential administrative team. Must be a team player and able to handle pressure. Familiarity with deadlines essential, complex screening process applies. Equal Opportunity Employer.
On the heels of the Obama campaign being swept into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue there have been a lot of job slots opening up. Some are newly created, others are being vacated as the Bush administration heads out and Obama moves in. In both cases bodies are needed to fill the seats. But not just any bodies. Barack Obama is very aware of the Internet and how it can help and hinder a cause. Given this, it should come as no surprise to anyone that he is being VERY thorough about who gets a spot on the “O” team.
The process begins with a seven-page questionnaire that has been sent by the office of the President-elect to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts. The New York Times has commented that this process may be the most extensive (“some say invasive”) application ever.
And just what does those questions cover? 63 requests for personal and professional records, for starters, covering the applicants’ spouses and grown children as well. Good luck for speeders (sort of): traffic tickets with fines of less than $50 do not need not be reported, but anyone with a family member in the NRA take note, the application asks whether the applicant or anyone in their family owns a firearm.
While all of this is interesting from a political standpoint, what really caught our eye was the provision that all applicants must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages. As we have noted before on this blog, Obama is the Internet President, and he is covering his digital bases. The application goes on further to ask for applicants to “list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”
Of course the competition for a job in the White House has always been high, even if you weren’t gunning for Commander-In-Chief. The vetting process has been modified and added on to with each incoming administration, but Mr. Obama has taken his background hunts to a new level, especially with regards to applicants’ family members. The Obama camp stands behind their process, though, stating “President-elect Obama made a commitment to change the way Washington does business, and the vetting process exemplifies that.”
With the economy large in many Americans’ minds, the Obama campaign has sought to minimize any potential red flags in their hiring by avoiding hot topics like Freddie Mac and Fannie May. Question 18 of the Obama application asks the applicant whether “you, your spouse or any member of your immediate family” has been affiliated with either of the two failed mortgage institutions, as well as American International Group, Washington Mutual or any other institution getting a piece of the government bailout.
Remembering the trouble that Bill Clinton got into back in the early 90s, immigration status is questioned in the “Domestic Help” section that covers housekeepers, nannies, chauffeurs and yard-workers. Beyond that, applicants are requested to supply not only a résumé, but every résumé and biographical statement they’ve used in the last decade.
Oh yeah, and while you’re at it, the application requires the names of anyone an applicant has lived with, a chronological list of activities for which they were paid, documentation of real estate and loans over $10,000, and net worth statements submitted for loans. Furthermore, applicants must report all businesses that they and/or their spouses have been affiliated with and all gifts over $50 that they and their spouses have received from anyone other than close friends or relatives.
The catch all, though is at the end: “Please provide any other information, including information about other members of your family, that could suggest a conflict of interest or be a possible source of embarrassment to you, your family, or the president-elect.”
The message is clear. While Barack Obama understood the power of the internet to raise money and spread his message of change, he is also aware of how the internet can adversely affect people in the digital age.
Two former officers of the police force in Durham, North Carolina are being investigated for alleged derogatory, and potentially racist, Web postings. While the details are not clear yet, the Chief of Police in Durham has stated that a “racial slur” is not the subject of the investigation, but this has done little to quell the outcry from civil rights groups.
The postings were allegedly on the officers’ MySpace or Facebook pages, according to the NAACP, which is calling on the local police to release copies. “We want to know if there will be transparency about those comments to the community and what disciplinary action if any will be taken against these officers,” Durham’s NAACP president Fred Foster Jr. told a local newspaper. “We believe that if these comments are against people of color, then it will be hard for those officers to serve and protect without prejudice and that they should not be allowed to wear the uniform representing public trust.”
By now stories of an Internet posting, meant to be private or not, coming back to haunt the poster are becoming quite commonplace. Seems that some people are just now learning of the reach of the Internet. Of course, any story like this, dealing with a betrayal of trust, abuse of power or display of bias receives even more attention when it is allegedly committed by a law enforcement officer (or any person in a real position of power, for that matter). Whether these charges prove to be true or not remains to be seen, but in the mean time remember that no one is immune from the Internet, and what you do there can (and most likely will) come back to you some day.
ReputationDefender Blog was sifting through the old internets and found this quirky piece from kk.org. In a post called Unthinkable Futures, Kevin Kelly and Brian Eno engage in a thought experiment in 1993 to try and predict what the future world might look like. Here are a few of their postulations:
* Everybody becomes so completely cynical about the election process that voter turnout drops to 2 percent (families and relatives of prospective politicians) until finally the “democratic process” is abandoned in favour of a lottery system. Everything immediately improves.
* It turns out that nearly all the conspiracy theories you ever heard were actually true — that the world really is being run by 150 malevolent men with nasty prejudices.
* Smoking is proven to be good exercise for the lungs.
Some of these ideas are silly, others are bizarre and still others have actually come to pass. The entire article is interesting and worth a read, but a few predictions jumped out at ReputationDefender. For instance:
* Ordinary people routinely employ publicists.
This may have seemed like an improbable scenario in 1993, but ReputationDefender works with people everyday who enroll in our MyEdge service, which is Personal PR for the Web. Another ReputationDefender service was spotlighted in the piece when the authors pointed to the need for consumers to take action against data mining agencies and control their privacy.
* Direct-mailing organizations carry increasingly complex and subtle character assessments of their targets. To avoid being deluged by the resulting irresistible offers, people routinely begin buying inconsistent products. This is designed to confuse the profilers.
With MyPrivacy, individuals can remove their personal data from the internet and opt out of data collections routinely performed by companies today. We at ReputationDefender work hard to stay on the cutting edge of reputation and privacy matters.
ReputationDefender Blog recently came across this article at SMEweb.com that underscores the power of reputation in the business world. The piece states that customers will pay more money to businesses and brands that they think well of, improving profitability for firms that are well regarded by the public.
Well over half of consumers will pay a premium to the company they believe has the best reputation, even if they can buy a product or service cheaper elsewhere.
Excellent customer service was cited by almost half of all respondents (48 per cent) in a new CBI survey as the characteristic that most helps a firm build its reputation. Another third (36 per cent) said that products and services always living up to expectations mattered most. Seven per cent said a good reputation was down to being a good employer while four per cent attributed it to brand appeal.
[SNIP]
Among the 58 per cent of consumers willing to pay more to their most highly regarded company, 43 per cent would pay up to five per cent over and above a cheaper price, almost a third (29 per cent) are happy to pay six to ten per cent more, while a one in six (16 per cent) would pay more than a ten per cent premium.
Richard Lambert, the CBI’s director-general, said, “What comes through in our survey is that great reputations rest or fall on delivery. Whether the promise is of quality, fun, value or luxury, the 21st century customer is savvy enough to sniff out and avoid the shoddy or disappointing. Environmental credentials and social responsibility are also becoming increasingly more important to consumers’ purchasing decisions.”
Managing how you are perceived online is especially important in the digital age. Companies looking to improve their bottom line and word of mouth branding should utilize Online Reputation Management to optimize their online presence. ReputationDefender remains the leader in the Online Reputation Management field and our reputation specialists are happy to provide corporations Business Insurance for the Web TM.
According to a recent CareerBuilder survey, 22% of employers already use social networking sites to evaluate potential candidates with an additional 9% planning to do so in the near future. Despite this fact, however, the percentage of employees who have modified their social networking profiles for potential employers is only 16%.This notable disparity shows that people’s awareness of their online identity is still lacking.
In analyzing this survey last week, ReputationDefender Blog offered its readers some advice on how to manage their reputations online and make a positive online impression. To continue along that same train of thought, here are a few more measures individuals can take to manage their online reputations.
From the CareerBuilder Article:
Do update your profile regularly
“Keep your profile updated, even when you’re not looking for a job,” recommends Patrice-Anne Rutledge, author of “The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking.” “Recruiters love to find top-notch passive job candidates and having a current profile can help you land your dream job when you least expect it.”
Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer
You know that griping about your current boss is a grave error during an interview, and it’s just as detrimental on your profile. Give hiring managers the idea that eventually you’ll be tarnishing their image if you part ways with the company and you’ll be crossed of their lists of candidates.
Also, if you’re currently employed, don’t forget any confidentiality and conduct agreements you’ve signed, Vergara reminds. You don’t want to violate your contract and end up jobless while you hunt for a new position.
Do join groups…selectively
One of the fun elements of networking sites is that you can connect with other people who share your same interests and have your quirky sense of humor. Thus you end up with virtual groups like “I Drink More Beer than Water.”
The silly group might seem harmless enough to you, but for a hiring manager trying to find a mature candidate for an open position, it doesn’t leave a great impression.
“No one is going to hire the consultant doing the keg stand or the lawyer that belongs to the anarchist forum,” says Patricia Sanchez-Abril, an expert on privacy and networking sites and professor of business law at the University of Miami. Instead opt for groups that show your professional aspirations or social involvement, such as an organization for advertising professionals or the charity you volunteer at.
Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed
If your boss knows you’re on the lookout for a new job, then by all means let it be known. However, if you’re attempting to keep your search below the radar, Vergara recommends restraint. Even if your boss isn’t your online friend, somebody can get the information back to him or her.
Do go on the offensive
If you want to use your networking profile as a tool, review the pictures you’ve uploaded, the personal information you’ve disclosed and any personal blogs or sites you’ve linked to. Don’t wait until you’re interviewing to go back and clean up your profile because the hiring manager probably already had a look.
“Get rid of your digital dirt,” says Rutledge. “A large percentage of recruiters ‘Google’ potential candidates to see what they can find out about them — both the good and the bad. Be sure that you don’t have any information on social networks or other sites that could make a recruiter decide to pass on you as a job candidate.”
Don’t forget others can see your friends
Unless you’ve opted to keep your friends list private, your friends can see the contacts you’ve made. So in addition to keeping your friends’ risque pictures and comments off of your profile, be cautious about whom you friend and when.
“Connecting to five people at Company XYZ after a day of vacation is a sure sign you are interviewing,” Vergara cautions.
Ultimately you need to remember that social networking profiles can mean potential bosses are evaluating you before you even apply for the job. You’d make sure to wear your best clothes to an interview, so polish your profile with the same care.
ReputationDefender encourages everyone to stay informed about best social networking practices and take control of their online identity.
Regular readers of the ReputationDefender Blog will be familiar with the teacher who was fired for her MySpace photos. Now ReputationDefender has learned of another cautionary tale for professionals in the digital age. A Cheerleader for the New England Patriots was sacked from the cheer squad following inappropriate photos on her Facebook account. Quoting from the MyCrimeSpace write up:
It seems that the 18-year-old Davis attended a college Halloween party. When one of the attendees passed out he received the age old tradition of being drawn on with Sharpies. Some of those drawings included swastikas and crude depictions of male genitalia. Davis made the no so smart move of posing with the victim with a Sharpie in her hand and posted the pictures on her Facebook. The Patriots organization didn’t particularly care for her behavior and released her.
Ensuring that your digital self is an accurate reflection of your real world self is a primary goal of Online Reputation Management. ReputationDefender offers Life Assurance for the Web TM by providing peace of mind to its customers. Proactively taking control of your personal brand online and controling your internet reputation are necessary steps in a connected, digital world.
If you are the least bit net savvy, you are likely familiar with Craigslist. The widely used website, which offers leading classified ad services, is active in over 500 cities worldwide and has been an Internet stalwart for over 10 years. But, for the millions of people who have used Craigslist to find an apartment, sell their old furniture or other conventional tasks, there has been a percentage of users who turned to the site for something far more provocative.
Notorious on the net for its “Erotic Services” feature, Craigslist has become a flourishing high-tech tool for the world’s oldest profession. Offering customers anything from a simple massage to an escort for the night, prostitutes have been able to use the website to arrange jobs with ease - much to the chagrin of law enforcement. Also, despite their best efforts, because of the frequency and sheer volume of the postings, there was little the Craigslist team could do to help.
Which all explains why Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, recently presented Craigslist with a letter demanding the site develop more stringent measures to curb the illegal content. As explained in this New York Times article, the letter, which represented the interests of 40 states, led to ongoing discussions between the parties, ultimately resulting in Craigslist implementing a new series of policies for their erotic services section.
So what’s the lesson from an Online Reputation Management perspective? Quite simply, if you don’t monitor content on your site, the government might end up doing it for you. As the courts and justice system continue to monitor technological advances, expect more regulation of online content from the government in the future.
Executives, Geeks and Techies relish showing off their new toys and gadgets. Cell phones have always been a status symbol; from the cinder block Goliaths of the 1980’s to the small, sleek smart phones of today. Workers of the world relish flashing their cutting edge communications equipment complete with bluetooth and touch screens and killer mobile apps. Some professionals even holster their phones on their hip like a gunslinger from the old west, looking to be the fastest REPLY ALL in town.
But despite all the attention paid to smart phones and mobile devices, many working professionals do not pay attention to their internet reputation. Many doctors, lawyers and senior executives would benefit from the cutting edge products and proprietary methodology developed by ReputationDefender. CEOs, board members, and businesses of all sizes have a vested interest in presenting an accurate image of themselves online.
Some professionals wrongly think that their advertising and PR departments can ensure a current and complete picture of a brand and its executives online. Others falsely assume that their SEO and SEM teams will take care of the online channel with ad words and link campaigns. In order to monitor, manage, optimize and control the Online Reputations of brands and executives, companies and professionals should turn to professional and reputable Online Reputation Managers. ReputationDefender is the recognized market leader in ORM and invented the space over two years ago. ReputationDefender employs a holistic, labor intensive approach to help project an accurate account of who our clients are online. Just as employees have a responsibility to present a professional image online, so, too, do businesses. ReputationDefender offers brands and corporations Business Assurance for the Web TM. Ensuring that customers, clients, media and prospective hires find relevant information related to a corporation or brand name when Googling them is the goal of an Online Reputation Management Campaign.
Forward thinking Businesses can inquire about Reputation Management from ReputationDefender here.
Twenty-two percent of employers say they use social networking sites when evaluating job candidates, and an additional 9 percent intend to do the same soon.
[SNIP]
“We can also learn a little about the candidate’s culture fit and professionalism,” says Kelly Vergara, executive director of human resources at digital marketing agency Resource Interactive. “We screen for culture above all else, so this is important.”
Thirty-four percent of hiring managers chose not to hire a candidate based on what they found in profiles.
So what are professionals, job seekers and business owners to do? Apart from working with Reputation Specialists at ReputationDefender, individuals should take the time to control their personal brand online.
One the most effective ways to get noticed in a professional manner in the search engines is to create a web page with your name as the URL. People can do this themselves, but even in a technically savvy world, many employees may not have the time, skills or knowledge needed to register, write and code their professional home page on their own.
That’s where LookUpPage comes in. LookUpPage is a fast and easy way to create an information rich professional page that will rank well in the search engines, ensuring that others find quality and up to date information about your skill sets and accomplishments. LookUpPage is simple to use and effective for executives and professionals who want to be visible on the internet.
Working in the Online Reputation Management Industry is truly exciting. The fact that media and individuals are increasingly interested in our growing field makes my job at ReputationDefender incredibly rewarding. RD is the second segment in this video and in the intro, you can catch a glimpse of our office (complete with Foosball Table).
ReputationDefender is the market leader in Online Identity Solutions. The video below highlights MyEdge, which helps people control their Google results for as little as $99, but ReputationDefender also offers MyReputation, MyChild and MyPrivacy to help people and companies effectively manage their online presence. ReputationDefender lets individuals and brands proactively protect their reputation on the internet. Businesses especially can benefit from the Business Insurance for the Internet TM that ReputationDefender provides.
ReputationDefender Blog has learned that the United States Chess Federation is suing a board member over stolen email and defamatory posts made online. Quoting from the New York Times:
The United States Chess Federation, the nation’s governing body for the game, has sued one of its board members, claiming she unlawfully gained access to e-mail between some members of the board and a lawyer hired to investigate accusations against her and her husband.
The lawsuit stems from a running battle in which the aggression of elite-level chess play has manifested itself in the struggle over control of the federation.
In October 2007, the board member, Susan Polgar, and her husband and fellow board member, Paul Truong, were sued by Samuel H. Sloan, a former board member. He accused Ms. Polgar and Mr. Truong of posting thousands of remarks in his name, many defamatory or obscene, on public Internet bulletin boards over a two-year period in an effort to win election to the board.
[SNIP]
While Mr. Sloan’s lawsuit was pending, the federation’s board created a subcommittee to investigate the suit’s claims, and it hired Karl S. Kronenberger, a lawyer in San Francisco, to oversee the investigation. The investigation concluded that Mr. Truong was responsible for the posts.
[SNIP]
In August, Ms. Polgar filed a lawsuit in Lubbock, Tex., against the federation, four of its board members and other members of the federation in which she claimed libel, slander and business disparagement. She is asking for $25 million.
E-venge can happen to any one. Even elite chess players politicking for a position in the United States Chess Federation can resort to slander and libel online. The fluid nature of Identity on the internet means that people have an interest in controlling their online personal brand since it is so easy to destroy.
I used to see the Internet through rose-colored glasses. In theory, it’s a perfect communications tool. Unlike television or radio, which both require significant money to buy airtime, the Internet allows practically anyone the opportunity to contribute their ideas freely. Also unlike other media, the Internet allows for immediate feedback on ideas. This, in turn, helps strengthen and improve international discourse. I mean, what could be better than that?
Naturally, after actually spending time on the Internet, my optimistic ideals were crushed faster than it takes to get Rickrolled.
It turns out that, in order to have a productive and socially beneficial Internet, people have to not act like jerks. Unfortunately, this simply cannot be so. If you don’t believe me, just head to any forum or comment thread at CNN or FOXNews.
But why is this? What is it about the Internet that makes people turn from presumably normal upstanding citizens to rabid, ALL CAPS writing cyber bullies? According to a recent article at CNN, the answer is simple: on the Net, nobody knows your name.
Quoting from the article:
“In the [pre-Internet era], you had to take ownership [of your remarks]. Now there’s a perception of anonymity,” said Lesley Withers, a professor of communication at Central Michigan University. “People think what they say won’t have repercussions, and they don’t think they have to soften their comments.”
Contrast that with a face-to-face conversation, or even a phone conversation, where you can judge people’s moods from facial movements or vocal inflections, observes University of Texas psychology professor Art Markman.
“It’s hard to be aggressive when you’re face to face,” he said.
Moreover, he points out, aggression often carries a subtext of power.
“A lot of times, real anger is an attempt to get control over a situation where the person doesn’t usually have it,” he said. In that respect, comments to blog posts are attempts to strike back.
The story goes on to discuss how this problem is especially common among teen girls, citing the tragic story of Megan Meier which has been covered at ReputationDefender Blog in the past.
Those power games are innately grasped by children and teens, with schools serving as a perennial social laboratory.
Cheryl Dellasega, a Penn State women’s studies professor, ticks off hypothetical examples that could have come straight from the scripts to “Mean Girls” or “Heathers.”
“Girls who are getting teased come home and let their [aggressors] have it by putting something on their blog and starting a rumor campaign,” she said. And instead of rumors simply making the rounds among peer groups — which can be bad enough — “they go out to a much bigger group, a worldwide group. The impact is devastating, and it’s as easy as clicking a button.”
“Kids don’t realize that one post can destroy somebody’s life forever,” she added.
While we should remain hopeful that fair and responsible Internet use will become the norm, it is important to be realistic and take proactive measures to protect our identities online. This is why ReputationDefender offers its customers Life Insurance for the Internet™ through its variety of industryleadingproducts.
Two former officers of the police force in Durham, North Carolina are being investigated for alleged derogatory, and potentially racist, Web postings. While the details are not clear yet, the Chief of Police in Durham has stated that a “racial slur” is not the subject of the investigation, but this has done little to quell the outcry from civil rights groups.
