Entries Tagged 'Online Reputation Management' ↓

What would you do if a friend of a friend asked you for an organ donation on Twitter or Facebook? What would you do if someone mistook you for a murderer online? These are just two of the strange questions that come up in today’s Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits.

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Would You Give Your Kidney to a Facebook Friend?

How far would you go for an Internet acquaintance? This article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune details the story of Chris Strouth who used his Twitter account to plead for a new kidney when doctors told him he needed a replacement to fight the Berger’s disease that had him on dialysis. Amazingly, Strouth got 19 responses offering a spare kidney, with one man, Scott Pakudaitis, being a match.

Before the surgery, Pakudaitis and Strouth didn’t know each other well, though they were casually acquainted on Facebook through mutual friends. While this story seems unlikely to occur often, doctors argue that social networking is actually the next logical step in soliciting organ donation. In other words, don’t be surprised if someday you get a request from an old high school friend for a new kidney.

Despite Decline, Facebook is Central to Teenage Internet Use

At the Wall Street Journal blog The Source, Paul Sharma discusses new research which shows how teens are using social media websites. The research suggests that teens use Facebook as a central hub to connect and communicate with their friends, but they spend the majority of their time online visiting websites based on specific interests, i.e. music, games, or movies. This trend is supported by the fact that although the number of teens using Facebook has increased, the number of time teens spend on Facebook has decreased.

UK Man Wrongfully Identified as Murderer on Facebook

In 1993, 10-year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were convicted of the murder of three-year-old James Bulger. The barbarity of the crime, as well as the young age of the defendants, struck a chord with the British public, and has been a painful issue ever since. So painful in fact, that when the killers were released from prison, they were given new identities to protect them from vigilantes who wished to cause them harm or even kill them.

The problem with giving the killers anonymity, however, is that has led to incidences of mistaken identity. In particular, one man, David Calvert, has lived in fear for his life since he was mistaken for Venables five years ago. Recently, the problem arose again, though this time it became a much bigger concern thanks to Facebook.

Over a few days, a Facebook group incorrectly identifying Calvert as Venables exploded to more than 2,370 members. While Facebook has removed the group in question, that hasn’t stopped people from threatening him and showing up at his home and telling his neighbors that he is a murderer.

Cyberbullying Forces Internet Companies to Reexamine Privacy Policies

Since three Google executives were convicted of privacy violations in an Italian court recently, the Internet industry has been wondering how far they should be expected to go to in censoring content online. This Reuters article discusses some of the many issues facing Internet companies that could prompt government intervention or revisions of existing Internet laws. Specifically, the article touches on cyberbullying, which has become a major problem for kids and teens all over the world.

Woman Stung by “Burn Page” on Facebook

When Facebook changed over its privacy settings a few months back, many people were shocked to find that their private pictures had been defaulted to public sharing. While Facebook did their best to inform users of the change, not everyone got the message, which has led to some embarrassing incidents.

For instance, a Philadelphia women, Tamara Strickland, explains how a photo that she thought was private was taken from her profile and posted on a Facebook Fan Page called Philly Burn. The goal of the Philly Burn Fan Page is to mock and degrade pictures of strangers found through publicly accessible photo albums.

When the news station writing the story contacted Facebook about the Fan Page, Facebook promptly removed it, saying it was in violation of the company’s terms of service. Nevertheless, Tamara and many others were forced to face an uncomfortable and embarrassing public roasting over which they had no control, which is something that Facebook should have considered before they go through a major restructuring of privacy controls.

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For 20 years, Scott Adams’ comic strip Dilbert has been widely admired for its sharp and satirical look at office politics and the foibles of white collar workers. In a humorous comic strip from late last year (pictured above), Dilbert took aim at business cards and how much information you can glean from them, whether that information is positive or negative.

According to Adams, many people responded negatively to that comic strip, finding it to be too caustic, even for the typically sardonic Dilbert. In a blog post, he responded that,

“The point I was trying to make with the comic is that people routinely do forensics on business cards. For example, you can.

1. Google people’s name for news stories
2. Look people up on Facebook and other social sites
3. Do research on people’s employers
4. Estimate people’s incomes, and even personalities, based on job titles.”

Adams goes on to prognosticate that we’re not far away from a “point where no mating will ever occur because no one will pass the background check. If you knew everything about another person’s history, there would always be at least one show stopper. In a simpler time, you could fall in love before you found out any damning information about your partner. I’m not sure that was better.”

Both in his blog post and in the initial strip, Adams makes a strong point about how our initial perceptions of people are unfairly colored by the surface information that is available to us, be it in a business card or through a simple Google search. To ensure that nobody gets the wrong idea about you, investing in a personal online reputation management solution is a necessity.

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We hope you had a good time watching the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards last night, but, sadly, it’s time to get back into the regular grind, which means our daily Reputation Management, Internet Privacy, and Social Media Quick Hits. Check below to get caught up on the latest news that could help you defend your good name online.

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UK Tightens Restrictions on Social Media Marketing

Twitter will begin rolling out its in-stream advertising sometime in the first half of this year. The move has been a long time coming, and is the first real attemp to give the massively popular social networking website a viable business model. Before Twitter ads can become a reality, however, the company must take steps to ensure that its plan falls in line with existing advertising regulations.

This article from The Guardian explains how the UK’s regulatory agency for advertising, the Advertising Standards Authority, will be tightening restrictions on how social networking websites like Twitter, as well as Facebook, can use company profiles for promotional activities.

Could Google Change Copyright Law Forever?

When Google set out to scan millions of old books and put them online, the company faced extreme criticism form copyright advocates, libraries, and scholars. The criticism spawned into a class-action lawsuit, which is currently being debated in federal court. In this article from the San Jose Mercury News, Mike Swift explores the lawsuit and how Google’s settlement offer could potentially allow the company to rewrite a major portion of copyright law.

Conan O’Brien Makes a 19-Year-Old Famous on Twitter

When Conan O’Brien joined Twitter a few weeks ago, it took no time at all for him to earn hundreds of thousands of followers. While he was racking up over half a million fans, however, Conan wasn’t following anyone himself. That is he wasn’t following anyone until he randomly picked Sarah Killen, a 19-year-old Michigan resident. Since selecting Sarah, Conan has directly increased the girl’s follower count from single digits to more than 15,000.

Happily, while the sudden onslaught of pseudo-celebrity could have gone to her head, Sarah appears to be taking her newfound fame in stride. She has even used her Twitter account to promote multiple charities and raise money for a Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Awareness Walk in which she is participating. While Sarah has turned her Twitter celebrity into success thus far, however, there are plenty of pitfalls to being under the social media microscope. We hope that she will continue to make positive decisions and keep her online reputation clean, so that she and Conan can do even more good.

How To Set-Up Internet Filters to Protect Your Kids Online

Enabling filters and other software to keep inappropriate material off your computer is a difficult but necessary step to protect your kids from getting into trouble online. In this column from the San Jose Mercury News, Larry Magid explains some of the free filtering programs built into Internet browsers, as well as options that can be downloaded and customized for more robust protection.

Where Does Your Company Live Online: Your Homepage or Your Facebook Page?

If you’re promoting your business online, do you send your customers to your homepage or your Facebook profile? In an article for Forbes, Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, explains that, increasingly, companies are using their social media presence more prominently in advertising than their dot-com URLs.

While this is good in the sense that social media allows for interaction with customers, Rubel also points out that companies who simply establish a social media presence but don’t use it to communicate in any substantial way are seen as inauthentic by consumers. In other words, while social media is an important and effective tool, it works best in tandem with a corporate web presence.

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Twitter Hits 10 Billion Tweets

Last night, Twitter reached another impressive milestone: the company’s 10 billionth tweet. So what did it say? Was it something profound about the power Twitter gives us to connect with the world? Ironically, nobody knows. According to Mashable, the 10 billionth tweet came from a protected account, which means that the only people who can see the update are friends of the user. Of course, Twitter can’t be too upset that number 10 billion was anonymous; imagine how embarassing it would have been if it were spam?

Protecting Your Social Media Reputation: A Security Perspective

In a guest editorial for ZDNet, Branden Williams discusses the importance of protecting your identity on the web from hackers, scammers, and other would-be cybercriminals. Focusing on some of the security-related steps you should take to lock down your accounts, Williams advises users to use strong passwords, update their software when prompted, and frequently monitor their social networking presence. Sounds like pretty good advice.

The Sordid Details of Facebook’s Early Years

While investors talk about how many billions of dollars Facebook will be worth when the company finally makes an IPO, the dedicated journalists at Business Insider have been busy snooping into the company’s past. In the most comprehensive investigation on Facebook to date, Business Insider dredges up details on Facebook’s origins, including instant message conversations and e-mail exchanges, that don’t paint founder Mark Zuckerberg in the most flattering light.

American Idol Bans Personal Social Media Accounts for Contestants

In an effort to protect their show, American Idol producers have prohibited contestants from maintaining individual Twitter and Facebook accounts, forcing them instead to connect with fans through an official American Idol account. The general assumption is that Idol producers didn’t want follower numbers to serve as an unofficial barometer for the popularity of certain contestants, thus sucking the suspense out of the program. The fact that is now harder for contestants to tweet something stupid and hurt the show’s credibility is also probably a factor.

High School Student Investigated Over Death Threat on Facebook

In what has become a familiar pattern, a high school student in Brevard County is being investigated for statements he made on Facebook. What did he say?

“Hey, I want to kill Mrs. Bowen. Does anybody want to help?”

While this can be dismissed as a joke (who hasn’t said they want to kill somebody in mock frustration?), school administrators aren’t taking any chances. A death threat is a death threat, and when you make it online where everyone can see, you’re going to have to answer for it.

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This article was originally shared in our ReputationDefender customer newsletter. The newsletter, which is sent to ReputationDefender customers twice a month, includes in-depth analysis of online reputation management, Internet privacy, and social media issues, as well as information about ReputationDefender’s newest products.

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In the age of Web 2.0, it’s practically impossible to not use social media. Whether you’re keeping in touch with friends and family on Facebook, connecting with current and former colleagues on LinkedIn, or sharing your personal opinions with the world on your very own blog, new media tools have changed the way that we communicate and become an integral component of our daily lives.

When it comes to online reputation management, though, social media tools can be tricky. The very things that have made communicating easier have also made defamation and online harassment easier. In order to effectively protect yourself from online attacks, you have to learn how to use social media technology to its maximum potential. To this end, we’re going to share four of the top social networking websites we think you should be a part of for personal branding and proactive online reputation management.

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LinkedIn

With more than 55 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is undoubtedly the most popular and well-established professional social networking website online. Geared toward professionals at all stages of their careers, LinkedIn provides ample resources to promote your good name and make valuable connections with your peers and colleagues. The key to LinkedIn’s success, and the reason why you should be on it, is the inherent perception of quality surrounding the site.

Unlike Facebook, which is often dismissed as a place where anything goes, LinkedIn is associated with professionalism and tightly controlled sharing. When people visit your LinkedIn profile, they are not going to find party pictures, personality quizzes, or esoteric musings about life, they are going to find concrete information about your professional skills, your career history, and affirmations from co-workers and managers expressing how valuable you are as an employee. In short, they will find information that makes you look good.

Generally speaking, Google ranks LinkedIn profiles very highly, so when you sign up for the site, make sure you work on filling out your profile as thoroughly as possible. Here are some quick tips on getting strong Google results from your LinkedIn profile.

• Create a public URL for your profile that includes your name. Also, make sure that you use the name that people will be searching.
• Add a professional headshot to your profile. LinkedIn is not the place for funny Halloween pictures. If you don’t have a professional headshot to use, you can crop a nicer picture of you to fit your needs.
• One of the great things about LinkedIn is there is an internal mechanism in place to award and receive recommendations from colleagues. Having well-written recommendations is an important part of demonstrating your value to future employers and recruiters, so don’t be afraid to ask for them.

For more information on turning your LinkedIn profile into a world-class reputation management tool, check out this How To Guide from the ReputationDefender Resource Center.

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Twitter

Last year, Pear Analytics published a study claiming that 40% of status updates on the popular microblogging website Twitter could be classified as “pointless babble.” So why is it then that we are saying Twitter is a must use tool for online reputation management? Because there is significant value to be had in the 60% of tweets that aren’t pointless.

Before Twitter, the way that people connected with like-minded netizens was through blogs. However, the time needed to create and manage a blog that delivered significant reputation value was too great for some web users. What Twitter has done is remove the technical boundaries that limited some people from starting blogs, thus opening up an easy opportunity for individuals to share their opinions with the world as easily as sending a text message.

The value of Twitter as a reputation management tool depends on how you use it. Here are some quick pointers on proper Twitter etiquette.

• Keep your updates mostly professional. While there’s no law saying you can’t share a cute anecdote about your kids, or mention your plans for the evening, the most valuable Twitter users are those who engage with their followers and offer useful content.
• Don’t follow blindly. In many ways, who you follow on Twitter is as important to your reputation as who is following you. Make sure that you’re connecting with people who offer real substance in their updates, and not any of the thousands of Twitter spammers.
• The 140-character limit is not optional. One of the things that new Twitter users often mess up is fitting their thoughts into the 140-character allotment allowed in a Twitter update. This sometimes causes updates to get cut off halfway through, which makes the user look technically incompetent. Work on condensing your thoughts to fit the character limit.

In addition to personal branding, there are many valuable components of Twitter related to job-hunting. In fact, the New York Times recently reported the development of a new job search application called JobDeck, which is a collaboration between TweetDeck and TwitJobSearch.

Even if you’re not interested in the social aspect of Twitter, it is still valuable to have a presence on the site at the very least to prevent someone from hijacking your name and pretending to be you online.

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Google Profile

If you follow our reputation management advice, there is a good chance you will be in control of the majority of the first page of your Google results. Considering that Google is the first place someone is going to go to look up information about you, however, it makes sense that you should have a guaranteed presence there, just in case. Enter the Google Profile.

To create your Google Profile, log-in to your Google account and then visit www.google.com/profiles. Once you have created a Google Profile, it is easy to fill out. Just add your biographical information, links to your other social networking profiles, and a picture of yourself so that people in real life can distinguish you from others who might share your name. The best part about the Google Profile is that, once a certain amount of information has been included, you have the option of featuring it as part of public searches. When you do this, your Google Profile will appear as an 11th result just below the top 10 organic Google search results for your name.

The benefit of setting up a Google Profile is two-fold. One, it gives you a guaranteed spot on your first page of Google results, and two, it helps distinguish from other individuals who have the same name. Additionally, while the jury is still out on the reputation power of Google Buzz, you need to have a Google Profile to access it. Because the Google Profile holds a guaranteed spot on the first page of your Google results, it is important that you are careful about how you set it up. Here are a couple of tips for making a Google Profile you can be proud of.

• As with your LinkedIn profile (and really every social networking profile you have) you should use a professional-looking headshot for your profile picture. This is important in making sure that the “you” people find online actually looks like the “you” in real life.
• Link wisely. Google Profiles offer a great opportunity to aggregate links to all of your social networking profiles on the web. However, that doesn’t mean you should link to all of them. Consider only linking to sites that give strong reputation value, such as LinkedIn. This way, people searching for you can easily find everything you want them to find.

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Fast Company

Considered one of the leading destinations for business news on the web, Fast Company is unique among websites in that it is also a successful print magazine. For individuals looking to manage their online reputations, this unique blend of old and new media makes Fast Company an especially effective tool for promoting one’s personal brand online.

There are a number of advantages to being a member of Fast Company. For one thing, because the site is a respected source for business news, being associated with it, even peripherally, gives you a reputation boost by default. On top of that, however, Fast Company provides its users with countless tools to engage with the greater business community and demonstrate their superior understanding of their industries. Fast Company members can even write blog posts through the Fast Company platform, which may in turn be seen by hundreds of thousands of potential connections. If you’re planning on flexing your blogging muscle for the Fast Company community, here are some things to keep in mind.

• Don’t step outside of your comfort zone. The best way to get your blog featured on the Fast Company homepage is to write something that delivers real insight and value into the business community. If you’re an IT expert, talk about technology. If you’re in human resources, talk about recruiting tactics. In other words, play to your strengths.
• Focus on feedback. Blogs thrive on generating conversations and the Fast Company community is one of the best on the web at giving intelligent feedback. If you’re writing a blog post, think about who you are talking to and what kind of discussion you want to stimulate.

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Online reputation management is a growing concern for all professionals, and the most effective way of keeping your name looking great online is to actively promote your identity through social media. If you haven’t taken the social networking plunge yet, we recommend you take it soon. We’re already at the quarter point of 2010. Don’t let another year go by without taking full advantage of the personal branding power of the web. For more help on crafting your online presence, feel free to contact one of ReptuationDefender’s trained reputation management consultants today.

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