Managing Your Online Reputation

So you google yourself and don't find the results to your liking. Perhaps a picture appears from a party you went to or a negative review for your business comes up. How do you fix the problem?

1. Prevention - An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Be careful what you put online yourself! Some images and information are appropriate in the right context, such as your drinking contest win in Germany. Perhaps you don't want your boss privy to that part of your life, however. What you put up for one audience, you are putting up for all audiences, so think twice if about information you don't want everyone knowing about.

2. Removal - Perhaps you are going over things you put online. If you posted information about yourself, it should be easy to take down. Once you have done so, Google will register the change the next time it crawls your site, after which point, it won't come up again. If you can't take it down yourself, contact the site's webmaster.

3. Drowning It - So you are careful about the information you provide online, but things come up via other individuals and publications. If someone else posts information about you that is negative, such as an unfavorable review for your business, ask your satisfied customers and clients to post favorable reviews. We've seen this executed in the past and it can be extremely effective. You can also create a Google profile so that the information you provide in the profile comes up first. If unflattering photos appear, throw a number of good ones up. Negative publications from past events that were resolved? Ask the publisher to update information so the public knows you have been exonerated.

In a nutshell, be smart, savvy and proactive!

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