Whether you’re a student, a CEO, or a stay-at-home mom, here at Reputation.com, we believe that everyone should take control of their online reputation. Still, there are some professions where being on top of your image online is especially important. Take politics, for example.

When you decide to run for public office, you knowingly cede some of your privacy with the goal of helping better serve your fellow citizen. With this decision, however, comes a responsibility to actively protect how you appear to the world. After all half of a politician’s job is to get his or her constituents to trust in them, isn’t it?

Since the emergence of blogs and social media, not to mention the 24-hour news channel, a politician must be on top of their reputation at all times to be an effective public leader. Besides the risk of negative press or defamation, politicians must worry about who they associate with, what businesses they patronize, and, perhaps most importantly, how their image is being used. No one can speak to that last point better than Democratic Illinois Congresswoman, Melissa Bean.

As reported by NBC Chicago, Bean recently found herself the subject of some scrutiny after her name was hijacked on numerous social media sites, including Facebook.

Scammers create fake Facebook accounts using Bean’s name, photo and pictures of her friends and family and send an invite to unsuspecting victims.

Once the victims friend the fake Bean, they receive emails asking them to donate money to bogus charities under the guise that Bean is endorsing them.

She’s not.

Obviously, for Bean, this represented a huge image problem. Not only were people on the web posing as her, but they were doing so in such a way that they were actually driving visitors away from her real social networking accounts. Luckily, Bean acted quickly, alerting both the police and Facebook to the fraud. In responding to the phishing scheme, Bean offered her supporters some words of advice on keeping their identities secure online.

“As someone who has spent a lot of time working on issues of Internet safety and identity theft, I know how widespread scams like this have become,” Bean said. “I encourage everyone to be careful and follow common-sense procedures, such as those suggested at OnGuardOnline, before giving out personal or financial information over e-mail, or to someone who has contacted you via e-mail.”

Good words of advice from someone who truly understands the importance of proactive online reputation management.

In the last two years, proactive online reputation management has become one of the most strategically critical components of managing a successful business. With Google now hosting up-to-the-minute content from Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace, understanding who is talking about your company and in what context is an absolute necessity. If you’re personal brand is outshined online by embarrassing pictures or a defamatory blog post, you could be costing your business thousands.

Luckily, if you don’t like what you find on Google when you search for your name, you don’t have to stand idly by watching potential customers disappear before your eyes. With Reputation.com, you can harness the power of the web to tell your story that YOU want to tell it online. Recently, Reputation.com CEO Michael Fertik appeared on Fox Report with Shepard Smith to discuss the importance of online reputation management and how regular people can gain control over their search engine results.

With MyReputation, MyEdge, MyChild, and MyPrivacy, Reputation.com offers the world’s leading reputation management services. Specially designed to protect you, your family, and your business from reputation damage online, Reputation.com’s services have helped thousands of customers from all over the world own their identities on the web.

If you have a reputation management problem, please contact us. You don’t have to be afraid of your Google results. Let Reputation.com help.

How do you measure your online reputation? Is it through Google’s search results for your name? The number of Facebook friends you have? The number of positive articles written about you?

MIT students have created a more artistic way of envisioning your online presence.  The online tool, called Personas, is a simple text box where an interested user can enter his or her name. Personas will then scan through thousands of search results using “sophisticated natural language processing.” It will output a bar graph that will show you how frequently your name appears with other terms, from “professional” to “sports” to “illegal.

The tool is completely free to use, though it is far more artistic than it is particularly useful. In fact, Personas was created as a part of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, a disturbing commentary on digital identities and privacy. To really get a feel for what your digital identity looks like, check out our MyReputation service.

As you can see by my results, the analysis gets confused with others who share your same name (I am neither aggressive nor particularly fashionable). All the more reason to sign up for MyReputation today and get a hard-and-fast grip on your online identity.

In the age of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and Google, I get the feeling that many people on the web don’t believe there is such a thing as a right to privacy anymore. Instead, it has been replaced by the notion that everything is fair to talk about. Whether it takes the form of an angry blog post, a salacious gossip website, or an ill-conceived Twitter update, it has become apparent that people don’t use the same kind of mental filter on the web that they do in real life. Gossip and slander can spread through the web in lightning speed. Even if it’s not malicious, an inaccurate piece of information could end up haunting you for years. Sometimes, in our rush to be part of the conversation, just to say something, we don’t consider whether  it’s something that should be said.

Of course, we here at Reputation.com don’t believe that the right to privacy doesn’t exist anymore. It’s why we get up everyday to help people regain control of their reputations online and remove their personally identifiable information from the web. We’re not the only ones who believe in the right to privacy over the right to gossip either.

In a recent blog post for Psychology Today, Dr. Steven Reiss, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at The Ohio State University, talks about the ongoing Tiger Woods scandal and why we as a culture have become so disinterested in protecting our own right to privacy.

From the post:

Media is expanding by trashing privacy. Powerful interests want gossip to be a right – think reality television, Google, bloggers, radio, and newspapers. They want privacy rights downgraded so they can learn all there is to know about each of us and make money selling our personal information to advertisers. Hackers steal your personal information from computer banks and people just shrug rather than demand something be done.

[...]

Gossip is not admirable. Kicking Tiger Woods when he is down is not admirable. Assuming that whatever happened between him and his wife is all Tiger’s fault is not expertise. Attacking Tiger without understanding that it hurts his children is not sensitivity, and if you are a professional, it’s not responsible commentary.

I do not support or make excuses for infidelity. What happened with Tiger’s marriage is a personal tragedy for his family. Truth be told, I don’t give a hoot about Tiger Woods. Infidelity is rampant in the country; I support serious efforts to strengthen marriage. What I oppose is making gossip a right that trumps the right to privacy of people who are in the private sector. National gossip is not the way to “punish” immorality: It is the path toward a society where Google becomes the state police who knows everything about everybody and can sell it for their own gain.”

Dr. Reiss’ passionate call to heed our own right to privacy and begin living a life where we respect the privacy of others is well founded and eloquently stated. I wonder, however, if it is too great a call. Are we too far gone down the road of instant fame and oversharing that we can’t relearn what does and does not belong online? We are walking along the precipice of a new age in communications. Whether we decide to continue treating one another like pieces of data rather than individuals who deserve respect will go a long way toward determining the civility of our society.

While I’ve had my fair share of problems with construction, I think contractors get a bad rap. Sure, there are some unscrupulous builders out there who will overcharge you for a simple job and then drag it out from two-weeks to three months, but for the most part, general contractors, and other skilled professionals like plumbers, mechanics, and electricians, work hard and offer fair prices. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t get referrals and their businesses would soon dry up.

Unfortunately, even the best contractor can’t be perfect all the time. Some projects will inevitably have cost overruns or end up running over schedule. It’s just one of those annoying realities of the construction industry. Of course, for the person left with a temporary hole in their roof or unworking faucets, the temptation to share their righteous anger with the world is too powerful to resist, leading to the creation of countless angry blog posts, Twitter updates, and one-star Yelp postings.

A contractor with a bad online reputation is like a home with faulty wiring: You might not be able to see the problem right away, but one of these days, everything could go up in flames. To this end, Reputation.com would like to help contractors and other skilled professionals learn some ways to protect their reputations on the web and use the internet to help grow their business. Check out our five tips below.

1) Get a Website (or Two or Three)

Since it’s almost 2010, the odds are good that you have at least some rudimentary website for your business. If you don’t, stop reading this and find yourself a web designer right now. Having a well designed and search engine-optimized homepage for your business is one of the most important tools you can have in preventing negative publicity online. When you decide on a website, make sure the URL you choose is as close to the exact name of your company as possible. For example, if your company’s name is Four Star Builders, LLC, make sure that your website is FourStarBuilders.com.

Purchasing additional domain names for similar incarnations of your name is also a good idea. Consider how a new client might search for your company online. If someone told them to check out Four Star, maybe they’ll look up Four Star Construction. If you buy multiple domains, you are increasing the odds that web surfers will find your company online and you are decreasing the odds of an angry client or malicious competitor hijacking your company’s name on the web.

2) Start a Blog

Not long ago here at the Reputation.com Blog, we shared the pros and cons of starting your own blog. While there are certainly risks associated with sharing your thoughts online, the benefits a well-managed blog can have on your online reputation are definitely worth the trouble. If you still have your web designer on the phone from tip one, ask them if they can add a blog directly onto your homepage. If you’d rather handle the blog yourself, you can start one for free using Google’s Blogger software. WordPress is another popular option.

The key to successful small business blogging is knowing your audience. As a contractor, there are a couple of good approaches. One thing you can do is use your blog as a place to showcase your most recent projects: “Look at the beautiful crown moulding we installed on Saturday.” Another great option is to use the blog as a place to offer construction tips:
“How to install a ceiling fan without electrocuting yourself.” Just like with the website, make sure that the URL you choose for your blog is as close as possible to the name of your business.

3) Get Help on Yelp

Yelp, and other consumer review sites, can be tricky for small business owners. For some reason, Google loves consumer review sites and frequently places them at the top of search engine results. As such, if your company has a bad review, that might end up being the first thing potential new customers see. Of course, you don’t have to have negative reviews with a little bit of outreach.

Unless you’re one of those contractors who routinely makes homeowners across the country curse your name to the heavens, the odds are good that the majority of the work you’ve done has been good quality. If one of your previous clients was particularly happy about a project you completed, contact them to see if they will testify on your behalf with a positive review. While this may not be a long-term fix for beating negative Yelp reviews, it can give you time to address the original complaint and make any apologies that need to be made.

One note about consumer reviews, however. DON’T POST FAKE REVIEWS. This is a tactic only for the cheap and desperate. If you have real satisfied customers, let them do the talking. If someone spots that your reviews are fake, your online reputation will take an even bigger hit. Additionally, if you’re considering soliciting positive feedback, do so sparingly. The Yelp algorithm will downplay reviews from new users, especially if they are leaving content that sounds overly positive. Before asking for a review outright, simply find out if any former clients use Yelp. If they do, point them to your profile.

4) Keep Your Eyes Open

In the age of Google, it doesn’t take much longer than a few days for a negative news story to make the rounds on the Internet and become a permanent blackmark on your online reputation. The best way to mitigate any possible damage from a negative consumer review, blog posting, or news article is to know about right away. For this reason, we recommend checking the web daily for new results on your company’s name.

Of course, spending your mornings at the computer keyboard instead of at a construction site probably won’t do any good in helping you improve your reputation for timely work, so we recommend leaving the Google (and Bing and Yahoo) searching to us. With MyReputation, you can sit back as we search the depths of the World Wide Web (including the invisible web) for you. We will then compile our findings into easy-to-read monthly reports with our suggestions.

5) Reach Out With Social Media

In addition to the blog that we mentioned in tip one, you can expand your company’s presence online (and your digital real estate) by joining social media websites. If you already use Facebook (and with 350 million users the odds are good that you do), you know how useful it can be for networking. By creating a Facebook Fan Page for your business, you can control the content that appears on your page and take up a spot in your Google search results. If you’re worried about getting fans, ask former clients or your current Facebook friends to help out.

By now, you’ve also probably heard of Twitter, which is another good way to bolster your brand online. Like your blog, your Twitter account can be a place to share tips and tricks on home repair issues or to share updates on your work projects. As always, with both Facebook and Twitter, you should make sure to use your full business name in the username to ensure maximum protection against bogus reviews or anonymous attacks.

You spend your whole day building things, why not take some time to build up your online reputation? For more help on protecting your business online, please feel free to send us an e-mail or give us a call today at 877-720-6488.