Our Reputation Team offers this free ORM toolbox to help you build the positive online image you deserve. 

Whether you’re seeking a job, raising a family or managing a business, how you look online matters.

Without strong online reputation management (ORM), your digital brand is at the mercy of an unpredictable online environment. This could potentially damage your image, reputation and even decrease potential revenue.

Fortunately, we’re going to help fill your ORM toolbox.  Here are key services that can help you build a better search engine presence and manage a stronger online brand.

Popular resources for your ORM Toolbox

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is an easy-to-use monitoring tool that emails you each time your name or business pops up on the web.

How to Use This Tool for ORM: Google Alerts can help track new mentions of yourself and your brand online.  This allows you to adapt your online reputation strategy and mitigate potential threats quickly.  

Google Analytics

The Google Analytics platform allows your business to analyze traffic through your website, monitor keyword performance and determine how your marketing efforts are driving user behavior.

How to Use This Tool for ORM: Google Analytics can provide the keyword and content analytics your brand needs to shore up search phrase weaknesses while strengthening keyword association and industry authority on the web.

ReviewTrackers

ReviewTrackers is designed to monitor your company’s online review presence while providing insights into customer feedback and behavior.

How to Use This Tool for ORM: Once you learn of new reviews through the ReviewTracker platform, your business and develop an appropriate response quickly—an effective way to mitigate the impact of negative commentary on your online brand.

IFTTT

IFTTT is a device/app connection service that can send automated alerts once your brand is mentioned online. 

How to Use This Tool for ORM: Real-time brand alerts give you the chance to craft and adapt your brand reputation strategy quickly.  This allows you to mitigate negative items and promote online positivity more effectively.

The Brand Grader

A free brand analysis tool, The Brand Grader offers a brief glimpse into your brand’s online presence.  It includes digital mentions and sentiment on social media platforms.

How to Use This Tool for ORM: Running your brand through The Brand Grader can reveal potential reputation threats and gaps your brand faces on social platforms.  Brand Grader also makes you aware of any customer engagement opportunities you may be missing.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a paid membership service that focuses solely on managing your social media presence and boosting user engagement.

How to Use This Tool for ORM: Hootsuite tracks mentions of your business on social media platforms and schedules posts. This gives you the opportunity to steer the conversation and control your social media reputation.

SEMrush

Built to optimize your paid digital marketing potential, SEMrush offers keyword and marketing performance, monitoring and analytics solutions.

How this fits into your ORM toolbox: Using metrics and analytics provided by SEMrush, it allows you to better manage and improve your performance for important industry search terms while strengthening outreach and brand authority.

Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is useful for locating, researching and analyzing search phrases to include in your new or existing ORM campaign.

How this fits into your ORM toolbox: Google’s Keyword Planner can be used to identify keyword opportunities. It can help you map out content strategies to build a stronger online reputation management strategy for your brand.

Bing Webmaster Tools

The Bing Webmaster platform provides your business the opportunity to create alerts, analyze site traffic and track performance in Bing search results.

How this fits into your ORM toolbox: Bings Webmaster Tools provide the insight needed to master brand presence and search engine results pages (SERPs).

GT Metrix

GT Metrix offers insight into how your website’s speed and performance, as well as recommendations for improvement.

How this fits into your ORM toolbox:  Insights into the customer-website interaction can be used to improve the user experience.  This can cultivate a more positive brand association and grow your bottom line.

LSI Graph

LSI Graph works to locate secondary keywords to help optimize your brand’s content and performance online.

How this fits into your ORM toolbox: LSI Graph can be used to identify and capitalize on industry-related search terms you may be missing out on.  Those which can improve brand performance and deliver a powerful competitive edge in key market areas.

InfoSweep

In today’s digital world, online privacy protection is a smart move to protect yourself and your family. InfoSweep is an affordable online privacy monitoring service. InfoSweep makes it easy to locate private information online and gives you the power to have it removed. With InfoSweep, you can set it and forget it.

How to Use This Tool for ORM: 24/7 brand monitoring makes you aware of online mentions as soon as they happen. It can be used to develop strategies, responses and actions to mitigate problems before they become online nightmares for you and your business.

Professional Online Reputation Management

When it comes to managing your online reputation, you have endless options to choose from. If you’re serious about building the ultimate ORM toolbox—and carving out the stronger online presence your brand needs to thrive—it’s time to consider professional online reputation management.

As leaders in ORM solutions, we offer your brand everything it needs to be is best on the web. Our award-winning internet reputation services include:

• Individual reputation management that suppresses online negativity, restores visibility and helps to promote a more positive online image.
• Business reputation management solutions that work to heighten search engine rankings, strengthen brand authority and improve your brand’s digital reach.
• Business review management that helps you better manage, control and improve your brand’s online conversation.

When you choose Reputation Sciences to manage your digital brand, you’re getting the expert advice, support, services and technology you need to elevate your online profile to an all-new level.

To schedule an appointment, call us today at 844-458-6735.

The post Your Ultimate ORM Toolbox – Free Guide Included! appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Company reputation: what is it built on? 

The short answer? Trust.

Building trust using transparency as a foundation ensures your reputation is genuine. It also makes sure it’s strong enough to weather the tides of change. Competitive attacks and industry crises will also not affect a company reputation built on trust. 

Building trust through transparency is essential because it:

Boosts Consumer Confidence

Messaging that is open, honest and consistent, conveys your commitment to the customer. It is important to increasing confidence in your brand. This is the undercurrent of trust that generates appeal and cultivates loyalty among your target audience.

Setting consistently high expectations when it comes to product, service and operational transparency gives consumers a reason to interact with your brand. It also helps to reinforce the positive image you need to keep existing customers coming back for more.

Attracts Quality Employees

Talented workers can be hard to find—and even harder to retain. But when you develop an image and culture centered on transparency, you’re far more likely to recruit and hold onto the employees you need to operate, innovate and grow in the future.

Building a reputation on the principles of transparency shows quality prospects you have nothing to hide, and helps provide an accurate portrayal of what to expect from a career with your firm. And when you attract the right people, your business is better positioned for long-term success.

Improves Brand Engagement

These days, everyone—from prospects and customers to employees and stakeholders—is engaging with your brand online. And if you’re maintaining a digital presence built on transparency, you’re far more likely to inspire the interest and engagement your business needs to build trust, relevancy, authority and visibility on the web.

Building a Trustworthy Brand

A transparent brand is crucial to building trust, attracting customers and acquiring the talent your business needs to thrive.

But to build trust through transparency, it’s important to know where to start.

Education. Going beyond traditional marketing to educate on your products, services, processes and community involvement provides your audience crucial insight into who you are and the value you offer.

Consistency. When you convey a consistent message across all online platforms, you cultivate the clarity and reliability your business needs to connect with consumers.

Intelligent Growth. Smart, data-based digital marketing strategies allow you to expand your online impact without endangering connections with your target market.

Your Company Reputation is Our Business

At Reputation Sciences, we provide the comprehensive, customized digital solutions you need to build a better business online. With professional reputation audit, repair and monitoring services, we’re able to create a brand presence that strengthens trust with your audience—and provides your business the actionable data and insight you need to maximize online impact.

Build the trust you need to thrive online.

Call us today at (844) 458-6735 to learn more.

The post Trust is the Foundation of Your Company Reputation appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

It doesn’t have to be a major hack. Yes, customers of Uber, Yahoo, and many other online services have been vulnerable to having their personal data exposed over the past few years. When that happens, the hack gets publicized, the network apologizes, and users are urged to change their personal information on the network.

In a way, though, these major issues actually hide some of the real issues that come with everyday data harvesting. It’s almost as if we get lulled into a false sense of security if we don’t have a Yahoo or Uber account. Our personal info wasn’t hacked, so we are safe and our privacy is protected. That’s not necessarily the case.

In fact, data harvesting and selling has become a major industry. The culprits, sometimes making millions just by selling the right data, have become extremely adept at finding and exploiting the vulnerabilities of internet users.

Yes, that can mean getting another email from your long-lost cousin who also happens to be a Nigerian prince. At the same time, most modern strategies are much more subtle. Be wary of these 10 types of everyday online requests that are actually disguised data harvesting methods.

Common Online Requests for Business Information

1. Product Warranty Cards and Forms

Registering for a warranty that belongs to your product is a natural step. You may do so via mail or in more modern digital/online registration systems. And when you do, you naturally enter your contact information. after all, you need the manufacturer to be able to contact you should something go wrong or a recall be needed.

Unfortunately, there’s a problem with that concept. A large variety of companies frequently use warranties to collect customer data. You may not see the small print on the terms and conditions that allow the manufacturer in question to share it. Worse, online forms can easily be hijacked for processes that are less than voluntary.

The answer is not necessarily to stay away from these online requests or warranties altogether. Rather, do your research before signing up for one. This will be a common theme for all of the below: be careful what you wish for because your information (once collected) is always shareable.

2. Mail-in Rebates

Rebates are popular among many companies because they ostensibly lower the cost of a product, but rely on customer action to actually take advantage of that offer. If the new customer forgets to sign up, they paid the higher price despite being lured by the lower offer. And that’s not even the worst part.

Product marketing experts and services actively recommend leveraging the rebate tactic because of their data collection possibilities. Everytime you enter your information to knock the top off the price, that information gets collected on the backend. The brand essentially purchased your data for the amount of money you get to pay less for the product in question.

Yes, you will get notices that your data is being collected for ‘promotional purposes’ if the brand is ethical. But even that is vague and dangerous. It might simply mean more targeted messaging for you—or selling the data externally. Which of the two online requests tends to be impossible to discern for any customer.

3. Sweepstakes and Contests

We all like winning things. But have you ever wondered why companies enjoy giving those things away for free? Whether it’s a round of sweepstakes that everyone can participate in or a more in-depth contest, there tends to be a catch. And, more often than not, that catch has to do with your data.

Consider this article title: How to Use Sweepstakes to Grow Your Database, Generate Revenue, and More. For a company, that might sound attractive. For the customer, that’s nothing short of ominous. Put simply, these types of contests are put in place specifically to collect your data. What happens after that can be impossible to figure out.

Yes, those free products are tempting. But are you willing to potentially give up your privacy in return? Just as importantly, have you considered the potential implications for your business if your email address is easily accessible and your contact information can be purchased by anyone?

4. “Free” Downloads of Content

Nothing is free in life. However, premium content hidden behind a sign-up page might come close. It tends to be more harmless than the sweepstakes mentioned above. And sometimes, it’s even beneficial. As a new business owner, you might be excited about a new whitepaper that helps you prepare for tax season or optimize your in-store displays. As a personal consumer, eBooks on your favorite hobbies are just as tempting.

Best of all, this content is typically advertised as free. When it comes to monetary cost, that’s accurate. Beyond the money, it gets murkier. Most “free” downloads require you to enter your personal information, including name and contact. And, according to The Guardian, your phone number is all a skilled hacker needs to start tracking you.

That’s not to say every free download will necessarily lead to a hack. Many companies will promise that they keep your information safe, and won’t sell it. But even if you rely on that claim, you still open yourself up to potential spam and an influx of promotional emails. Whether that’s worth it has to be your decision.

5. Free Quotes and RFI Forms

Free quotes and RFI forms have become increasingly popular across industries. Consider them the more in-depth versions of free content. Services will often offer free quotes in exchange for basic information. Similarly, many industries now rely on a simple request for information (RFI) forms to answer questions.

You’re probably familiar with the countless Contact Us pages that no longer list a phone number or email, but just this type of form. What you might not be familiar with, once again, is the reason behind this tactic.

Again, the goal is data collection. And, if you don’t know the company well yet (which is why you are requesting more information, to begin with), you don’t know what happens with that personal data once received. It might be sold or distributed to third-party vendors that you never agreed to.

6. Third-Party Login Opportunities

On their surface, third-party login services like Google and Facebook are based on convenience. Instead of having to create a new account for every website you frequent, you can use a login button that automatically pulls in your personal information. As long as you’re logged into that service, you’re good to go.

On the backend, these major digital companies offer login information because it allows them to collect more information about you. Now, they can better understand your browsing habits, and sell that information to advertisers. It’s why you might randomly start to see Facebook ads from an industry you’re involved in despite never actively mentioning that industry in your profile.

The big problems, though, start beyond the intended use of your data. CNBC detailed earlier this year that third-party services can use web trackers to follow your information without consent from either you or the service you’re using for the login. You have no way of knowing who is actually making those online requests or collecting your data, and what they plan on doing with it.

7. Product Protection Programs

Do you want to protect a product you buy online or in-store with an additional plan? It’ll cost you just a little more money. Oh, and you will need to give up your contact information. That sounds like little more than the price you’re already paying until you start to consider the potential consequences.

The price of these programs tends to be so small that you hardly notice the difference. Your personal information might be a different story. Again, product protection plans offer an ostensible benefit that actually makes sense in isolation. But once you consider the loss of privacy (and its potential consequences), it’s worth thinking through before you make the choice.

8. Online Forums

Granted, online forums have become less popular in recent years. But that doesn’t mean they’ve become obsolete. In fact, according to Pew Research, 15% of active internet users around the globe still pay attention to these opportunities to exchange information. More modern services like Disqus are forums disguised as comment functions, attaching to countless websites around the world and recognizing users wherever they go.

Unfortunately, these types of outlets are also among the least secure data storage platforms. It’s incredibly easy for anyone to mine personal and contact data from the active user accounts on a given forum. Participation under your real name and active email address, therefore, could have devastating consequences.

The same is true even if you have an inactive account that hasn’t posted in a forum for years. It makes sense to take stock of the places and message boards you have been active on in the past and scrub them of your personal information to minimize the potential negative impact.

9. Public Profiles on Social Networking Platforms

You’ve probably heard about Facebook’s data collection scandal(s) earlier this year. It made clear what many of us suspected for years: when you put your personal information on a social network, it doesn’t tend to be safe. Yes, the platform itself anonymizes data before it sells it to advertisers. But that’s far from the only way in which you put your information at risk.

Facebook itself is not even confident how other companies can extract and sell the data of its users. That’s not necessarily a ringing endorsement for privacy. And of course, other social networks don’t fare much better.

That, in turn, leaves a simple solution: don’t put your personal information on a public profile if you can prevent it. Yes, the temptation is strong. But once you understand just how exposed it makes your personal data, you begin to realize that the potential risks are not worth the upside.

10. Community Volunteer Opportunities

The final hazard on this list is also the most potentially misleading. Make no mistake, nonprofits, and other organizations for which you volunteer have no intention of selling your contact information. The problem is that they also might not be able to prevent a breach from occurring.

Most community websites simply don’t have the resources to build a secure, encrypted database. That means your personal data might live on online lists that are easily accessed and harvested by automated bots with this express purpose. The organization’s lack of resources means you’re just as vulnerable as you would be through a company actively trying to exploit and sell your data.

When Online Requests Becomes a Business Hazard

We all run into the above, often on a daily basis. While the above list is not exhaustive, a simple rule of thumb to follow is that anytime you are giving up personal information, you are putting that information at risk of being exploited. Someone, somewhere, is looking for a way to monetize it.

That’s problematic on a personal level. Unfortunately, it can also have serious implications for your business. Especially owners of small businesses who mix their personal and business contact information. Access to your data then means access to your business, and the potential to ruin your reputation.

Think about the following, all-too-real scenario: you download a free whitepaper. Shortly thereafter, you get an email purporting to promote another whitepaper. But when you click on the link, you actually download malware onto your computer. Now, you might give external parties access to your website, social media pages, and financial accounts without even realizing it.

New connections from utility companies can put your business at risk. Even email addresses and phone numbers on your own website can become the target of bot harvesters. If you don’t keep your domain registration information private, you risk exposing it to the wrong parties.

Protecting your business reputation, naturally, should be among your key priorities whether you’re just starting out or have already grown your business. Data that leaks out through any of the above options will play a significant role in harming that reputation. That’s not to scare you. It just means you should prepare for strategic steps to maintain your business reputation no matter what risks or online requests for data come your way.

How to Protect Your Business Reputation Through Knowledge and Action

First, knowledge is key. Simply understanding that both ethical and unethical third parties can collect your data through any of the above tactics is a great start. Conscious internet browsing alone can prevent you from entering personal data unnecessarily, and earning the consequences down the road.

Protecting your data while browsing requires a number of external and internal steps. That seems complex at first, but can be immensely beneficial. After all, you don’t want to end up in a situation where simply clicking on the wrong link for online requests or sharing information with the wrong people results in lasting damage to your personal and business reputation. Even protecting your personal data against stalkers, disgruntled employees, and upset customers can be a major advantage.

When in doubt, working with external partners can also help you become more conscious of this latent danger. We specialize in business reputation management, and data security is an important component. Contact us to learn more about our expertise on removing any exposed personal data and ensuring the best of your business is on page one of Google.

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From the Information Age to the Reputation Age

“Civilization rests on the fact that we all benefit from knowledge which we do not possess.”
—Friedrich Hayek, Laws, Liberation, and Liberty, Rules of Order, Vol 1

This sage observation from the Nobel prize-winning British economist has never been more relevant than it is in today’s Information Age, made possible by the exponential expansion of the worldwide internet. Never in human history has the information from which we all benefit been more accessible. The internet breaks down the boundaries of social class, economics, and geography. And as we’ll see, that free flow of information so vital for making informed decisions has never been more vulnerable.

From Information Superhighway to Infotopia

The accumulated digital knowledge of the ages is now available to anyone with a smartphone, laptop, or even a public library card. The public sees the internet as a near-perfect democracy in action. It’s a paragon of free speech, offering a dynamic flow of information to and from users on a global scale.

In the early days, the internet pioneers promised us an information “superhighway” and they delivered. The world eagerly embraced the freely granted access to massive amounts of knowledge, opportunities for expanding marketplaces with efficient e-commerce, and new social media. This new tool united the global community and provided a platform for unrestricted free speech for all.

Harvard legal scholar Cass R. Sunstein coined the eloquent term which captures the euphoric enthusiasm of the Information Age with his 2006 book, ” Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge.” But the free-for-all nature of today’s internet has unforeseen consequences. Just as many minds produce knowledge, many minds can also produce chaos.

The Snake in the Infotopia Garden

Those who paved the information superhighway never warned us about the many bumps and potholes along the way. Today, we need to know how to navigate the “ready, fire, aim” arena of the internet. Today we find ourselves immersed in a deluge of gossip, innuendo, and outright fake news, all of which disrupt the flow of information. Gone is the age of the fact-based scoop. Now, it’s about the sought after phenomenon of going viral where facts are secondary to the number of clicks a headline can generate. Fighting fake news is vital.

While the internet functions as the world’s stage it comes with an open microphone which anyone with a smartphone and a grudge can use for malicious purposes at will. There is no effective technique to stop any malicious actor from yelling “Fire!” in the crowded global theater of the free-for-all internet. Unbridled, unvetted, uncensored access to the world stage is the snake in the infotopia garden. And it’s a snake which proliferates abundantly as we’ll demonstrate further on.

The unknown masses can completely obstruct the flow of accurate information. Anyone can pronounce rash uninformed judgments and promote biased interpretations with negative reviews and click-baiting websites. Whether initiated by unscrupulous business competitors, rogue or discharged employees, or disgruntled consumers they all become a negative force to be reckoned with when your business is the target. In the infotopian society, an astounding 85% of consumers place more credibility in an online review than they do on a recommendation from someone they know personally.

The Power of Misinformation

If a business finds itself in the crossfire of fake news and planted negative comments associated with it at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) they can find themselves screened right out of the search process by those potential customers who place full faith in online reviews and reputation. The 85% majority will decide that further investigation is a waste of time and quickly move on to greener pastures, the next business on the SERP with a sparkling 5-star reputation. Your company’s website, no matter how superior the products and services you offer, will never get a glance.

At Reputation Sciences we have the proven digital tools you need to take control of the online conversation. We can put the reins of the all-important search engine rankings in your hands to ensure that your organization can overcome the inevitable negativity that all businesses face as the online world moves from the Information Age to the Reputation Age.

Fighting fake news, and negative comments which go viral requires an ongoing online PR campaign. For every Blackhat operator, a Whitehat countermeasure is available to enable you to remain profitable and competitive in what many are referring to now as the arena of online corporate reputation warfare. And as we’ll see the best defense is a strong offense. First, we’ll take a close look at the strange characteristics of the fake news phenomenon. We’ll give you an idea of just what you’re up against in the Reputation Age.

The Big Lie Theory and the Free-For-All Internet

When it comes to “Blackhat” operators, none could be darker than the notorious Nazi propaganda expert Joseph Goebbels who explained the fundamental principle of fake news with his infamous advice:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

When repetition is the key to belief the free-for-all internet becomes the perfect cauldron for cooking up the big lies which people come to believe. The easy access internet combined with eager fingers hovering over retweet and share buttons on social media platforms can repeat the “big lies” in proportions that the Nazi minister could never have imagined. Sadly, the fake news phenomenon has proven Goebbel’s Big Lie Theory without a doubt.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the public now perceives the internet as the most reliable source for the news of record. Less than 1% of the population relies on traditional television news, and trust in the mainstream media has dropped to its lowest level in Gallup Poll history. The widespread public perception that the internet is a more up-to-date, accurate source for news and information only adds fuel to the fake news wildfires.

The internet never forgets, and the big lies persist and snowball over time. Fake news doesn’t get tossed away with yesterday’s newspaper. It spreads and solidifies into belief as it passes through the multitude of unknown users with unknown motives. Print and broadcast media are quickly falling by the wayside. And the internet has become the foundation of our collective intelligence. But it’s a foundation built on the shifting sands of fake news and easily corrupted information.

Who Can We Trust?

Walter Cronkite, the 20th-century network anchorman was once the most trusted man in America. Woodward and Bernstein set the benchmark for investigative reporting. They followed the facts wherever they pointed in a story without regard for political consequences. There was no predefined “narrative” into which every story was framed to support. Fact checking was a prerequisite. Today it’s an afterthought. And when a retraction is issued it rarely receives the viral response of the original error-filled report.

The collapse of traditional journalistic principles which preserved integrity is the primary driver of the lack of trust in the mainstream media. So misplaced public faith in the dubious sources on the internet now becomes their only alternative source for information.

Shifting Responsibility For the 6 “W” Questions of Traditional Journalism

The fundamental questions of traditional journalism are Who, What, Where, When, Why, and hoW. An objective reporter would answer these questions without inserting personal opinions and judgments. Those conclusions were left to the reader. Decisions were made based on facts uncorrupted by a predefined “narrative” framed to support a specific agenda.

Opinions were clearly separated from the presented facts and clearly defined as such. Rebuttals came in the form of thoughtfully written letters to the editor requiring enough motivation to write, seal, stamp and mail the letter allowing plenty of time throughout the process for the commenter to change their mind after further consideration.

In the free-for-all, fast and furious internet, comments are impulsive. And they’re shared just as quickly with a viewership that makes the NY Times daily circulation look minuscule in comparison. And as we’ll see, we can’t count on the infotopian viewer to stop fake news in its tracks.

Fake News Outperforms True Stories in the “Twittersphere”

What we can count on is another unforeseen consequence of Professor Sunstein’s “infotopian” society. That consequence is the troubling phenomenon of fake news spreading faster and penetrating deeper in the public consciousness. Automated bots are the convenient scapegoats for the exponential spread of fake news. But an MIT study by data scientist Soroush Vosoughi filtered out any bot-created traffic in a dataset covering 12 years of Twitter.

As a result, Vosoughi’s study revealed that human beings are the guilty parties. There’s a strange tendency to seek out and spread fake news stories much more frequently than the verified truth. Three million people spread 126,000 false stories for a total of 4.5 million shares. You can read more about how fake news outperforms the truth in this comprehensive report at Smithsonian.com.

Considering the Source and Fighting Fake News

It was the norm in the journalist’s profession to produce at least two authoritative verifiable sources. And the only agenda was to report a true story. Any sensational or unsupported publication, based on rumor and innuendo was “tabloid journalism” or “pulp.”

Today, the talking heads of the mainstream media inject their own opinions without hesitation. And fake news mongers won’t hesitate to mix truth, error, and insinuation to increase the value of ad space. We find ourselves “twice removed” from the facts when a biased mainstream media story snowballs through social media. Without exception, unknown users take it upon themselves to “self-report” while ignoring or corrupting the facts.

Information or Indoctrination?

The facts are secondary in the Reputation Age. The 6 ‘W’ questions too frequently focus on who endorses or condemns an action, what opinion is politically correct, why the reader should agree, and how they should react or risk becoming a social pariah. Too often the viewer is receiving biased indoctrination instead of information. This is especially true when relying on news and stories spoonfed by social media influencers. It becomes the responsibility of the SME or corporation under fire to go on the offensive. That’s when to assert the importance of the traditional “6W” questions with a “white hat” approach, directing searchers to consider:

• Where does this information come from?
• How did the story originate?
• When did the information become available? Is it now obsolete, debunked, or retracted?
• What is the reputation of this source?
• Who are the authorities, if any, that verify this information?
• Why would you respect the credibility of the source and cited authorities, if any?

These are the questions to ask to counter the effects of fake news and planted comments. By anticipating negative queries and establishing a prominent web presence to answer these negative “long-tailed keywords” a business can combat fake news with a balance of authoritative credentials and thought leadership. Reputation Sciences can provide the digital media strategies to ensure these countermeasures get the attention they deserve.

Next, let’s take a look at one instance of the “Big Lie Theory” in action.

The “Popcorn Lung” Myth

The vaping industry offers many smokers an effective way to leave the hazardous habit of combustible tobacco smoking behind them. As addiction specialist Dr. Sally Satel explains in her article at Forbes, we’ve known since 1976 that it’s the tar in cigarettes that kills, not the nicotine. For many smokers, the electronic cigarette and e-liquids containing nicotine for vaping were the solution they’d been waiting for.

The vaping business is decimating Big Tobacco, as CNBC’s Jim Cramer explains, and it’s not surprising that fake news was quickly deployed against the young but growing industry. As so often happens in reputation warfare those responsible for propagating the “vaping causes popcorn lung myth” are unknown users veiled by anonymity. As Snopes.com reported, the myth originated when “Disreputable viral websites matched an unrelated photograph with claims that a study had linked e-cigarettes with popcorn lung.”

And the Popcorn Lung Truth

In reality, the lung condition comes from the ingredient diacetyl, which is sometimes used in flavored vaping e-liquids as well as microwave popcorn and should be called “popcorn factory lung.” And even that moniker is a stretch. The click-baiting sites linked an old and inconclusive 2002 CDC report. The report claimed diacetyl caused 8 cases of popcorn lung in workers at a popcorn factory. And it also insinuated that diacetyl in e-cigs had the same effect on vapers. This led to a gory picture of an e-cig user whose jury-rigged vaping contraption exploded. And it included links to a GoFundMe page to help “the victim.”

As vaping grows in popularity the young industry has continuously found itself in the fake news crossfire. As a growing $3 billion dollar industry, it finds itself in opposition to the corporate giants of Big Tobacco at $35 billion as well as the $446 billion pharmaceutical industry and their lucrative nicotine replacement products. So, even though the popcorn lung myth has been thoroughly debunked, the vaping industry faces formidable opposition as opportunistic politicians see an easy target that has been erroneously associated with tobacco smoking as reported in the Rolling Stone article “E-Cigs’ Inconvenient Truth: It’s Much Safer to Vape.”

Sadly, we are now seeing the actual legislation passed. It’s all designed to nip the vaping industry in the bud. And it’s based on the unstoppable inertia of fake news going mainstream. Clive Bates at Counterfactual titled his informative article “The US media is losing its mind over vaping and Juul – the questions a credible journalist should ask.”

Reputation Sciences For the Reputation Age

Consequently, as the world relies more and more on the internet as its indisputable news of record, reputation is everything. Thought leadership, authority, and integrity must be foremost in the public’s perception of your business or organization. When your company finds itself in the crosshairs of unknown malicious actors, the best defense is a good offense. We have the SEO, branding, and search engine expertise to provide effective countermeasures that combat fake news.

At Reputation Sciences we offer competitive analysis, digital media audits, and execution strategies to ensure that these countermeasures get the attention they deserve, allowing you to take control of the online conversation concerning your business or organization. So, in the Reputation Age, it’s not a question of “if” you’ll face negative online opposition but “when,” so contact us today.

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When you find negative content about you or your company online, knowing the right way to defend and define yourself online can be tricky. If you rely on a reactive, passive approach, your efforts will be too little, too late. The damage to your brand will be hard to overcome. If you move too aggressively and go overboard with your public response, you might alienate people or invite further negativity.

As you search for a balanced strategy—being proactive but also knowing when to use silence and a less-is-more approach—it’s helpful to look at real-world examples.

The following three stories of individuals will provide a nuanced glimpse at how to defend and define yourself online:

• In the first story, a CEO who is slandered online by her former company. She must learn how to artfully launch a proactive social media approach while also working behind-the-scenes to find allies in the industry who are willing to speak up for her publicly.
• In the second story, an honest, hard-working lawyer finds himself in the middle of a firm with serious ethics violations. He must find a way to distance himself from the firm and use the negative situation to launch something that’s not only positive for his career but helpful for the legal community.
• In the third story, a successful, on-the-rise investor discovers with dismay that his past struggles with alcoholism (and some of the embarrassing incidents caused by those struggles) have reached daylight in the news media. Although he successfully overcame his alcoholism and turned a new leaf, he must fight to defend and define his reputation online. He is already very active in social media, so it’s not a question of expanding platforms or increasing content. His challenge is to change his fundamental approach to social media and take a quality-over-quantity approach.

Three Stories to Show How to Define Yourself Online

1. The Executive Who Was Defamed

After a CEO was fired by her company’s board for unspecified reasons, she began the painful but necessary task of leaving a company she had worked hard to build. She contacted an executive recruiting agency to help her find a good fit for a new job and began researching potential opportunities on her own.

To her dismay, her recruiting agency was not getting any interest. Month after month, they’d come back to her with no interview offers. She decided to try a different agency, so she began to research ones that might do a better job for her. After an evening of researching online, she was tired and began to meander on the internet. She wondered how her previous company was faring, and she went to the company’s blog.

And that’s when she found it.

About four weeks prior, the company had quietly published a blog post about her that provided some details into their reasons for firing her. Although there had been strife between her and the board—particularly between her and one individual on the board—she had been a well-liked CEO by the average employee at the company. The board knew that, and apparently, they felt a need to justify their decision to their employees.

As she read their reasons, her face turned pale. She could feel her pulse racing. She was horrified.

The company accused her of:

• Unreasonable compensation expectations.
• Undermining board governing authority.
• Insisting on out of the norm “golden parachute” provisions.

The truth about her character and conduct could not have been more different. And as she thought about it, she suspected one particular controlling board member was likely behind the accusations.

The First Allegation

For one thing, her salary had been based on a market survey conducted independently that examined peer companies of similar size. Her salary was at the 50th percentile of the current market rates. It was a fair compensation across the market, but it was higher than what previous CEOs had been paid at the company. She had been aware of this and wanted to be sensitive to many of the company’s non-executive employees who were going through a difficult time financially. The small city where many of them lived had suffered flooding and many families had lost their homes. She had initially agreed to a lower salary at the 44th percentile, but the controlling board member did something odd. At the eleventh hour, he launched a persuasion campaign to bump her salary to the 50th percentile. He listed all of her accomplishments and made a convincing, heartwarming case.

At first, she resisted it and only agreed to it after securing a commitment from the board to give every employee in the company a much higher bonus that year and a pay increase the following year. The company’s blog post never mentioned this and implied that she had pushed hard for her increase on her own and had nothing to do with the bonus payment or pay increase.

Did the controlling board member increase her pay, then set her up for the accusations that he knew would be coming later after she was fired? She began to suspect as much.

The Second Allegation

The second allegation only deepened her suspicions. That particular board member had approached her to do some research into creating a new product for the company. He wanted it to be on the down-low, more of a side-project until its viability was determined. She had always been great at identifying up new products, and his technical background and insight it would be a valuable shortcut to determine viability. Did he set her up through the appearance of unsanctioned work that normally would have board visibility.

The Third Allegation

The third allegation was untrue. She knew it was the company’s general counsel, a good friend of the controlling board member, who had created the “golden handcuff”provisions and was advocating for the longer severance packages.

Besides any obvious courses of litigation, she needed to take immediate action to defend and define her personal brand online. A business news site that catered to her niche industry had mentioned and shared the company’s blog post. The wildfire of rumors had already started. This helped explain why no company would touch her with a ten-foot pole after she began working with an executive recruiting agency.

If she wanted to save her career and keep working, she needed to fight the rumors online and rebuild her damaged reputation.

And though her company had fired her, she didn’t want to see it crash and burn. The selfish actions of the board member not only sullied her reputation, it was casting a dark shadow over the company. After pouring her heart and soul into the company’s success, seeing people talk about it so negatively was hard. She knew what the study by the University of South Carolina said:

“When something negative happens to a CEO’s reputation, the negativity quickly transfers to the company’s reputation.”

It was a lose-lose situation for everyone, except the board member who plotted against her and successfully campaigned for the company’s general counsel to become the CEO.

How the Executive Responded

After she discovered what her former company had been saying, she did not waste any time. Her initial goal was simple: increase the visibility of her online presence and responses to at least match the visibility of the company’s communications. So she did a few simple but effective things:

• She created a blog and wrote a concise but persuasive article rebutting the company’s claims and defending herself. She concluded her defense by listing the positive things she did for the company that demonstrated how unlikely it would have been for her to do the things the company claimed she did.
• Then, she found former employers and other colleagues in the industry who knew her well and were willing to go on the record to defend her. She placed these quotes at the end of her article like the book endorsements an author would place at the end of a press release.
• And she used this article as her foundational link online—the primary link she would be sharing in her online campaign. She updated all of her social media bios to include this link.
• She expanded her social media to include any platforms she had not used. For example, she had a profile on LinkedIn and Facebook, but not Twitter or Instagram.
• After all of her social media accounts were created, updated, and ready for her campaign, she began to proactively search for every mention online of her company’s claims about her on each platform. She left respectful, professional but firm comments on websites and on social media posts defending herself. And she always linked back to her article on her blog.
• The people who went on record to defend her agreed to post and share her social media posts and make statements defending her online.
• Finally, she appeared on a podcast and a vodcast (video podcast) that were popular in her industry and answered questions about the claims. She made sure her article link was mentioned in the interview and in the podcast’s webpage.

A Proactive Response with Reputation Management Professionals

It was a tiring process, of course, and in some cases, she missed some comments that her company made online about her. Ultimately, she invested some money in the effort and hired experienced reputation management professionals who had the technology and know-how to uncover every stone online and create additional strategies to bolster her initial effort. It took time and work, but eventually the positive content online about her personal brand outweighed the negative. The momentum online was pulled in her direction, and eventually, her reputation was improved. She got a job heading a new, fast-growing company. In fact, some of the passionate defenses by her allies online served as references for her new job.

2. The Lawyer Who Stumbled Into a Perfect PR Storm

A talented lawyer found himself ascending in a large firm. As he got closer to the highest ranks he began to notice irregularities in the firm’s handling of its finances. He conducted a quiet investigation behind the scenes and discovered evidence that the firm was mishandling client funds, committing fraud and forging documents.

What the Lawyer Did Next

It was a difficult decision. However, the corruption seemed to involve the majority of the partners. So he decided to resign and submit a complaint to the state bar. When an official criminal investigation came about and the situation became public, he was quick to do interviews with law publications about the case. He also did some research about where the law firm had been most visible on social media. And then, he created accounts on those platforms and began posting links to his interviews with the media. In addition, he also started a blog about whistleblowing at law firms. And he became known as a thought leader on the topics of integrity and ethics in law.

In the end, three out of the four partners were convicted and left the law firm. The fourth partner was not involved in the fraud. The one who remained rebranded the firm, essentially starting a new one. And they hired the whistleblowing lawyer to help rebuild the firm’s reputation. Even though it had a new name, journalists knew it was the old firm re-born, and skepticism was prevalent online. The whistleblowing lawyer knew there would be a hangover effect. And so he maintained a regular schedule of media outreach indefinitely to help the firm’s reputation. This also strengthened his personal brand.

Not every whistleblowing story ends so happily for the whistleblower. But, the key to this lawyer’s success was being proactive by creating influential social media and blog content. He leveraged the bad situation as a platform to launch an effective thought leadership role online.

3. The Investor With a Past

An influential investor who lived in a hot spot for tech investment had a troubling past. When he began attracting media attention for some high profile investments, journalists dug a little and found his troubling history. For a few years after college and before he was serious about investing, he was a violent alcoholic. He was charged with assault at a bar. And there were also rumors about his troubled marriage because of an incident of domestic violence. The latter incident, which almost cost him his family, shook him to the core and he finally sought help. He was able to become sober and rehabilitate his relationships. He was now a hard-working, successful investor. His family was happy and supportive of him. And his life was finally free from the personal demons of his past.

But not in the eyes of the media.

The truth about his past was out—not only in professional circles but also publicly in online articles covering his career. Unfortunately, the coverage magnified the negatives and all but ignored the positives. The publication that most aggressively ran the story had a personal dislike for him, though he did not know why.

How the Investor Overcame the Negativity

The investor was already active online in blogs, interviews, and on social media. But up to that point, his posts had been all business, no personal content. Besides aggressively (but calmly and professionally) responding online to every negative attack by highlighting the many positives of his story—that he was able to break free from alcoholism and rebuild his relationships—he opened up about his personal life. He was protective of the privacy of his family. But with their permission, he began to post pictures of his family life (i.e. vacation photos, heartwarming candid moments).

Most importantly, he did not mention the negative news stories about his past when he shared these pictures; he simply let the world see the joy and restored relationships he was enjoying in his family life. Eventually, the public understood that his story was actually a positive one, not a negative one. Many people who had struggled with alcoholism themselves became sympathetic toward him. And the public opinion turned against the news outlets who were attacking him.

The investor was already very proactive online. But he had to change his approach and content to counteract the false narrative of his life online. When he became vulnerable and shared the truth about his past and restored life, people rallied to his defense.

Be Proactive, Invest in a Comprehensive Strategy

Whether you are defending and defining your personal brand or your company’s brand online, a successful strategy will always be proactive and comprehensive. These efforts must be tireless. There’s too much at stake. Negative public perception can damage a company’s revenue, hinder its ability to attract quality prospective employees, and potentially ruin the company. Defending and defining your valuable reputation online is not a short-term campaign. It’s an indefinite task that demands maintenance for the life of the company and your career.

About Marca Global

Founded in 2015, Marca Global LLC provides online reputation and privacy services through proprietary technology solutions. The firm was ranked #538 on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing company list and has garnered recognition from TopSEOs, Forbes and was listed as one of the Top 250 Private Companies in Colorado.

Reputation Sciences has advanced technology and years of experience in protecting, defending, and defining personal and corporate brands. It can be a monumental task defending and rehabilitating your reputation, but we know how to get it done. Contact us to learn more about how we can help you define yourself online.

The post Defend and Define Yourself Online: 3 Stories of Reputation Management appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

Beyond Conservative or Liberal: The Universal Media Bias and Importance of Public Perception Online

In this post, Reputation Sciences looks at real-life scenarios and the business consequences of fake news and media bias. Businesses today must understand the importance of public perception online. And they need to prepare for the new digital battlefield of corporate reputation warfare. We’ll highlight the importance of vigilance, preparation, and strategic planning to deal with public attacks. This is what all accountable CMOs, CEOs, and SME owners need for effective online corporate reputation management.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”

This pearl of wisdom, questionably attributed to Mark Twain, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Jefferson, or Winston Churchill depending upon who you ask, is no longer applicable in the digital age of the 21st Century. In the age of hyper-speed communication, a lie can race around the world in seconds if it’s sensational enough. And therein lies the true universal root of media bias. It truly is a case of Ready, Fire, Aim. Fake news can make news and the share and retweet buttons don’t care about the facts.

Any viral story, comment, or image can catch the attention of media, mainstream or otherwise and outpace the usual fact-checking. “Reliable sources” are artifacts of the print era. Today reporters tell the story as it develops often without knowing let alone having time to check the facts. Anyone with a smartphone and an attitude is a potential source for a negative media blitz. When bold headline blunders are brought to light any feeble retractions issued after the fact are equivalent to chasing a speeding bullet with a butterfly net. And the need to retract a false report is hardly a deterrent for those who measure success by the number of landing page hits. Retractions rarely go viral.

Any indiscriminate rant or even a casual comment perceived as politically incorrect can become fodder for the media cannons, and we’ve already discussed the haphazard way they go off.

Clickbait, Hot Buttons, and Controversy: The Real Media Bias

First of all, the term “media bias” conjures up images of political intrigue and maneuvering. Ask conservatives and they’ll tell you that the mainstream media is liberal. Ask a liberal and they’ll claim that the media is a tool of the ruling class. But for businesses, political bias takes a backseat to the true motivator in the hyper communicating world of our digital age, and that prime mover is the manipulation of public perception.

Hot button issues can all come into play against high profile companies and individuals. And the higher the profile, the wider the target for rivals, rogue employees, or anonymous disgruntled persons. A reputable small enterprise minding its own business could go under because it hasn’t maintained the vigilance necessary to be aware that their valuable online reputation is in the cross-hairs of an online attack.

Politics Aside, Fake News Can Happen to Anyone

Whether the media is promoting a liberal or conservative agenda is beside the point. Though, it does play a role in public perception. Woe to the enterprise that happens to get caught in the politically motivated media crossfire. We’ll take a look at the consequences of the infamous “Pizzagate” case below. It’s a cautionary tale for any SME who might think they’re immune from media bias because they rely primarily on local foot traffic.

The most important priority for both mainstream and social media platforms alike is producing sensational content which is profitable. The more views they can attract, the more valuable the ad space. Circulation and viewership have always been the mainstay of traditional print and broadcast journalism and that fundamental hasn’t changed in the age of digital media. If your business can generate that controversy, false facts and questionable sources won’t deter the sensation biased media.

“If it’s on the internet, it must be true”

Yes, many of us make this quip with our tongues firmly in our cheeks. Sadly, in the global arena of the internet, credibility, and authority can be difficult to discern. And there is always a significant segment of the population still gullible enough to believe that “If it’s on the internet, it must be true.”

This mentality is often accompanied by “Wait until my friends see this!” It’s the 21st Century version of “Extra, extra, read all about it!” It’s self-perpetuating at no extra cost to the original publisher and unhindered by fact-checking. For a business caught in the fake news crossfire, a 240-character retraction on Twitter is small compensation for the original false retweets heard round the world. As soon as the story is viral, the mainstream media picks it up and fake news becomes even harder to discern.

In other words, controversy is lucrative. Too frequently, traditional journalistic integrity takes a back seat to click-baiting sensationalism. The old-fashioned concept of a fact-based “scoop” has given way to the lure of a story going viral. Credible sources are no longer as important as click-baiting headlines.

If you or your company becomes the target of malicious “fake news,” your business may fall to its knees before you even think of putting on your shoes.

Pizzagate: When Fake News Makes News

“Pizzagate” is the infamous tag for the fake news scandal that put fake news itself in the spotlight. The story is a recipe for sensational disaster combining many hot-button ingredients. It’s a tale of politics, satanic symbols and rituals, pedophilia, and sex-trafficking by a presidential candidate. As the Washington Post reported with their headline, it was a story that went “from rumor, to hashtag, to gunfire” in Washington DC.

Ed Welch is one of many internet users falling for fake news these days. He’s the perfect example of a loose cannon unleashed. this is all too common around the world when fake news makes the rounds on the internet. While the rumor about Hillary Clinton running an underground child-trafficking ring from a basement under a pizza parlor in Washington DC might be as equally outrageous as the likelihood of the presidential candidate adopting an alien baby to most of us, that discernment was a virtue Ed Welch lacked.

Welch took the rumor to heart, armed himself with an AR-15 and a .38 caliber pistol. And Welch headed to Comet Ping Pong to break up the supposed satanic child sex slave ring himself. Fortunately, wannabe hero Welch discovered that there is no basement at Comet Ping Pong. So, he took out his frustrations by shooting a computer closet and then laid his guns on the table and surrendered.

Social Media Bias Run Amok

There were no human casualties from the gunfire. But Comet Ping Pong’s owner James Alefantis would surely agree that his enterprise’s online reputation was a casualty of false news and the insatiable media bias which feeds on controversy. The story launched by shadowy online trolls at Reddit and 4chan enticed the right-wing media firebrand, Alex Jones. And so they broadcast it to millions.

Negative reviews began to flood into Comet’s Facebook page. Pictures of Alefanti and his employees were posted online, labeling them as criminals. Phones had to be unplugged to avoid the deluge of obscene calls and death threats. Alex Jones made what Alefantis describes as a “half-hearted apology”, but as we’ve noted previously that statement hasn’t received a fraction of the attention of the original Pizzagate scandal.

Today, thanks to local community support James Alefantis reports that Comet Ping Pong managed to weather the storm but maintaining his online reputation is an ongoing effort.

Twitter Troll Rolls Over Harley Davidson’s CEO

When a Twitter user deceived thousands by claiming that Harley-Davidson’s CEO Matthew Levatich accused President Trump of being a moron he found himself and his corporation under attack in June of 2018.  The fake news perpetrator tweets under the account registered as @tinselman. The same account attributes fake news to the Indianapolis Star which reported on both incidents at IndyStar.com.

The fabricated quote deviously ascribed to CEO Levatich is a perfect example of Ready, Fire, Aim. IndyStar reports that the fake quote was retweeted upward of 35,000 times by prominent Tweeters including author Stephen King who has 4.86 million followers of his own at the time of this writing.

Levatich quickly responded on the official Harley Davidson account. He denounced the practice of spreading fake news, but the original fake quote was beyond reining in. With an army of fervent anti-Trump retweeters joining Stephen King, the notorious quote quickly evolved on Google Trends with a rash of searches for keywords including “Matthew Levatich, Trump, moron.”

As we can see at the link above, Harley Davidson has done the necessary damage control to expose this incident of fake news via prominent rebuttals in the SERP rankings. The story provides an example for all corporations and CEOs of the need for social media monitoring and vigilance.

But CEOs don’t necessarily have to be the victims of malicious Twitter trolls and fake news. As we’ll see below sometimes even the masters of social media underestimate the media’s insatiable appetite for controversy.

Hootsuite CEO Mismanages Social Media

Social media failures seem obvious to most people not involved, although, the CEO of a social platform management site should be able to sidestep these issues. Unfortunately Hootsuite founder and CEO Ryan Holmes was unable to avoid getting caught in a tweet debate.

VentureBeat tech news reported last August of 2017 on how Holmes, the author of The 4 Billion Dollar Tweet: A Guide for Getting Leaders Off the Social Sidelines did just that by placing himself center stage with an impulsive tweet directed at a writer for Bloomberg who titled his article “Hootsuite: The unicorn that never was.”

One Tweet is All it Takes

Nothing can fire up a CEO faster than implications that executives have been less than truthful about their company’s valuation. The Bloomberg article suggested that Hootsuite’s $1 billion evaluation was closer to $700 to $750 million. CEO Holmes responded with a quintessential “ready, fire, aim response” which directed the offending reporter to a sex hotline.

The intrepid CEO is spinning the incident, as he says, by owning it. But this single tweet still clings to his online reputation more than a year later. A Google search for “Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes” still places reports on apologies for the incident on page one of Google.

In addition, the crude tweet also fueled a backlash of comments and speculation about Hootsuite’s primitive corporate culture. Holmes “ready, fire, aim” moment spotlights the importance of CEO discretion and attention to online reputation management. Even when the CEO is a media expert himself. It can happen to the best of us.

Reputation Sciences For Corporate Online Reputation Management

Any company at any time can find itself in the clutches of a media storm. From family-owned SMEs to international corporations, every business must stay vigilant. Negative media campaigns can wipe out years of hard-earned reputation, positive customer opinions, and a carefully cultivated web presence.

For corporations, the very complexity of the corporate structure increases vulnerability to online attacks. Online reputation has never been more important to profit and growth. And an organization simply can’t afford to allow today’s online media to control the conversation.

At Reputation Sciences we have the proprietary digital technology and the experts to prepare and work with your organization for any media storm. We understand the importance of public perception online uniquely and only we have decades in media, technology, corporate and leadership . We are experts at controlling the conversation, positive assets, and developing reputation management strategies. Establishing Reputation Sciences has made it our mission to optimize control of your corporate online reputation.

About Marca Global

Founded in 2015, Marca Global LLC provides online reputation and privacy services through proprietary technology solutions. Ranked #538 on the Inc. 5000 fastest growing company list, Marca Global garnered recognition from TopSEOs, and Forbes. Marca Global was also named one of the Top 250 Private Companies in Colorado.

The post Ready, Fire, Aim! Fake News, Media Bias, and the Importance of Public Perception Online appeared first on Reputation Sciences.