Online reputation is how people will see you when they search for you online.

What Do You See When You Google Yourself, and How Are You Being Represented?

Everyone has a reputation online, including the companies you deal with every day.  In fact, we’ve seen companies that have amazing reputations and some with the worst presence online.

The question is, do you have a say in it? Online reputation management (ORM) refers to taking control of the conversation. Its strategies and techniques ensure that people will find the right materials when searching for you on the internet. The main purpose of online reputation management is to create a balance and counter misleading trends.

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Why Should You Care About Your Online Reputation?

Online reputation has become so prevalent in today’s world. The internet is our first stop for anything we need. Not only do people view the internet as their primary source of information, but they also trust it at face value. More importantly, they make decisions on what they find:

97% of people read online reviews when searching for a business (BIA Kelsey)
Two out of three people see the internet as the most reliable source of information about a person or business (Edelman Insights)
More than 70% of hiring employers have rejected a potential candidate because of something they found online (Cross-Tab)

Others Are Creating Your Reputation

While it’s reassuring to assume you have significant leverage on what others think of you, you actually have very little of your online reputation. Your reputation is mainly determined by what strangers say and think about you online.

There are things that you can do to influence how people view you or your business. These efforts can take time or money, but being able to control your name makes the process worth it. The worst decision you can make is leaving the internet in control of your reputation.

Your Online and Offline Lives Are Combining

With each passing day, the online world is becoming more integrated with our daily lives. From smartphones and TVs to the self-driving cars that seemed like science fiction, you are living each day more connected to the digital world. That means there are more ways for you to leave a mark online, both positive and negative. You might not think people are searching for you online, but the chances are that someone is.

Some common reasons include:

Employers doing research before an interview
Landlords looking into potential renters
College admissions evaluating students
Former colleagues
Risk assessments from insurance companies

No matter your lifestyle, there is a large amount of information about you online, and people have access to see it.

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Your Online Reputation Lasts Forever

If a person writes something negative about you online, it can put you at a severe disadvantage over the long term, especially if you’re not aware of it. It’s essential to keep tabs on what people are saying about you online and then take steps to counteract them. You also need to monitor the things that you post about yourself. Thanks to social media, posts from decades ago can come back to harm you.

Why Do You Need Online Reputation Management?

Given how advanced technology has become, why can’t reputation online handle problems on its own? Despite the advancements, that’s not likely to happen. Google’s algorithms only give us what we search for. If we ask for gossip, conspiracy stories, or negative reviews, that’s what gets associated with our search terms.

Search Algorithms Will Prioritize Popularity

No algorithm can tell if information accurately reflects you or not, so popularity becomes the primary measuring method of what makes a good search result. That’s why petty lawsuits dismissed years ago, embarrassing photos, and other kinds of irrelevant-clickbait results often dominate online reputations.

Online Reputation Management Prioritizes a Balance

Online reputation management counteracts human bias, ensuring the materials that matter aren’t overwhelmed by false information. If you don’t trust an algorithm to represent you online, you need to develop an online reputation management strategy to protect your interests.This need will always exist.

As time goes on, it will become more and more essential to manage our online reputations as search engines and other online algorithms take on a more significant role in our everyday lives.

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Are ORM and SEO The Same?

While there are similarities between online reputation management and search engine optimization (SEO), there are also significant differences. SEO focuses on promoting a specific website or page to the top of the search results. While online reputation management is about controlling the assortment of websites that appear in your results. This means the tactics and measures of success are different for both.

The post What Is Online Reputation Management? appeared first on Reputation Sciences.

So, what is fake news, exactly?

In its most current iteration and understanding, fake news seems to be a catchall term for “gotcha” journalism; the spread of so-called ‘disinformation’ that, while delivered as legitimate news from a credible news source, is rather scurrilous, unsupported by evidence, and in existence solely to fuel or lend credence to a narrative. Seen primarily as a threat to undermine those levying the claim, news items charged as disingenuous tends to be quickly and very publicly dismissed. This may seem an attempt at delegitimizing the story, its author and its source, all in one fell swoop.

What’s even more fascinating about the fake news phenomenon is not how quickly it has become entrenched in the national conversation, nor how casually, even haphazardly, the idea seems to be tossed around or applied these days. What is really interesting is how much its definition and application seems to differ on either side of the partisan divide.  Whereas one side will hurl a fake-news claim at stories and sites considered less-established and more on the fringes of the Web, the other will return fire by lobbing such accusations at longtime media stalwarts (print, TV and otherwise), leaving either side subject to questions of credibility and solid footing. In the end, any such claim mainly succeeds in muddying the waters between truth and falsehood.

The end result of this disagreement is the obfuscation, even alienation, of the truth. Regardless of a story’s veracity, its crux, and the most basic facts and evidence within, are ultimately left open to interpretation. The fake news controversy encourages a sense of doubt, of fiction, to even the most verifiable, and verified, of details, no matter their actual truth or the people, event or issue they pertain to.

It may not be the truth or fiction within the piece that ultimately dictates its authenticity, but the perception of artifice. The stigma of the fake news label, depending on where and who it originated from, can resonate with a considerable segment of the population, creating a widespread perception that then shapes and solidifies mass opinion of the article, the author and its organization well into the future.

The perception of fake news, though many times highly subjective, and sometimes perhaps a bit misguided, can have the impact of bending reality to its will, shaping a new destiny for a piece of information, the way it is disseminated and, eventually, the people it is built around.

The Fake News You Don’t Hear About

News articles and organizations tend to receive the brunt of the Fake News fallout these days, and understandably so. After all, it is still newspapers, TV stations and their online counterparts performing the major reporting duties on anything and everything political. True or not, accusations of impropriety and inaccurate reporting will always be thrown at journalists first, particularly by those they’re charged with covering.

But what about those items that don’t receive the same level of media attention as news articles? They may involve misleading or false claims about individuals, professionals and businesses with little supporting evidence, yet receive enough visibility in a way that creates the impression of credibility.

Such items have been around since long before the current Fake News phenomenon, and include anything from news article mentions, gossip site posts and social media gripes to customer reviews and court case records. Yet they may fit the definition of fake news more aptly than most news articles, and tend to gain and maintain online momentum and prominence that far outlasts the 24-hour news cycle.

The mere mention of a person or organization’s name within something negative, regardless of the context or their level of involvement, greatly increases the odds of that item appearing in search results pages…those that populate the screen whenever their name or brand is searched. Once such an item appears on Google’s first page, that job seeker, professional, start-up firm or corporation has fake news of their very own; something that will most likely have real consequences for how they’re perceived for years down the road.

The ultimate and unfortunate impact of these items is a skewed, misleading and sometimes wholly fabricated perception of the name or brand in question. This fake news becomes online perception, eroding the integrity of the name or brand in the process.

For the most part, major news organizations will come out the other side of the current ‘fake news’ uproar relatively unscathed. These organizations have the resources and the experience needed to adapt and push through whatever political backlash comes their way. Some, in fact, have greatly benefited from the attention, attracting increased readership, ratings and revenue as a result.

Unfortunately, the other fake news, the one that rarely receives widespread media attention, doesn’t operate on a cycle, and has no end date in sight. In this case, the perception these items create become actual long-term realities, carving into images, potential and legacies for years on end. Without awareness or vigilance, such “news” can forever stigmatize a name or brand, driving it into oblivion.

The post Fake News: What You See Vs. What You Don’t appeared first on Reputation Sciences.