How to Repair Your Online Reputation

Reference: executionists.com

Managing a company’s online reputation today is tricky.

Embarrassing tweets, inappropriate Facebook posts, off-color comments on a YouTube video, bad Yelp reviews, hackers adding inappropriate content to your website, all can potentially damage a brand, a company or an individual.

It often amazes us that people in the business world don’t realize that their online posts, comments, photos, tweets and videos are just as much a reflection on their business as what they do in a public place. They don’t get that Social Media can determine whether someone will begin or continue to do business with them and that the information they post online can come back to haunt them in the future.

Follow our basic rules of thumb for online content and you’ll never go wrong –  Just remember: “If it’s not something you’d want your mother to see, DON’T POST IT”!

• Keep private things private, while assuming nothing is truly private at all. 

Don’t expect that privacy policies will protect you from yourself.  Most people know that it’s unwise to post inappropriate pictures of themselves or comments that may be politically incorrect – but many do it anyway.  Keep in mind that you should adjust your privacy settings in order to control the pictures other people post may post of you. You can, and should, put privacy setting on all content you want to share only with a select group of friends and family. Nonetheless, Facebook and other social sites constantly update their rules about how much you can protect your content. Privacy policies can change at a moment’s notice and your friends can tag embarrassing pictures of you without your consent so check back with these sites often to make sure your settings are up-to-date.

• Search yourself.

It may not cross many peoples mind, but try searching your full name and your business name on Google. Most likely there are other people in the world that share the same name as you but in any case, Google’s capability of indexing your photos right off your social media accounts or even your friend’s accounts makes it difficult to hide some of those embarrassing moments. If you posted a photo or were even tagged in one, don’t be surprised if it appears on Google’s Images.  This tactic will give you an idea of how current or potential business partners may see you and we think it’s a good idea to Google yourself about every month or so. 

• Disengaging from Social Media won’t solve the problem.

Don’t shoot the messenger. Deactivating your accounts isn’t the solution. It’s up to you to make yourself look the good online. Sometimes less is better.  Next time you are tweeting or posting a status, think about what a current or potential client might say if they saw it.  Nothing you post or do online is safe. 

• Don’t assume your actions are ever safe online.

Although emails, Facebook messages, and Twitter direct messages are more private forms of communication than things like blog posts, status updates, and tweets, they’re not absolute. Take the 2011 case of a U.S. politician who accidentally tweeted the contents of an explicit direct message. You probably heard about it – he was publicly humiliated and had no choice but to resign from office. The contents of a slanderous or embarrassing email or Facebook message can easily become public, whether by accident or by direct intent of the other party.

A damaged online reputation means lost business; repair it today.

If someone else posts a picture of you on Facebook that you find embarrassing, remove the “tag” that identifies it as you.  Also don’t hesitate to ask others to take down pictures of yourself that you think could compromise your reputation.  Another alternative we often recommend is for our clients to construct two Facebook profiles, one for outsiders that emphasizes your educational and professional accomplishments and another for your intimate circles, with the most private settings you can find.

While recovering a damaged reputation is long process, it can save your practice or business from lost clients.  If the thought of spending hours each day repairing and/or monitoring your online reputation seems daunting, consider hiringExecutionists to manage it for you.  Stop feeling overwhelmed by all of the intricacies of brand management and use this opportunity to learn all you can about ways to improve your business’s reputation online.