Mar 04 2009
Reputation Management For Individuals
A customer asked me how to “erase” the web pages which contain negative opinion in Google search result pages about a public figure, whose perceived image is less than perfect.
Well, it’s not possible to “delete” those pages from Google (unless you get a court injunction ordering Google to do so). But he can add in more positive content about the person, and try to boost these web pages up the ranking using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques.
But if an individual, a business or an organization’s reputation is already bad due to their behavior, no matter how much positive content is generated, even more negative content can still get its way into the search pages. This is especially so when everyone can publish nowadays on the Internet by means of blogging.
With the advent of Internet, and social media more recently, reputation management has become very important for individuals, businesses and organizations in their branding, marketing and PR efforts.
Perhaps the best policy is do like what Google says, “Don’t be evil”. Be good and people will talk about us well on the Internet.
But in case there is any negative content, one can contact the web site owner, or participate in its forum or blog, and try to set things right, perhaps by posting feedback or comments on the web sites. Be professional and don’t hide behind anonymous email address which I believe some commentators did on this blog when I talked about them. Be respectful. Don’t point fingers and don’t lose temper.
Today we no longer can ignore what people say about us on the Internet. The long term solution is to be good and not evil. As for my customer, all the best to him for what he intends to do.
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I am happy that there is no way to wipe it off.
Yes, sometimes a rash one time event does get us some bad publicity. But serial bad guys must leave a record so that others can learn and know to stay away.
Cheers