How To Protect, Fix Your Online Reputation

(CBS)  Did you ever "google" yourself and find something negative?

It should worry you. Just one negative posting can cost you a job

It's estimated that more than 70 percent of employers do a Web search on job applicants as part of their hiring procedures. More than half of them admit to not bringing someone on board because of negative information they found online.

It could be something you posted years ago, or something put into cyberspace by someone you know - or even a perfect stranger.

What can you do about it?

Michael Fertik, founder of ReputationDefender.com, had some advice on The Early Show Saturday Edition.

Fertik says he started the business two years ago with one person. He now has 60 employees. His service costs about $10 a month.

Fertik told substitute co-anchor Seth Doane that safeguarding your online reputation is "as important as your credit score nowadays. Every life transaction that you have, whether you're looking for a job, you're looking for romance, you're looking for a friend - people are gonna look you up on the Web and make conclusions based on what they find.

"One random, idiosyncratic piece of content about you on the Web could dominate your Google results forever," he said. "It's such an issue: It affects people who are undeserving, people who are sort of using bad judgment, all kinds of different people."

What's worse, legal recourse is murky at best, Fertik observed, saying, "The law hasn't caught up yet with privacy. The Internet has really changed the privacy landscape in a big way and the law hasn't yet caught up with it. It's lagging behind, so far."

Fertik stressed that, "You have to be on top of your (online) reputation. It's not about narcissism. It's about your personal brand. Especially in a down economy, people are looking you up, they're making decisions. They're denying you a job unless they find something really good about you on the Web."

He had three key pieces of advice:

First, never let anyone set up your reputation online. Establish yourself online to create a clear and positive image of you. Don't wait for someone else to destroy it. Use what he calls "Google insurance": Create a profile on something like Facebook that's positive and tasteful. Claim the real estate on your name. What is said about you on the Web isn't a function of you living a righteous life: Anyone can say something bad about you. "Write your own history," he recommended.

Second, if there's a problem with your online reputation, you have to find it. Constantly monitor the Web. Search for full names, usernames, etc. Be on top of the game. Go deep into the Internet to Web sites that aren't indexed by Google: "The deep Web - Facebook, MySpace, the pages where the content really starts to generate and become problematic."

"Monitor yourself assiduously," Fertik told Doane.

Third: The longer it's there, the more it spreads and can be archived. If you see a problem, deal with it quickly. Get in touch with people and tell them to stop, in a kind and thoughtful way, without getting a lawyer involved right away. Reach them on a human level. If you want professional help, companies such as ReputationDefender are available. As Fertik told Doane, "Nip it in the bud before it spreads and gets mirrored and replicated. If you can't do it, you want to hire the pros."

If you do find something bad about yourself, how do you get it offline?
"Sometimes," Fertik responded to Doane, "what we do is, we overwhelm the 'bad' with good to make sure that when people look you up, they see what you want them to see, they see your good videos, not necessarily the (bad ones)."

[churchfolk]

I have only found one thing that really works that I picked up for only $29 at a site call remove slander. I tried reputation defender but that service was for a monitor only, I needed the crap removed off the first page. Some of the sites are asking for much as $10,000 which was way to expensive for me. If I can do it trust me you can do it yourself.

[Herb_Tabin]

Look Guys - As the author of "Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management" I speak regularly about forging your own online legacy before someone else does is paramount. Today you don?t own your online reputation. Your reputation is created as an aggregation of content, and then indexed by a search engine.

What appears when your name if searched depends on what is already on the Internet about you and if you do nothing to place content on the Internet about yourself, someone else will. That?s why it?s essential to build a wall of positive content. This works because if and when negative content is posted it will have a much harder time rising to the top of search results. In short, you need to take positive action to publicize your own positive news, awards, honors, etc. Doing so, can pre-empt the negative.

You can do that by adding content to the Internet about you that not only dilutes the negative information, but will appear at the top of search engine results -- pushing down negative results, diluting the negativity. To do this you can use the following ten techniques:

? Profile Building - Build Profiles on websites about you or your business

? Photo Sharing - Add photos to the internet about you or your business

? Video Sharing - Add videos to the internet about you or your business

? Domain Name Use - Add multiple domain names containing your name

? Blog Posting - Post on Blogs info about your business

? Community Membership - belong to communities where you can post about your business

? Paid Bloggers - hire a blog service to blog about your businesss

? Press Releases - put out press releases about your business

? Blog Post Removal Techniques -

Hope this helps - if not there is my book and a few other out there available on amazon that can help you get the job done

[LawyerLL7]

You might consider a service designed to repair online reputations. I used <a href='http://www.fixyoursearchresults.com'>Fix Your Search Results</a> at <a href='http://www.fixyoursearchresults.com'>www.fixyoursearchresults.com</a>. They were definitely the least expensive place I found, and it worked. They cleaned up Google and Bing searches on my name.

[rf35]

Now that I think about it, that priest thing could be a problem. I wouldn''t want future employers to think I am a pedophile!

[rf35]

I only come up once on Google and only when I use my full name and middle initial. It''s a complimentary article in the on-line archive of a small local newspaper from a location I was at several years ago. Using just my first and last name, I mostly appear to be an aerospace professor or a priest.

[jtormey3]

Then, there''s the case of failed public officals and reprehensible public figures:
www[dot]BobbySturgell[dot]com
www[dot]BobbySturgell[dot]net
www[dot]BobbySturgell[dot]org

[carlylaine]

I am as nasty on the internet as I am in real life. Hence, I''ve gotten myself in trouble with every one in authority or I should say...thinks they are in authority over me. Anyone on the net whotries to ''set me straight'' according to their thinking will get a blast. I love the anonymity. It doesn''t make me better or worse...

Imagined or not....no one has authority over me. This shows all over the net. And I never use my real name.

DON''T TREAD ON ME

[tucson23]

I''ve got a better idea for employers...if they find anything at all about a job candidate, good or bad, they should pass. Why? They''re too stupid to know not to use their real name online, and/or they''re so vain that they think millions of people really care about their cat and their taste in music. Vain or stupid, neither makes a great employee.

[mainedoggie]

Are people still that stupid that they use their real name on the web?

Good Lord. Americans are digustingly vain eh? Facebook? My Space?

The beauty of anonymity is not having to be nice to other a-holes online. Say what you wish, and mean it.
AKA - Flame em and Forget em!

[birric]

What utter rubbish. So with this kind of service, the ones who can afford it can have a good reputation and the ones who don''t get screwed. Well, I think this ought to be made known to every employer. Then the employer will understand that a gleaming internet record means zilch. In fact, it is the wonderful records which should raise a red flag by itself. So, employers, stop being dumbos and don''t even look at the internet. In all likelihood you will get the wrong impression about the applicant.