Council Post: Your Digital Reputation, Your First Impression: Secrets Of Online Reputation Management

By Jared Shaner, CRO and partner of forward-thinking e-commerce agency Trellis, overseeing the agency’s client success, marketing and growth.

What if your Tinder date thought you were a convicted killer? 

This is the unfortunate reality for individuals who have the misfortune of sharing a common name with someone convicted of a crime. Could you even imagine? The reality is most of us Google individuals and corporations as an approach to developing a “first impression” of this individual, and for some, this reality can be painful if their digital reputation looks anything other than sterling. 

As such, I have dedicated the last five years of my life to consulting for corporations and individuals to help them build strategies to establish digital firewalls to protect against future harm and respond to unfortunate circumstances that leave them with the urgent need to restore their digital reputation. This culminated in founding a digital reputation management firm, Dignified Online, in the midst of the pandemic in March of this past year.

For many individuals around the world, having a positive online reputation is paramount. Many career opportunities develop through having a positive reputation online. There may be times in a person’s life when an individual is falsely accused of an act or simply made a bad decision in the moment. This could be extremely damaging to one’s reputation and create catastrophic damage in one’s personal and professional life. The digital world we live in today is very focused on online presentations and maintaining a positive presence. Social media is the biggest platform for self-expression in the world, and many people share their most intimate moments online. That being said, it’s extremely important to protect one’s image before bullies get in the way or a single decision impacts the long-term trajectory of one’s professional and personal life.

The foundation lies in search engine optimization, also referred to as SEO. This builds when a person is first introduced online. Many clients struggle with keeping their results positive because they don’t have enough positive content to do so. SEO technology heavily relies on views, clicks and links. That is why we have seen the advent of a number of firms focused solely on online reputation management. Although the SEO process can take months, even years, it allows firewalls to be put up to protect people from damaging information. Many times, new links appear even after contracts are solidified with reputation management firms.

Here are a few fundamental tips for gaining control of your online reputation:

1. Control Your Name.

Whether it is your personal name or corporate, make sure that you have ownership over all digital properties that could list your company. This includes things like your domain (I bought JaredShaner.com just so that no one else could!), public listings (think Yelp, Google, Crunchbase, etc.) and social profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

2. Create Content.

Both individuals and organizations should be publishing content regularly through their blog networks. This content will create the firewall against any negative content that might threaten the integrity of one’s digital reputation.

3. Post Often.

Managing your digital reputation is not a “one and done” endeavor; with Google’s algorithm constantly changing, it is a gamble whether the same content it once found relevant to your digital reputation will still be deemed relevant. This is a major risk. However, one thing that always factors in: I have seen great sustained success with the ranking of content that is new and therefore deemed “fresh and relevant.”

In this day and age, it’s difficult to protect people from such harm online. With the right firewalls built, there is a chance for immunity against false media claims and cyberbullies. The media tends to be demanding of many individuals and their personal exposure. With the current algorithms built into Google, it can be difficult to achieve full success, but that is why we have seen such a surge in digital reputation management focused firms sprouting up in the last couple of years.

Most importantly, it is important to recognize that even if your digital reputation is not what you would hope today, with hard work and perseverance (or perhaps the help of a digital reputation management firm), you can take ownership over this crucial part of personal and corporate branding.