How To Protect, Fix Your Online Reputation

Jan. 10, 2009

(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)."

ReputationDefender Launches their Official MySpace Page

ReputationDefender recently launched their MySpace page.

As the Internet expands through all new Social Networking websites, keep in touch with your own name and reputation. Remember, what you post today can haunt you tomorrow. Parents, take a moment to review ReputationDefender/MyChild - to help maintain your kids online profile.

Reputation Defender - Nuke Those Nake Pics and Blog Rants

Source: Mashable.com

It’s a pretty common story these days that job applicants get turned down due to revealing Google results, offensive Facebook profiles and embarrassing blog entries. But thanks to a newly-launched service, you can monitor that info and erase it - if the site owner won’t play ball, you can set the lawyers on him.

Read more here.

Sue Scheff: ReputationDefender Continues to Grow - As the Internet Expands!

As a victim and survivor of the wicked web (at times), I was vindicated at a jury trial for damages when I was awarded over $11M for the defamatory comments posted about me.

I credit my attorney, David Pollack, for successfully proving to the jury how I was damaged (defamed) online.

What happens after the jury goes home and I have my $11.3M judgment? Well, you get a lot of media attention, new stalkers arrive, you become a Limited Public Figure (something I was not prior this major victory), and before you know it - you are the face of Internet Defamation Survivor. However what it doesn't do is erase the ugliness the perpetrator did to you online.

For that, I sought out the services of Reputation Defender. O-kay, so you can't literally erase all the unflattering online statements - but you can start filling the web with who you really are - and what you believe in.

I used ReputationDefender MyEdge - which is a priceless service for anyone that owns a business or has a reputation to protect. You can have a 20 year old reputable company literally destroyed within 20 minutes with a few keystrokes!

Here are some articles to help you find out more about how Reputation Defender can help you.

As a parent advocate, I always recommend MyChild - which helps parents monitor where their child's name is being used! Remember, kids think that applying for colleges and filling out employment applications is far away - in a child's mind, 2-4 years seems like a lifetime - but in reality - what goes online today - can haunt them tomorrow and years from tomorrow.

My Good Name Protector ReputationDefender Raises $2.6M In 1st Round

VentureBeat on Reputation Defender

ReputationDefender Official Blog

Teacher Fired Over MySpace Photo

Mahalo on Reputation Defender

Reputation Defender Official MySpace

Wired.com - Delete Your Bad Web Rep

Mashable.com on Reputation Defender

Fast Company on Reputation Defender

CyberLaw - Stanford.edu - Reputation Defender Article

Reputation Defender Turnstile

WRAL - Local Tech Wire

TradeVibes - Reputation Defender

There are many more.... I receive many emails from people all over the country and world that are being harmed online - many cannot afford the high costs of litigation. I always recommend Reputation Defender as an alternative or in combination with the legal path.

I am not a spokesperson for Reputation Defender, nor do I receive money or referral fees from them - I simply am a very satisfied client and want others to know there is such a service out there as Internet Gossip can be viewed as FACT. In many cases, that can hurt a persons' reputation.

Sue Scheff - Reputation Defender 2009 MyChild - Keeping Your Kids Safe ONLINE

Reputation Defender is a priceless service that many parents cannot afford to pass up. As a client of Reputation Defender, I know first hand how it helps keep your online image in line with your real life person and more importantly help protect your child in cyberspace!

Source: Reputation Defender/MyChild

Why should your online reputation matter to your kid or teen?

Teens have always cared about their reputations - their lives revolve around it. Today, the difference is that the Internet defines the reputation of a person. We search for information about each other constantly. Knowing what's online is part of parenting in the 21st Century because:

26% of college admissions officers use search engines to research candidates1
64% of teens say that most teens do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about.

Don't feel powerless any longer. MyChild is the solution!

Michael Fertik to be Featured on SpotLight Radio

The Online Reputation Management Industry is booming and ReputationDefender is leading the way. With issues of Internet privacy, cyber bullying, social networking and Internet defamation being featured in mainstream media more than ever, people are finally starting to ask questions about the possible effects of their Internet use.

Listen here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/spotlight/2008/10/23/Your-Online-Reputation-May-be-Costly-to-your-Future

Sue Scheff: Do you know what your kids are posting online about you?

I read this very interesting Blog today on today's kids and what they can put online about not only themselves, but about their parents! Not excluding other family members.

By Eve Tahmincioglu

Are your Internet-crazed kids sabotaging your job search/career?

Who knows things about you that you’d rather not share with the general public? That you drink two or three martinis every night. Maybe you like to call in sick when you’re really not sick to play basketball with the kids. Or maybe you’re prone to punching in walls when you fight with your spouse.

I’ve written a lot about digital dirt lately. You know, the negative information about you on the Internet you don’t want your boss or prospective employers to see.

Well, here’s a minefield you better keep an eye on — Your own digitally savvy kids that seem to spend every waking moment of their lives sending weird things to eachother on Facebook, or MySpace.

The owner of ReputationDefender.com, Michael Fertick, recently told me of a new phenomenon he’s discovered in his quest to help people everywhere protect their online reputations. The company helps individuals by searching the Internet for bad stuff about their customers and then finding ways to get rid of it. Sometimes it’s as simple as calling a blogger and asking that something negative be removed, and in other cases it requires writing lots of good stuff about a client so it drowns out the bad stuff.

The bad stuff usually comes from disgruntled girlfriends or boyfriends; people criticizing something you wrote or a project you worked on; or maybe you got rowdy at a football game and the local paper wrote about you.

But Fertik was surprised when he discovered a new source for the bad stuff — his customers’ own kids.

Turns out some tweens, teens and even 20 somethings out there are writing about private family matters on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace, and also sharing their pain on blogs. And they’re naming names.“We’ve seen discussions by kids of parents’ incomes,” he says. For example, ‘Dad makes $75,000 per year’. They also write about their parents’ relationships, “‘Mom and Dad are fighting pretty hard tonight’, of career news ‘Mom didn’t get the promotion she wanted’; and even social habits or qualities, ‘Dad is such a d–k,’ or ‘Dad is a friggin’ alcoholic.’”

Parents shouldn’t be too surprised that their children are sharing this stuff on the Web. Kids have always had to vent about family issues to their friends, but before the Internet, conversations were kept out of the public forum, for the most part.

Fertik’s advice: Talk to your kids and check out their FaceBook accounts now. “Let them know whatever they write is a tattoo that can stain them and you (the parent), possibly forever,” he adds.

We’ve all been so worried lately that our kids may end up writing something about themselves, or sharing suggestive photos of themselves on social networking sites that could end up hurting them when they go out into the job market. None of us thought about what they may be writing about us.

Is there something your kids know that could come back to haunt you?