ORM Individuals
Online Reputation Management For The Individual
An individual’s online reputation can affect all facets of his or her life. Take one’s career: estimates show that more than 70 percent of employers search online for job applicants as part of their hiring processes. More than half of those employers admit to not hiring because of what they found on the Internet. (CBS News) The same importance of one’s online reputation extends to one’s personal life. If one’s full name is mentioned in a controversial blog post penned by a friend about a night out, one’s reputation can absorb serious damage. (Computerworld)
The individuals and companies that make up ORMA are passionate about Online Reputation Management and believe that everyone should understand their own online reputation and take basic measures to make sure it’s protected and improved over time. In light of this, ORMA has created a series of recommendations that anyone who cares about his or her online reputation can put to use.
References:
2009. “How To Protect, Fix Your Online Reputation,” CBS News Major, Tracy. 2008. “Can You Delete Your Digital Past?” Computerworld.
Online Reputation Management for Professionals
For professionals and young people looking to begin their careers, how you look in a search engine has become just as important, if not more important, than your off-line reputation. Today, over half of all Americans search for peers from their personal and professional lives in search engines. (Pew Internet & American Life) The goal of any online reputation management initiative for a professional is to push into the top search engine results for your name, content that you approve and content that you have control over. Here are ORMA’s basic techniques that can help you develop your online reputation or improve the online reputation you already have:
- Build a foundation for your personal brand on the Internet
- Use social networks to your advantage
- Use web tools to act as a distribution engine for your professional information that you want others to find
Build a foundation for your personal brand on the Internet
Building a foundation for your personal brand on the Internet is crucial to assuring that people searching for you find desirable information about you.
A personal brand is, of course, personal in nature. On the Internet, you have countless opportunities to share parts of yourself that are positive and will portray you in a beneficial light.
For example, write blogs or create websites in the first-person voice. Be sure to make comments on other blogs and news websites in a similar voice. Remember that you should write these blog entries and comments as if the entire world – your grandmother, you father, or your boss – will read them. By demonstrating a willingness to sign your name to your thoughts, opinions, and commentary, your name will begin to gain traction on indexable sites and search engines.
Use social networks to your advantage
Social networks are great for just that – your social life. But, they can also have a very positive impact on you professionally, if you know how to use them. The two key ways in which you should use social networks for your online reputation management is by linking to existing content you want others to find and by publishing new content that you want to exist on the Internet. For instance, if you have a biography on your corporate website or you’ve had a paper published, make sure that your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts link to those items prominently and repeatedly. Remember, the more links a piece of online content has, the higher it will appear in search engines. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, make sure you publish to the Internet these pieces of content – don’t hide it within the walled-garden of the social network. (Don’t forget to make sure that anything embarrassing or unflattering is scrubbed from your social network profile before you do so.)
Use web tools to act as a distribution engine for your professional information that you want others to find
Publishing information on a blog or creating a static link on a social network isn’t enough. Today, the web is filled with fantastic distribution tools for content – these are ways to create links to content fast and publish those links to a wide audience. Tools like Tumblr, Twitter, digg, flickr, and Facebook’s Newsfeed and examples of ways in which you can push content you want others to find about you on search engines throughout the Internet. In this case, the most value for your online reputation is created through the broadest content proliferation. When you write that interesting blog entry or post that photographic slideshow from a conference you spoke at, tell everyone about it via these distribution tools. This will create more inbound links to your content and that makes it easier to find.
References
2006. Pew Internet & American Life.
2009. Online Reputation Management Association (ORMA).
Online Reputation Management For Parents
A large threat to the well-being and happiness of children and teens on the Internet is bullying or what’s called “cyber-bullying.” Peers who use the anonymity and privacy of the Internet to operate largely undetected can intimidate teens and kids. In addition, teens are so fluent in web technologies that when they desire, they can leverage those opportunities to besmirch the reputation of others by propagating hurtful rumors. How can parents put a stop to cyber-bullying? Here are some quick tips prepared by the experts at ORMA:
- Remember that for your kids, there is no separation between the online and offline worlds. For instance, if a classmate of your teen uses their MySpace page to belittle or bully your teen, the impact of that is the same as if your teen was insulted at school, face-to-face.
- Get a feel for how your kids and teens spend their time online, particularly on social networks, instant message clients, and message boards. Remember that many kids and teens have more than one account on some social networks.
- Monitor, either proactively or passively, what others are saying about your kid or teen online. We don’t advocate you spying on the actions of your child or teen, but it’s important to know that the interactions that others have with your kid or teen are positive.
- Monitor your teen’s moods. You may know for a fact that everything is perfect in your teen’s offline world. If you find that despite this, his or her mood is not what you would expect it to be, the troubles could exist on the Internet.
- Have an open and honest dialogue with your teens about their interactions with other kids, both online and offline.
References:
2009. Online Reputation Management Association (ORMA)