All posts by Shannon M. Wilkinson

About Shannon M. Wilkinson

Shannon Wilkinson is the founder and CEO of Reputation Communications.

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Reputation Communications

Reputation management goes far beyond rebooting a tarnished online image. In a media-saturated world, there are benefits to actively amplifying our reputations — and our voices. We can all create a strategically curated, impactful public image using one, two or more widely used channels. The most successful GenZ and other influencers use them. Everyone can learn from their approach.

Take Kyla Scanlon, a 27-year-old economic commentator known for coining the term “vibecession.” She’s captivated audiences through her analysis on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Substack. (She was just featured in The Wall Street Journal and has attracted an agent and book contract.)

By embracing these channels, she has carved out a unique niche in economic discourse, positioning herself as a trusted voice for her generation. Her strategy highlights the significance of engaging content, particularly through podcasts and videos, which resonate deeply with audiences.

Podcasts serve as a valuable medium for those looking to amplify their expertise. Through her podcast, Scanlon takes her audiences deeper into topics like monetary policy and consumer sentiment, fostering a community of listeners. Her reach has earned her attention from notable figures, including White House officials, underscoring the credibility she has built through providing consistent and informative content.

Substack newsletters have emerged as a powerful tool for writers and commentators to connect with their audience. By publishing free and paid content there, Scanlon not only shares her economic insights but also cultivates a loyal following that appreciates her unique perspective. Her ability to blend personal experiences with economic concepts makes her content relatable, establishing a strong bond with her readers.

Video has become the media form of choice in the age of social media. (On LinkedIn, one-minute videos are highly popular.) It’s not all would-be influencers following trends or videos of dogs and cats. Social video can also be an important and highly accessible way to amplify your presence. Scanlon’s TikTok videos, which include skits and educational segments, demonstrate how video can demystify complex economic concepts, not only enhancing visibility but also positioning you as a relatable figure.

If you think this approach only works for members of GenZ, think again. Even prominent members of the legacy media are using these platforms to expand their audiences and build their own brands. Former Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown, for example, has launched her own newsletter on Substack, “Fresh Hell,” which gives her the opportunity to write about her ideas and observations with the freedom to have fun and be herself, while also controlling the content that comes out under her name.  

If you need to boost or reboot your online presence, these modern communication channels are essential tools. It takes time, effort, and most importantly, strategy. But if you ever question whether the rewards can be worth it, just look at Kyla Scanlon.

 
 
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Right to be Forgotten on Google

Many people are concerned with the volume of slanderous content about people on the internet…including websites that publish such material and then extort victims to pay to have it removed.

In 2021, Google announced plans to change its search algorithm to prevent predatory websites, which operated under domains like BadGirlReport.date and PredatorsAlert.us, from appearing in the list of results when someone searches for a person’s name.

In Google Seeks to Break Vicious Cycle of Online Slander, the article that broke this news, Kashmir Hill and Daisuke Wakabayashi, tech reporters for The New York Times, reported:

Google also recently created a new concept it calls “known victims.” When people report to the company that they have been attacked on sites that charge to remove posts, Google will automatically suppress similar content when their names are searched for. “Known victims” also includes people whose nude photos have been published online without their consent, allowing them to request suppression of explicit results for their names.

These are examples of personal information that Google will remove if you are unable to have a website remove it on request:

Non-consensual explicit or intimate personal images from Google

Involuntary fake pornography from Google

Content about you on sites with exploitative removal practices from Google

Select financial, medical, and national ID information from Google

“Doxxing” content – content exposing contact information with an intent to harm

Google may also remove personal information that creates significant risks of identity theft, financial fraud, or other specific harms.

If you believe your request meets one of the guidelines mentioned above, you can make a removal request at Google’s form, found here.

 
 
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The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQ
On May 21, 2024, Reputation Communications Advisory Board member Don Aviv, President of Interfor International, and I discussed a variety of ways to manage your reputation, assess the reputation of those you might do business with, and some common mistakes we encounter in these areas.
This was part of a continuing series of webinars presented by Interfor Academy, a new speaker’s bureau that enables organizations to book elite presenters for conferences, corporate off-sites, or risk trainings & tabletop sessions. The conversation will be moderated by head of Interfor Academy, Jeremy Hurewitz, and should be a compelling look at this vital and constantly evolving subject.

You can view the webinar here.

 
Shannon Wilkinson, Interfor Academy
 
 
Branding, Online reputation management, , , , ,
Reputation Communications

Reflecting on the most common reasons why Reputation Communications was engaged by new clients in the last year, I realized those reasons have evolved since I launched this practice over a decade ago. 

At Reputation Communications, we work with a select type of clientele: leaders in their fields, VIPs, and rising stars. They require highly customized personal branding on the internet that supports their existing (or soon-to-be) high reputations.

Increasingly, we are being engaged to support the desire of successful clients to curate their achievements and skillsets in professional biographies, websites, portraits, social media and thought-leadership content as they establish new professional or personal goals. In most cases they have built major careers without ever creating anything other than a LinkedIn profile (which we often expand considerably on their behalf), and a company bio.

This represents a growing trend online of taking proactive, rather than reactive, control over how you are perceived on the Internet, where the world-at-large researches you. There are many advantages of taking ownership of your online persona…which may or may not be low-key at the moment but might change at any time.

Our digital magazine, You(Online), features countless strategies we use to mitigate the issues described here, as well as the many content-rich options you have to curate your personal brand on the Internet. The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQs, is the best. Good reading.

 
 
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Reputation and the Modern Family Office

Over 3 billion people worldwide now use the Internet. The world is truly a stage and you’re on it. How big or small is your role online? And what information can the world find out about you?

In the digital age, search engines ensure that each of us have an online reputation whether we want one or not. Too often, that reputation is misleading or a scattered list of information, adding up to a less than satisfying projection of our real selves.

Here’s the good news: the Internet enables us to build our reputations without a middleman. That is nearly unprecedented in world history. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you live. Simply by going online, you can introduce or reintroduce yourself to the world. By communicating your abilities, world view, skills and talent online, you can attract unlimited connections and opportunities. Fail to establish yourself on the Internet in a way that is appropriate for you, and the world may do it for you. Or it may overlook you.

The Internet enables you to establish your own credible image. To curate your achievements, innovations and mindset in order to attract, develop and profit from relationships that once required an introduction or facilitator.

The Internet also provides you with the opportunity to rebuild your reputation if necessary. If you can’t change the facts, you can proactively present a well-balanced image that effectively counteracts damaging content about you.

Yes, the Internet floods us with daily headlines about the newest celebrity, corporate and every-person’s reputation crisis.  And according to many online reputation management firms, we are all one click away from reputational disaster that we may never recover from. (We aren’t…and we can.)

One thing is true: once you have a presence on the Internet, you lose control over how you are perceived.

Unless you have an online reputation management (ORM) strategy.

As a nationally recognized expert in online reputation management, I blog about reputation management to help leaders take a proactive approach to building, managing, amplifying and repairing their digital reputations. My mission is to show you how to make the Internet a valuable ally for achieving your goals. I also want to help you prevent reputational risks before they become problems.

If you are a CEO, executive or professional and would like insight and guidance into how to plan an effective reputation management program, please read Reputation Reboot, our free eBook. It is the ultimate insider’s guide and tells you what you need to know about this process before you begin.

 
 
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Reputation Communications: Online Reputation Management

The joys of summer vacation season have come to a close — beach days, family cookouts, and long, sun-filled days are making way for cooler weather, changing leaves, and a return to productivity.

For us, September is the New Season, a time during which we refocus. There are more inquiries, new engagements, faster execution of strategic plans, and a lot more content creation. We didn’t stop working in the summer, but we stepped back from ENews, taking time to pause, refresh, and recharge.

As we dive headfirst into this new season, I wanted to share with you what we’ve been working on.

It all goes back to these central tenants of our business — content creation and social media management, which are valued by Google. These have become our most sought-after services. We create social media content for our clients with tens of thousands of LinkedIn followers — some have scaled to those heights since they started working with us.

We craft Facebook and Instagram posts, and tweets — yes, tweets are still a thing even in the era of “X.” We’ve also set up client accounts on Threads. For much of this work, we harness modern AI technology, but we curate everything to guarantee accuracy and, most importantly, maintain the voice of our clients’ brands. Their reputation counts on this.

Articles, Blogs & Transitions

Our team of skilled writers — this includes everyone from professional freelance journalists for CBS and The Wall Street Journal to Hollywood screenwriters — create streams of blog posts and articles that are published on a variety of platforms, including leading industry periodicals.

At Reputation Communications, we continue to design and publish clients’ websites, molding them to be industry-specific so that they catch the eyes (and search engine hits) of those seeking their brands.

Throughout this time, there have been transitions. We’ve grappled with how to manage the limitations of X that Elon Musk placed on it, as the former microblogging site Twitter evolves into something new. We also have been staying up-to-date on the changes to Google and other search engines, now that AI has changed how algorithms feature your work and has impacted the way the world sees and discovers you.

In the past, we were engaged solely to repair reputations online. Now, more than half of our clients use us to amplify their reputations. We are the engine that powers increased visibility around our clients’ industry achievements and personal endeavors. This is because it is in many ways a new season for our clients as well.

Welcome to the New Season.

 
 
Online reputation management, , ,
Reputation Communications

One of the most frequently asked questions online reputation management (ORM) firms receive is, Why is this outdated/irrelevant/negative content showing up in my Google search results?

Ultimately, Google’s goal is to provide visitors with the most relevant and reliable information about every topic that is searched for. 

So, sites that have the most comprehensive and well-written information, have the highest number of visitors, and are linked to the most legitimate and high-ranking websites, are the ones that come up the highest and fastest in Google searches. Why the emphasis on Google?

Google has long maintained a share of around 80 percent of the global search market. Bing accounted for nearly nine percent of it, while Yahoo’s market share was 2.55 percent. Now that both Google and Bing are spending billions of dollars to utilize AI in their search results, these stats are changing, and Bing is getting increasingly more usage.

In light of this, it is helpful to understand how AI is transforming search. Check out Bing’s search engine, and its AI capabilities.

Google is still the dominant search engine and publishes considerable, free information about what makes its algorithm tick. It also keeps the world informed every time it makes a change to its algorithm via the Twitter site, Google Search Central (@googlesearchc).

Check out our comprehensive guide, The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQs, to learn more about managing the internet’s impact on your reputation.

 
 
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Google search and your online reputation

We live in a time when technological advances in how we search for — and where we receive — information online directly impacts our reputation. From Google to Bing (yes, Bing is becoming a major search engine player), tech is evolving.

You may have noticed a new resetting of your Google search results. There may be less traffic flocking to your website, decreased homepage visitors. In fact, your website and personal social media profiles might appear in different orders in search results under your own name.

Don’t worry, there is a clear answer for what is going on. Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered algorithms increasingly impact how you are represented online.

For instance, once Microsoft launches its powerful new version of its search engine, Bing, which is powered by AI software from OpenAI — the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT — how others find you online will change because they will have expanded opportunities to research you. The implications of this on reputation management may be profound. (See Microsoft Signals a New Era for ‘Search’ Online, our article about that.)

Understanding the underlying tech is important to harness your own reputational power

Here’s a look at some of the search engine changes that should be on your radar:

Google’s latest algorithm update — In early December, Google rolled out its December 2022 helpful content update, which was completed as of January 12, 2023. Google describes it succinctly:

Google Search’s helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.

This update reinforces Google Search’s emphasis on what it calls E-E-A-T content, or “Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.”

Take a look at its 176-page Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (great for airplane reading or on the beach!), or this shorter recap. Google states that each letter of E-E-A-T mark key considerations when it comes to Page Quality rating. The most important part of E-E-A-T? That would be Trust.

Credible media platforms — Major, vetted newspapers and TV outlets, are considered authoritative content sources. If you or your brand are highlighted by trusted, verified sources, you will be rewarded. We’ve seen this in real time. Some of our clients and their organizations that have received credible media attention have jumped up from lower and mid-tier search positions to the top of the page results. (Clearly, if the media coverage is negative, this is not an asset.) Again, Google rewards trust. 

Google’s continuous scroll — Instead of breaking search results into pages, with 10 entries, with the first page being the most valuable search results, the search giant now shows several pages at a time with no breaks. That means dozens of entries can be scanned quickly.

Google search is also using more Generative AI, the technology that underpins Microsoft’s ChatGPT to determine what search results to show when This is introducing new types of content that can rank highly on Google.

While Google’s parent company Alphabet dominates over 80% of the search engine market and brings in most of its $100 billion annual revenue from advertising on its search engine, the ascendency of Microsoft in this space means the iconic place to search the Internet has vested interest in remaining number one in the industry.

These new changes mean that as these search giants evolve and change how information is discovered online, it’s important that you adapt as well.

Clunky, poorly written content with SEO-centered tricks are out the window. If you want your online profiles, websites, articles, blogs, and other content to be rewarded by Google, Bing, and AI-fueled tech, you have to understand how these forums work. Your reputation counts on it.