All posts by Shannon M. Wilkinson

About Shannon M. Wilkinson

Shannon Wilkinson is the founder and CEO of Reputation Communications.

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Today, when someone wants to know who you are, they may not Google you at all. They may ask ChatGPT. Or Perplexity. Or Microsoft Copilot. And whatever those AI platforms surface about you—accurate or not—becomes their first and sometimes only impression of you.

That is why I have spent the past months substantially rewriting and expanding Reputation Reboot: What Every Business Leader, Rising Star & VIP Needs to Know. I first published this free eBook in 2019. The 2026 AI Edition is not a light refresh. It is a reckoning with how profoundly the search and information landscape has shifted—and what you need to know about it.  As the founder of Reputation Communications—and an expert defamation witness in litigation—I have been working in online reputation management since the industry began.

A Crisis Waiting to Happen

The AI Incident Database had logged over 3,000 incidents of AI mischaracterization of real individuals at the time I wrote this—and that number keeps climbing. The New York Times has called AI-generated composites that sometimes appear with wrong information “Frankenpeople.” I call them a crisis waiting to happen.

What creates this vulnerability? A vacuum. When there is little authoritative information about you published online—information you have created and control—AI systems fill that gap with whatever they can find. Old court filings. Forum posts. Scraped data from sources you never consented to. The less you have published about yourself, the more that gap will be filled by material you would never choose.

What AI Has Done to Search—and Why It Matters to Your Reputation

For decades, online reputation management meant optimizing your presence for Google. We helped clients build high-quality content, earn inbound links from authoritative sources, and push problematic results down the search rankings. Those strategies still matter. But they are no longer sufficient on their own.

AI overviews now appear at the top of nearly half of all Google search results, often summarizing information before the reader ever clicks a single link. Meanwhile, millions of people bypass Google entirely and go straight to AI platforms for answers. This is not a trend. It is a structural shift.

The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

In my work over the past several years, I have consulted on a broad range of reputation crises detailed in Reputation Reboot. Now, the reputation risk landscape includes AI-generated deepfake videos, doxxing campaigns and far more examples that our laws have not caught up to. The Blake Lively lawsuit in late 2024—in which a PR consultant boasted in text messages that “we can bury anyone”—is only the most public example of tactics that are far more common than most people realize.

Boards of directors now rank reputational risk as their largest nonfinancial concern, surpassing cybersecurity and regulatory exposure. And yet most executives still have not taken the most basic proactive steps to protect themselves online.

The single biggest mistake I see is what I have long called “benign neglect.” The work of repairing the damage takes far longer and costs far more than proactive management would have.

What the 2026 Edition Will Give You

This guide is a “what to know” resource more than a step-by-step how-to. My goal is to give you the mental model and the strategic vocabulary to understand what is actually happening with your online reputation—and to help you make informed decisions about how to respond.

Inside the 2026 AI Edition, you will find:

•  A plain-language explanation of how AI platforms learn and where their data about you comes from

•  The legal landscape around online defamation, Section 230, and what “Twibel” means for you

•  Practical tools for protecting your privacy and removing personal data from broker databases

•  A realistic assessment of how long reputation repair takes—and why

•  Crisis management frameworks built for the speed of social media and AI amplification

•  Guidance on building the kind of digital presence that acts as your first line of defense

•  Updated recommendations on platforms, tools, and services—including what I have seen work for real clients

I have been doing this work since 2008, and I have never seen the stakes feel more immediate—or the tools for managing them feel more within reach. AI is not just a threat to your reputation. Understood correctly, it is also an opportunity to ensure that what the world finds when it looks for you is accurate, current, and genuinely representative of who you are.

I hope this guide helps you get there.

 
 
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Blake Lively smear campaign

I’m proud to have been featured as an expert in Interfor International’s recent blog post on social media risk management. In today’s digital landscape, the intersection of online behavior and reputation has never been more critical.

The Hidden Dangers of Social Media

As I shared with Interfor International, the risks associated with social media are far more serious than most people realize. What might seem like a harmless post in a moment of frustration can have devastating consequences for your career, reputation, and future opportunities.

The article highlights a sobering reality: we scroll through Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms without the same wariness we’d have walking down a dark alley at night. Yet the dangers can be just as real, and the fallout can be swift and devastating.

The Real Cost of Impulsive Posts

In my work as CEO of Reputation Communications, I’ve seen countless examples of how a single intemperate social media post can destroy careers and reputations. The current era of ideological divisiveness has created an environment where people get cancelled every day, jobs are lost, and reputations are shattered.

What’s particularly concerning is that many of these consequences happen behind the scenes. As I noted in the article, there are countless examples of people simply not getting hired, not being accepted to schools, or being excluded from opportunities because organizations are becoming increasingly sophisticated in evaluating social media histories. You might never know that your past posts cost you a major job or an important opportunity.

The Defamation Factor

As an expert witness in defamation cases, I’ve seen firsthand how social media can function as what the article aptly calls “defamation factories.” People often have no grasp of the legal and reputational risks they’re taking when posting harsh attacks online. With the proliferation of AI and deepfakes, these challenges are only becoming more complex and dangerous.

My Advice: Pause Before You Post

The guidance I shared with Interfor International is simple but crucial: “People post too quickly, and they let emotion drive them. It would be helpful if people ask themselves if posting something harsh is the most effective way to use your political capital.”

When emotions run high, time is your friend. Before posting anything controversial or harsh, take a break, take some deep breaths, and ask yourself:

Will this post serve me well in the long run?
Could this come back to haunt me?
Is this really the most effective way to make my point?

Sometimes the best way to protect yourself on social media is to simply do nothing. The same is true with sending heat-of-the-moment texts and emails.

Prevention Is Better Than Repair

While I’m here to help clients repair damaged reputations and rebuild their professional standing, my greatest hope is that people won’t need my services in the first place. The work I do helping people dig out of reputation crises is essential, but it’s far better to avoid creating the crisis altogether.

For more information about reputation management and protecting your digital footprint, visit Reputation Communications. If security and reputational threat monitoring concerns are uppermost in your mind, check out Interfor Academy, which provides elite speakers and one-of-a-kind training programs in those areas for businesses and organizations worldwide.

 
 
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Google search and your online reputation

Global communications strategist Maha Abouelenein recently appeared on “Her Money with Jean Chatzky” to discuss a powerful truth: your reputation functions as actual currency in today’s professional world. With over 30 years advising Fortune 500 companies and governments, Abouelenein knows that your name is the only thing you truly own—and it has the power to open doors, create opportunities, and build lasting relationships.

Everyone Has a Personal Brand

If you have a job or a social media account, you have a personal brand. It’s not reserved for influencers or executives. Abouelenein encourages replacing the term “personal brand” with “reputation“— how you want the world to see you, how you show up at work, and how colleagues perceive your reliability and credibility.

Expanding Your Professional Reputation

She outlines three essential steps:

Do good work consistently. Let your work speak for itself. Focus on delivering results, being reliable, and staying strategic.

Add value to others. Share knowledge and insights. Back up your ideas with facts. Be someone who brings value to every connection and solves problems collaboratively.

Foster strong relationships. Be authentic. Practice active listening. Follow up. Don’t immediately ask for things—be relationship-focused first. Think long term.

The Bottom Line

Your reputation compounds over time. Define your value proposition. Be intentional about consistency. Share knowledge generously. Prepare for setbacks with transparent communication. Build a body of work that speaks for itself. (If you have already done that, be sure and promote it: publish blogs and articles. Start a podcast. Personal branding isn’t self-promotion—it’s idea promotion and thought leadership.)

As Abouelenein reminds us, your reputation isn’t just something that exists — it’s something you can actively build, manage, and leverage.

For more insights on reputation management and self-reliance, check out her book 7 Rules of Self-Reliance: How to Stay Low, Keep Moving, Invest in Yourself, and Own Your Future. And check out our expert reputation management tips at You(Online), our digital magazine.

 
 
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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.  AI has not changed that.

That said, AI is rapidly changing the internet in ways that impact how you and your organization appear on Google. If the results that appear in a search of your name and your organization’s look different than they did months ago, AI is why. Last year, Google rolled out AI summaries of its own search results to all users in the U.S. They appear before many websites – including, possibly, your personal branding and company websites. Christopher Mims, the technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, wrote about that and other changes in his timely article, Googling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.

But some things have not changed. 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 still the ones that come up the highest and fastest in Google searches (aside from those Google-created AI summaries). That’s why platforms like Wikipedia, LinkedIn, and video-based ones like Instagram rank so highly…and also why media platforms do, too.  When you strategically create SEO-rich content for those types of outlets, anchored by personal branding websites and other intentional content, you can often outrank the unwanted material that is coming up on your Google searches.  (Our comprehensive guide, The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQs, explains why.)

Google has long maintained a market share of around 85 percent of the global search market. Bing accounts for under 4 percent of it. Google and Bing are spending billions of dollars to utilize AI in their search results, but those stats are not changing.

As the world’s dominant search engine, Google 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 X site, Google Search Central (@googlesearchc). Check them out when you have time.

 
 
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Google’s new search feature, “AI Mode,” significantly impacts what people see when they search for information about you online. As reported by the Financial Times months ago, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, described this as a “total reimagining of search.”

Here are three key benefits we’ve observed:

Comprehensive Summaries: AI Mode gathers facts from dozens of sources about you in seconds, often citing 50 or more references. The result is a prominent summary which appears above the traditional list of entries.

Content Recognition: For clients whose online presence our company has helped build with substantial, high-level content, we’ve found that up to 80% of that content is cited in the AI-generated results we’ve reviewed. This isn’t about “gaming the system”—it underscores the value of having comprehensive, credible, and well-written information about you online, with links to respected sources such as media articles. The less you have of it, the less will appear in AI Mode.

Wider Rollout: We’re already seen AI Mode results integrated into the main search results for some of our clients.

To see how you look on AI Mode: Go to Google Search and click on the “AI Mode” tab in the right on the search window.  Then, simply enter your name or your organization’s name in the Search tab to see the results.  

If you don’t like what you see, consider expanding your digital footprint by publishing content across multiple reputable platforms (e.g., news sites, industry blogs, professional directories). And be sure to include links in your websites, bios and other platforms to a variety of content types—articles, press releases, interviews, videos, and social media posts. That gives AI more sources to draw from.

 

 
 
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Reputation Communications

Every day, careers (and lives) are derailed by social media posts—sometimes ones from over a decade ago. In our polarized world, a forgotten share, outdated opinion or controversial view can trigger red flags that lead to job loss, rescinded college acceptances, professional ostracism, and lasting reputational damage.

You’re Being Watched

Many people aren’t aware that professional social media screening companies, investigative firms and employers routinely conduct pre-employment background checks by reviewing your online presence. They can also maintain a constant AI monitoring of your social media activity. Such services are widely used by enterprise companies and law enforcement agencies. Their goal is to ensure that new hires are not risks — from safety and security to organizational culture and reputation. And, to ensure current employees won’t post opinions that will cause reputation backlash against the company.

These screening services use AI to identify and flag publicly available, user-generated content in four main categories:

  • Racist, Sexist, or Discriminatory Behavior
  • Sexually Explicit Material
  • Threats or Acts of Violence
  • Potentially Illegal Activity

Journalists also review the social media content posted by people who are high-profile new hires, or in the news for other reasons.

Common Mistakes

Seeking shock value. Controversial posts for attention often backfire professionally.

Ignoring privacy settings. Many users don’t realize their posts are public or fail to adjust settings properly.

Forgetting your audience. What’s funny to friends may be career-ending to hiring managers.

Protect Yourself Now

Audit your privacy settings. Don’t assume accounts are private by default. Review settings on every platform. Before sharing anything online, consider:

  • How does this behavior impact my workplace or professional reputation?
  • Might this be seen as controversial by someone outside my network?
  • If this were said out loud in an office setting, would it cause concern?
  • Does this represent my ethical values in a positive way?
  • Could this create the perception of a hostile or unpleasant environment?
  • Could this result in a safety risk for me?

The Bottom Line

Approximately 70% of U.S. employers are believed to review candidates’ social media. While formal background checks require consent, many employers screen profiles informally. Anything publicly available can be found and used against you—just like emails and texts.

Your digital footprint is permanent. Protect it like you’d protect your resume, because in today’s world, it’s just as important.

Related reading: Don Aviv on Deep Reputation Dives

 
 
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Reputation Communications

AI is fundamentally transforming internet search, along with entire industries, workplaces, and education systems.

For years, Google dominated internet search. Most people relied on Google as their primary research tool for information about companies, people, and products. Companies like mine built their reputation management strategies around content creation and search engine optimization (SEO) to build, curate, reboot, and amplify clients’ online presence.

Now, AI overviews appear at the top of 47% of Google search results—often replacing direct links to your website.

As Bain & Company explains in their recent analysis:

“For years, marketers have worked to master search algorithms and position their companies well in search results to generate sales. Some invested in rich content and thoughtful optimizations, while others chased quick fixes like keyword stuffing. Now, the rise of AI search engines and generative summaries has upended traditional search behavior, delivering answers directly on results pages and removing the need for users to click through to another site.”

Our AI-First Research Approach

At Reputation Communications, we spent much of this summer expanding our AI toolkit beyond our preferred platforms—Perplexity and Microsoft’s Copilot—to include a range of others. Each AI platform delivers different results. The more you experiment with, the better you will find which suits your needs.

We also conducted two key analyses:

First, we reviewed search results for past clients to determine whether our previous strategies remain effective. Our central question: Is the content we created still ranking highly on Google, and does it appear in AI summaries about our clients?

Second, we compared current client campaign performance with historical results to identify what’s different about operating in an AI-driven search environment—and how we need to adjust our strategies accordingly.

Key Findings: What Works in the AI Era

1. Quality Content Still Dominates

The majority of articles, blogs, websites, profiles, social media content, and videos we created for previous clients continue to populate top search results when those clients are searched. This confirms that well-written, authoritative content is recognized and valued by AI systems.

Google’s own guidance supports this finding. The company advises content creators to focus on producing original, high-quality material that demonstrates E-E-A-T: expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—regardless of whether content is human or AI-generated.

As Google Search’s official guidance states:

“We recommend that you focus on creating people-first content to be successful with Google Search, rather than search engine-first content made primarily to gain search engine rankings.”

2. AI Systems Actively Source Quality Content

Much of the content we’ve created for clients now appears directly in their AI-powered search results and summaries (on Google, what is identified as “AI Mode”). This represents a significant opportunity: rather than losing visibility, high-quality content is being amplified through AI systems.

3. Reputation Repair Faces New Challenges

Displacing negative media articles, old legal notices, and other problematic content now takes significantly longer. AI systems prioritize the credibility of established news sources and official documents, keeping them prominently ranked in search results.

The bottom line: Reputation repair campaigns are now more difficult, time-intensive, and expensive to execute successfully.

Strategic Implications

While AI serves as an excellent editing and proofreading tool, our research suggests that using AI to generate mass-produced content is unlikely to be effective for achieving top search rankings. The algorithms still reward authentic, well-researched, expertly crafted content over quantity-focused approaches.

The most successful reputation management strategies in the AI era will likely combine human expertise in content creation with AI tools for optimization and refinement—focusing on quality, authority, and genuine value to readers rather than attempting to game the system.

 

 
 
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A new Wall Street Journal article by internet culture reporter Ann-Marie Alcántara, details how dramatically LinkedIn has evolved. It began as a platform for professional networking. Now, it is a space where influencers and content creators are finding both fame and fortune. This shift represents a significant change in how users interact with the platform.

The story of April Little, an HR executive from Rochester, N.Y., exemplifies this trend. Little’s journey to LinkedIn stardom began with a thought-provoking post about layoffs and recruitment services. Today, Little boasts over 260,000 followers and has earned $150,000 in the past two years through her LinkedIn presence.

Little’s success is not an isolated case. Content creators like 24-year-old Piper Phillips are also making their mark on the platform. Phillips earned $8,000 from brand deals in her first month on the site. (Check out her free guide, 10 Steps to Monetizing Your Socials, here.)

The platform’s evolution has been supported by strategic changes implemented by LinkedIn. The introduction of “creator mode” in 2021 and the addition of video features have facilitated this new wave of content creation. You can learn about that here.

Companies have found that partnering with LinkedIn creators offers better engagement and longevity for their campaigns compared to other social media platforms.

As LinkedIn continues to evolve, it’s clear that the line between personal and professional content is blurring. This shift is creating new opportunities for individuals to build their personal brands, find clients, and launch businesses, while transforming LinkedIn into a more dynamic and engaging platform for its users.