When in 1989 Tim Berners-Lee wrote the code underlying the World Wide Web—and then released it for free use—he was aware of the fantastic and terrible potentials for the new technology. He has been “horrified” to see some of those worst possibilities realized in the last year. Now he is working on a platform at MIT to re-decentralize and re-democratize online life: Solid.
The Solid project “aims to radically change the way Web applications work today, resulting in true data ownership as well as improved privacy.” It is based on the belief that Internet users should have the freedom to choose where their data resides and who is allowed to access it. Solid is sponsored by the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Mastercard. Follow it on Twitter @SolidMIT.
Berners-Lee is the founder of the World Wide Web Foundation, which is working for a world where everyone has the same rights and opportunities online. That includes establishing the open Web as a basic right and a public good. It publishes the Web Index, the world’s first measure of the World Wide Web’s contribution to social, economic and political progress in countries across the world. Follow it @webfoundation.
I am pleased to introduce You(Online): The Magazine.
In the era of “fake news,” varying content and privacy laws, and an Internet that is murkier and more enigmatic than ever, we aim to enlighten you about what is and is not possible online and how to utilize the Internet to your utmost advantage.
Humble Beginnings
You(Online) began in 2008 as just a Xeroxed handout. I created one-page FAQs with diagrams to show our clients, which included CEOs and C-Suite types, why some websites ranked higher than others, and what is necessary to do to overcome and replace lower-ranking content on Google with higher-ranking material.
Everyone had questions about how this worked, so much so that during the first years of my business, I spent as much time educating prospective clients as running my business. So, I took those handouts and turned them into articles and blog posts to teach readers how to establish, amplify and expand their online presence.
Today, the mission of You(Online): The Magazine remains the same: to provide readers with access to free expert and trusted information about all aspects of crisis and online reputation management, personal branding, social media usage, and other topics related to this field. It is now the most extensive educational resource in the online reputation management industry.
Thank you for visiting. Please visit our Reputation Rebootadvice column and check out our new eBook. It comes out in May.
Outdoor apparel brand Patagonia was in the news last spring, and not just for designing a bikini that always stays in place. Business Insiderreported that the company is poised to fight the Trump administration’s threat to America’s national monuments. No wonder Patagonia is a role model for reputation-building in the corporate world.
“We’re watching the Trump administration’s actions very closely and preparing to take every step necessary, including legal action, to defend our most treasured public landscapes from coast to coast,” said company CEO Rose Marcario. According to Business Insider, “The executive order would specifically put 25 national monuments — named protected lands under the 1906 Antiquities Act — under review, in danger of losing their status. A national monument has never had its protected status rescinded before, and it’s unclear if the laws allow such a maneuver.” The move is classic Patagonia, and illustrates why the company enjoys such strong support from its loyal customer base. Its reputation is enviable…and strategically earned.
Five years ago, Yvon Chouinard, the company’s founder, published The Responsible Company: What We’ve Learned From Patagonia’s First 40 Years. Chouinard offers not just a story about how to create a responsible company. It is also a story about creating a company that is known for that responsibility.
A Passion Project Patagonia’s beginnings can be traced back to a California falconry club, where a young Chouinard discovered his love of climbing. Unsatisfied with the equipment available for climbers, he began making his own. He and his new wife Malinda soon ventured into apparel, founding Patagonia in 1972. “The point was not to focus on making money; focus on doing things right, and the profits would come,” according to a 2007 Fortune cover story. That mentality has been a defining part of the company’s image.
Environment First Patagonia became a leader in environmental responsibility by giving it an equal priority to profits—reportedly without sacrificing profits. In 1985 the company began donating one percent of its revenue to environmental organizations, a move that has since inspired more than 1,400 companies to join its 1% For the Planet initiative. It was also one of the first companies to switch to more environmentally friendly organic cotton, despite its higher costs.
Limitations Following accelerated growth spurred by the unintended trendiness of its brand, Patagonia’s limits were revealed when the early 1990s recession hit. Growth skidded to a halt and the company was forced to lay off a fifth of its employees. Rather than yielding to the economic circumstances, however, Chouinard doubled down on his original mission. “I decided the best thing I could do was to get profitable again, live a more examined corporate life and influence other companies to do the same,” he told the Wall Street Journal‘s Seth Stevenson.
Beyond Transparency Since that crisis Patagonia has placed even more emphasis on its environmental agenda. Chouinard started “The Footprint Chronicles,” a soul-searching online project dedicated to “exhaustively cataloging the environmental damage done by his own company,” as the WSJ described it. Taking a stance against consumerism, one holiday season Patagonia even ran a Black Friday ad asking people to buy less of its products. At the same time Chouinard’s perspective has rubbed off on other, larger corporations. Through all of this Patagonia has been consistently reported as profitable, despite its large donation programs, the extra costs it imposes on its supply chain and other activities whose direct effect on the bottom line would seen to be negative. And other companies have seen the value in Patagonia’s approach. The Wall Street Journal detailed how even Walmart turned to Chouinard, seeking his advice and working with Patagonia to form the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, which has attracted other top brands.
The December issue of Security Management magazine features an article by Interfor International COO Don Aviv and me about the importance of social media policies. A few key points:
“In 2016, public consumers were nearly twice as likely to recall a company’s social media campaign as to recall a print advertisement. That’s good news for social media, but bad news for any organization experiencing a crisis there.
“Employers should define what is prohibited conduct on social media—such as offensive, demeaning, defamatory, discriminatory, harassing, abusive, inappropriate, or illegal remarks, as well as personal gripes.
“Whether employees are the cause, source, or target of such issues, understanding and amplifying your organization’s social media policy is as essential as having both IT and legal on speed dial.”
For all the attention that fake news, mistaken identity and bad reviews attract, a more common issue for many people are lawsuits they or their organizations are involved in. Legal notices always rank highly on the Internet. They can dominate search results for years, blemishing an otherwise stellar online profile. Now law firms publish information about such “news” on their sites, even when they have no involvement in a case. That, too, can appear on the first page of a Google search in your name. When legal blogs also republish the information, it saturates your Google results. None of it is easy to displace.
In 2015, we blogged about Jodi Kantor’s New York Times article, “Lawsuits’ Lurid Details Draw and Online Crowd.” She observed how the details of certain lawsuits—especially lawsuits pertaining to sexual harassment—are gaining large online audiences. The parties involved in those lawsuits saw their online images dominated by those details.
University of Maryland law professor Leigh Goodmark foresees “a future in which virtually no legal document — an eviction notice, a divorce pleading with embarrassing details — would be safe from public consumption.”
Effective online reputation management, and building a strong online presence, is the best way to protect yourself from the damage those documents could cause. That’s because when you do not own and manage your own message online, you have no defense against such content, however frivolous or unmerited it is.
The full impact of film executive Harvey Weinstein’s sexual harassment scandal is yet to be seen. But the collateral reputational damage is spreading to his associates, company, employees and, reportedly, some movie stars. Even a prominent lawmaker is not exempt.
Daniel Bukszpan of CNBC interviewed me and several other experts on this topic. “It is far too early to predict what outcomes will transpire from this crisis,” I told him. “It touches on many issues and has sparked a multifaceted conversation within and beyond the industry…one that has just begun.”
We have written extensively about the power of women’s activism when directed toward corporations and public figures. Now, we are seeing how such activism plays out 24/7. Stay tuned: there is more to come.
To gain insight into the forces that are playing into this issue, watch the livestream of this week’s S.H.E. Summit, taking place in New York City on October 19 and 20th. The annual conference is dedicated to “accelerating the global advancement of women and gender equality.” Gretchen Carlson is one of many speakers.
This week, The Wall Street Journal‘s “Crisis of the Week” column focuses on Equifax. An excerpt:
“The massive hack of personal information of around 143 million people has put credit-monitoring service Equifax Inc. in the crisis bullseye as the company contends with the legal, financial and reputational fallout. Cyberthieves swiped Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and driver’s license numbers, leaving consumers trying to figure out their next moves—and very unhappy with how Equifax was handling the situation.
“The breach is under investigation by the FBI and at least one state attorney general.
“Equifax issued a statement notifying the public about the breach on Sept. 7—weeks after it first learned of the incursion. It followed its initial statement with progress updates on Sept. 8 and Sept. 11. The company also is under pressure after Bloomberg reported three executives sold stock days after the company learned of the breach in late June, but NPR said Equifax said in a statement not posted on its website that the executives “had no knowledge that an intrusion had occurred at the time they sold their shares.”
My Wall Street Journal Analysis
My commentary inthat column uses the statements made by the company to evaluate how well it has handled the communications side of this crisis:
“Few firms possess as much detailed information about the financial and personal data of Americans as Equifax. That is why Equifax’s response to this crisis has been so disappointing. In tone, timing and execution, Equifax has failed to convey the gravity of its responsibility to consumers.Waiting one month to inform the public of the breach increased peoples’ risk of identity theft. Had they known sooner, their credit freezes could have been quickly put in place; now Equifax is overwhelmed with requests for freezes and its systems can’t handle them.
“The CEO’s short apology failed to resonate with consumers who now face the potential cost of protecting their data more securely. It lacked empathy and a sufficiently apologetic tone appropriate for the impact of this crisis. Equifax did the right thing in quickly creating a website to provide consumers with one year’s worth of free credit monitoring and protection and a $1 million identity-theft service. Only after consumers complained did Equifax remove the fine print requiring consumers who registered for the free service to waive their legal right to sue.
After that, two executives, including the security director, left the company–an important symbol of Equifax’s steps toward rebuilding its security system, albeit after the fire has destroyed the firehouse. What Equifax will do after its free credit protection services run out in one year is unclear. Millions of consumers will need protection for decades as a result of this breach and accommodating that need is a process the company needs to prepare for.”
I recently described online reputation management to a group of new acquaintances. This is what they had to say:
“It enables people to achieve the future they want,” observed a media executive.
“I had always thought of online reputation management as suppressing unwanted Google results,” said another. “Now I see it entirely differently. It is about positivity and being proactive about the story that Google tells about you. It is a major career development tool and establishes you as a leader.”
Online reputation management is a cutting-edge industry that enables you to shape the public’s perception of you and your organization by taking control of the story the Internet tells about you. That can entail anything from optimizing the order in which that information appears in a Google search to the creation of new content.
Your Challenge
One challenge for many professionals is the third-party content. You may be mentioned on blogs, consumer or employee review sites, legal reporting sites and high-ranking media outlets. Counter-balancing and replacing that type of content with new, positive and authentic material is an essential online reputation management (ORM) strategy.
Google prizes well-written content that is not duplicated elsewhere on the Internet. It can punish fake news, tricks and “black hat” strategies used in some ORM programs.
That is why using only ethical ORM and high-quality content is important. Our approach is to develop online messaging, blog and social media content, website creation, thought leadership and public relations strategies that are custom-made to support your image while attaining your online reputation goals.
Your Future
This month, while you envision the future you want for you or your company, assess whether your Google results are conveying the image you want the decision-makers in your world to see. Consider these questions:
Who is your audience?
How do you want to be perceived by them?
Is that how you appear when they research you online?
What future do you want to achieve?
If your Google and other search results are not delivering the image that supports your answers, I invite you to make a list of everything you want to create, change, or publish on the Internet. Then, contact us.
We specialize in working with executives, professionals, and their organizations. Our typical clients hold leadership roles in their industry, or are mid-level professionals actively building their careers. In addition, we have a long history of assisting VIPs and high-net-worth individuals with their online reputation goals. To learn more, visit Reputation Communications.
This post was excerpted from our September eNewsletter. It kicks off a new monthly series that will hit on every part of online reputation management and provide you with actions you can take to enhance yours. Please share it with your friends, and join our mailing list to receive future editions.
