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.
Interfor Academy is a new speaker’s bureau that enables organizations to book elite presenters for conferences, corporate off-sites, or risk trainings & tabletop sessions.
These experts include a former head of the CIA’s CounterTerrorism Center; a former Chief Hostage Negotiator at the FBI, and a former Head of the US Secret Service, among others. As a leader in reputation management, I am a speaker providing must-know facts and strategies about that always-in-demand topic.
Every Interfor Academy expert is a compelling and deeply experienced public speaker ready to take the stage or speak to your team on their own. Interfor Academy can combine these experts to create one-of-a-kind panels, fireside chats, and team interviews curated to address issues specific to your needs.
With close to 50 years of service to its clients, Interfor, a global investigative and security consulting firm led by our Advisory Board member Don Aviv, has developed unique knowledge and skills that its clients depend on. Now with the launch of Interfor Academy, Interfor is able to directly share some of those skills in a different way with its clients to expand their communication skills, provide essential education tools, and entertain while informing at corporate retreats, conferences, or other functions.
Whether you’re a conference organizer looking for that compelling speaker to keep your audience on the edge of their seats, a top executive looking to add a memorable guest to bring an unforgettable experience to your corporate retreat, or a human resources officer focused on training your team against security risks, Interfor Academy will create a unique and customized experience for you.
Recently, leaked documents obtained by Forbidden Stories revealed the inner world of Eliminalia, a Spanish reputation management company. Forbidden Stories and partners investigated the company’s manipulation tactics to remove public-interest information from the internet.
Interfor International, the investigative firm helmed by our Advisory Board member Don Aviv, blogged about Forbidden Stories’ findings. The excerpts below raise awareness of the dirty tactics used by some reputation management agencies, and why it may pay to steer clear of them. That’s especially true if they promise to remove online content, a challenge we have written about here (and here).
Weaponizing Data Protection Regulations
Those who have studied Eliminalia’s strategy identified a pattern. When an article that included unpleasant truths about one of their clients appeared, the company began by sending takedown requests to the journalist, usually through a team member employing a false persona. If the journalist refused to remove their article, Eliminalia went after hosting providers, often weaponizing data protection laws such as the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), which was created in 2002 to protect copyrighted content, and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), an EU privacy and human rights law, to push the provider to take down the material.
To exploit the DMCA, for example, they would copy an article, publish it on a third-party website with a falsified earlier date than the original and then claim the real article infringed on the law. Contesting a false claim of DMCA is not easy, leading to long and expensive legal battles many journalists are unable to afford.
Investigators found that if these methods did not work, Eliminalia would then try to hide the material through “deindexing,” which attempts to fool Google into hiding search terms from web results.
Throwing ‘Digital Atomic Bombs’
Eliminalia has used the strategy of “open redirects,” links that appear to drive traffic to legitimate websites but redirect to other fake sites.
At least 622 such websites have been identified. To make the sites appear legitimate, the company mixes content from real sources with positive information about individuals with the same names as their clients.
This method seems to have been successful at influencing Google’s search results, effectively making articles that include allegations against the company’s clients disappear, while replacing them with positive spin.
Now, Eliminalia and their clients are in the news, and many of their “removed” links and content are back on Google.
Eliminalia is far from the first reputation management firm to create fake news sites to post fake content on. That has been done from the onset of this industry, along with a myriad of ways to post links in places where unwitting internet users would click on, thinking they were clicking on something else.
The problem with using reputation management providers who game the system using what are known as “black hat” methods is that their handiwork is often discovered and undone by Google. You also risk the chance of being identified as a client in investigative articles about them (check out the 2020 Wall Street Journal article, Google Hides News, Tricked by Fake Claims.)
With over 800 million members in more than 200 countries, LinkedIn is one of the top services for connecting the world’s professionals. Yet it is surprisingly common for otherwise successful people to underutilize LinkedIn as a reputation management tool on Google.
If your goal is to “own” the majority of your search results on that all-valuable first page of Google, LinkedIn is essential for adding a sheen to your professional brand. If your LinkedIn entry is not showing up at the top of your search results (or at all), there are usually a few reasons why.
These are the basic, essential steps we take to revitalize our clients’ LinkedIn profiles on Google. These changes benefit your presence on the LinkedIn platform, as well:
Ensure your LinkedIn URL address is customized. Most LinkedIn profile URLs auto-include your name with random numbers and letters after it. Under your Public Profile Settings, you can customize your URL address to keywords of your choice. For example, instead of “joe-smith-88888444xyz,” you can change your LinkedIn URL to read “joe-smith-attorney.” Choose whatever presentation is appropriate for your brand. In most cases, you will begin seeing your LinkedIn profile more readily on Google searches within a few weeks.
Update your LinkedIn settings to ensure your profile is searchable on Google. Make sure your full name is appearing on LinkedIn. Go to “Settings,” click on “Edit Visibility” and check the options you prefer. Alternatively, you can opt to make just your first name and last initial visible on LinkedIn except to your connections. This is fine for situations such as a sabbatical, but know it is a hinderance to your profile being found and clicked on.
Max out your use of all relevant LinkedIn sections. Add a Publications section to link to any media interviews where you have been featured, as well as articles and blogs you have authored. This is valuable search engine optimization (SEO) and will help them become more visible on Google, too.
Consistently post fresh, engaging content, from status updates, articles, videos, infographics and other material. Note that posts with photos attract more views than plain text posts. This activity invites more clicks and views of your profile. You can also promote articles you publish on LinkedIn on your social media channels. Additionally, sharing others’ posts and commenting on them are essential steps for keeping your LinkedIn alive as a strong communications tool.
LinkedIn is not a magic wand for rebooting or establishing a reputation: indeed, most reputation management programs employ more sophisticated strategies like messaging, thought-leadership, image curating and other tactics. But with the new season launching and 5 billion internet users out there, upping your LinkedIn game is a good move for proactively taking more control of your reputation on Google—where the world vets you.
Consumers often hear claims from SEO (search engine optimization) and ORM (online reputation management) providers about what the latest technological tricks they can employ to “guarantee” a clean reputational slate online. They often peddle new bells and whistles and give misleading promises that you can just magically “wipe away” Google results for your name and digitally clean up inaccuracies about you and your brand.
You’ll hear promises that your Google search results can be rearranged with little effort or strategy.
Recently, Google released a new update that focuses on a people-first approach to generating content.
It reveals the disingenuous nature of many of these common, yet ineffective promises you might hear about managing your reputation on the popular search engine.
Pushing back against false promises
We’ve seen it all from competing reputation management firms, some that our past clients have turned to after working with us, and on industry blogs that gloss over the kinds of dedication, precision, and tailored strategies that our firm employs to ensure your reputation is properly managed online.
The promises these other firms make work until they don’t.
When Google updates its algorithms to remove fake news, excise old and broken links, and clear out misinformation, those “quick fixes” result in big headaches. They end up reversing any reputational gains that have been made and ultimately can cost the client thousands of dollars.
Prioritizing ‘helpful content’
In its new “helpful content update,” Google underscores why our own people-first approach works best.
In their announcement, the tech giant writes that the new content update is “part of a broader effort to ensure people see more original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.”
Google states they are now rewarding content “where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience.”
This means content that doesn’t elicit this response won’t perform well. To that end, they are encouraging online creators to make content that isn’t engineered around search engines. This philosophy still uses “SEO best practices” but it has a voice, it’s meaningful to the individual, it features a voice and story that resonates with your audience.
Some questions Google asks: Do you have an intended audience in mind for your content? Does it display a depth of knowledge or first-hand expertise? Does it have a primary focus? Does it leave the reader with a “satisfying experience”?
Content that exists solely to hit SEO-friendly buzzwords and nothing more doesn’t resonate at all. If it feels like the audience is a search engine rather than a human being, it will no longer be favored by Google’s algorithm. If you are relying on “extensive automation to produce content on many topics,” Google warns you won’t succeed. If you are hitting trending topics without producing content that makes sense for your audience, you’re doing something wrong.
“Our systems automatically identify content that seems to have little value, low-added value or is otherwise not particularly helpful to those doing searches,” Google states.
They suggest that you begin removing “unhelpful” content from your company site or personal blog in order for it to perform better in search results.
An approach for guaranteed results
Google reveals that it is continuously monitoring both existing and newly launched sites.
If the unhelpful content has been determined to no longer be present on the site for the long term, then the “classification will no longer apply” and your site and Web presence will no longer be punished by the search engine.
Quality content on high-ranking platforms — which we specialize in — is the safest and longest-lasting reputation management strategy. We have to reiterate that there are no shortcuts for this.
Like most quality results, there is no instant solution to building, amplifying, or restoring a reputation online.
This disciplined, clear-eyed, dedicated approach is the gold standard. Google’s new initiative agrees.
Ever wonder how online reputation repair really works? That is, when it is done right: when it is not outsourced to other countries, or implemented using the kind of tactics that lead to a Wall Street Journal exposé, or results in disappointment.
Look no further. Reputation Reboot: What Every Business Leader, Rising Star & VIP Needs to Know, is now available as a free, downloadable eBook.
If you are a high net worth individual, a high-profile VIP or on a fast-professional ascent and want to know how reputation repair is done for people like you, this succinct insider’s guide was written for you. It is based on our years of experience and written by Reputation Communications’ founder and CEO, Shannon Wilkinson.
Here are two reviews from readers of Reputation Reboot:
“Be forewarned: it is not a step-by-step “how-to” guide, but a big-picture look at how online reputation management works when you are in a position to attract significant online content online…not all of it necessarily credible, accurate or positive.”
“It gives CEOs and other high-profile individuals both a deep and granular understanding of why they need “to build a robust online presence: to safeguard the reputation of their name or company and bolster its defense against irrelevant or misleading information.”
Reputation Reboot can also be accessed on Amazon Kindle.
A three-part series of live, 30-minute briefings with reputation management, Internet law, investigations, due diligence and risk mitigation experts will take place on August 5, 12 and 19, 2020. Registration is free and may be made via the links below. The program will be held on Zoom.
Focusing on reputation risk facing high-net-worth families (HNWFs), the program is hosted by Reputation Communications and moderated by its founder and CEO, Shannon Wilkinson.
“In a digital world, everyone faces reputation risk,” says Shannon Wilkinson. “But high-net-worth families and individuals face special scrutiny and a dangerous loss of privacy both online and off. Online personal and reputational attacks, threats and disparagement, unfounded allegations, disinformation campaigns, impersonation schemes, disturbing online threats, extortion, and harassment are some examples. These risks can impact all areas of their professional and personal life. Having served victims of such issues for a decade, I want to provide HNWFs with my own insight, as well as credible information from colleagues who are experienced in helping such families.”
Program details follow.
Wednesday, August 5: Alert: The Reputation Risk Setting Now.
Shannon Wilkinson will introduce the program and summarize the types of reputation risks HNWFs face, including generational ones, from family leaders to teens and college students.
David Niccolini will provide an overview of the current environment contributing to the aforementioned threats, examples of the types of risks HNWFs encounter now, and the importance of situational awareness.
Tim Murphy will introduce cybersecurity threats that are increasingly common and unique to HNWFs, including account takeover and ransomware attacks.
Click here to register for the August 5th briefing.
Wednesday, August 12: Alarm: Your Internet Legal Rights in the U.S. & Abroad.
Shannon Wilkinson will introduce the program and highlight the differences between American Internet and privacy laws and those in Europe and other countries.
Christine Rafin will summarize why consumers have so few Internet legal rights in the U.S., and address common questions relating to the removal of negative, defamatory and/or infringing material from the Internet.
Dan Shefet will explain how the “Right to Be Forgotten” law operates in Europe and Argentina; provide examples of the types of content that is removable on Google; and describe the privacy laws in Europe, which are far stronger than in the U.S. He will briefly address similar online privacy laws in other countries.
Click here to register for the August 12 briefing.
Wednesday, August 19: Adapt: Double-Due Diligence & Expert Intel.
Shannon Wilkinson will introduce the program and why the issues of due diligence and investigations are relevant in high-net-worth reputation risk cases.
Don Aviv will provide inside examples of the types of threats that due diligence has revealed, especially on the personal rather than organizational side of HNWFs.
Arun Rao will share insight into the types of reputation risk issues facing prominent public figures like elected officials, candidates for public office, entertainers, and high-profile executives. Key issues include investigating and addressing false allegations and “fake news.”
Click here to register for the August 19 briefing.
About the Speakers
Don Aviv: As president of Interfor International, Don has managed, led, and coordinated teams on thousands of due diligence and investigative cases, many with complex aspects and multinational reaches. He directly supports chief security officers and general counsel of some of the world’s leading corporations, financial institutions, and family offices.
Tim Murphy: Tim is a recognized leader in global cybersecurity and intelligence. In his previous role as Deputy Director of the FBI, and now as CEO of Consortium Networks, a cyber network and solutions firm, his experience covers all operational aspects of counterintelligence, criminal, cyber, and intelligence programs. He has experience in ensuring the technological and cybersecurity of companies, high-net-worth individuals and their family offices.
David Niccolini: David Niccolini co-founded TorchStone in 2010. The company has won numerous awards and has been featured in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, the Washingtonian, and the PBS News Hour. Over the years, David has directed security, consulting, and investigative operations across six continents on behalf of families (to include Forbes 400) and multinational corporations (to include Fortune 50).
Christine Rafin: As Associate General Counsel – Media and Compliance at American Media, LLC, Christine advises on defamation, privacy, intellectual property and publicity issues for a wide range of brands, including podcasts, online publications and magazines from National Enquirer to US Weekly. Christine has extensive experience representing high net worth individuals in federal and state civil, commercial and regulatory matters. She is an expert in the rapidly-evolving fields of Internet law, digital marketing law, and data privacy and security law.
Arun Rao: As the President of IGI, Arun draws on his experience at the Department of Justice, the White House, and the New York County District Attorney’s Office to advise clients on crisis and risk management. Arun and his team provide concierge-level assistance to elected officials, candidates for office, entertainers, and other prominent individuals facing reputational attacks, threats, and disparagement. As Principal of The Lenzner Firm (IGI’s affiliated law firm), Arun also provides counsel on potential legal remedies.
Dan Shefet: A French lawyer based in Paris, Dan Shefet holds a Philosophy Degree and a Law Degree from the University of Copenhagen. Specializing in European Law, Competition Law as well as Human Rights in general and in the IT environment in particular, he is a noted public speaker on IT Law, Data Privacy and Human Rights on the internet. In 2014 he founded the Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID) the main objective of which is to introduce a general principle of accountability on the internet.
Shannon Wilkinson: As the founder of Reputation Communications, one of the first firms in the online reputation management space, Shannon has advised numerous high-net-worth clients, including CEOs, business leaders, luxury brands, public figures, philanthropists, Forbes 400 and Forbes 500 clients, entertainment industry icons, FinTech leaders, tech founders, venture capitalists, and others. Reputation Communications is based in New York.
The European Union has introduced some of the world’s strictest online privacy rules. The “Right to be Forgotten” on Google — not yet available in the U.S. — is a notable example.
Now, according to The New York Times, the French data protection authority has fined Google 50 million euros for not properly disclosing to users how data is collected across its services. That includes its search engine, Google Maps and YouTube and other platforms. (If you’ve seen personalized advertisements following you around when you are using the internet, that is where they originate. Tech companies make massive profits from collecting and selling your data to marketers.)
Organizations like Facebook and Google make strenuous efforts to keep such laws from entering the U.S. Nonetheless, Europeans who have spearheaded such efforts are laying the groundwork here to begin bringing more protective laws to U.S. consumers.
We support bringing the “Right to be Forgotten” to America…along with better privacy laws. These are articles we have published about the issues:
Reputation Communications publishes You(Online) to help educate CEOs, C-Suite executives, rising stars and high net worth individuals about online reputation management.
Reputation Reboot addresses real-life online reputation management (ORM) challenges faced by CEOs, executives, VIPs and their organizations. Unless they are public figures, their names and related descriptions of all individuals and companies discussed are changed to protect their privacy. For a quick look at the types of situations facing many professionals, scroll down and check out the headlines.
Online reputation management enables you to take more ownership over what appears about you on the Internet.
Without it, the world controls how you look online.
Here are ten examples of the ways online reputation management is used by individuals, companies and organizations.
To ensure up-to-date and accurate information dominates search results for an organization or individual’s name.
To ensure that factual, credible reference material is readily available online.
That reduces the chance that fraudulent information will impact a brand.
To remove unwanted or inappropriate information, photographs or other content from the first few pages of Google search results.
To monitor social media and online forums for red flags signaling potential on- and offline threats against high-profile individuals and their organizations.
To create a strong online presence about a topic.
That presence acts as a barrier against potential distortions from third-party content, including anonymous and defamatory material. Without it, such items can go straight to the top of searches – and stay.
To ensure that your story is told by you and not by former partners or other potentially biased parties.
To establish a reputation within your area of expertise on multiple online platforms.
To create an online legacy for a VIP who is preparing for retirement or to exit an organization.
