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:
Cory Booker served as Major of Newark, N.J., from 2006 to 2013. We originally published this piece in October 2013, during his race to become the junior U.S. Senator from New Jersey. It highlights how his deft embrace of social media has played an important role in his success. Follow him on Twitter @CoryBooker to gain insight into his strategy.
Though Booker has utilized a variety of social media platforms, his active and engaging presence on Twitter has been particularly exceptional. In 2010, for instance, he used tweets to communicate directly with Newark residents during a major snowstorm—a move that in turn drew national media attention. “Not only do Newark residents know that Booker is clearing the driveways of people with Twitter handles, so does much of the national political twitterati, which is blogging about him,” the Washington Post’s Krissah Thompson observed at the time.
Recognizing opportunity
“We all need to be who we are and be ourselves but not being in social media is almost like Nixon not wanting to put make up on for a TV appearance,” Booker told Reuters’ Paul Smalera during an interview in June. The mayor also recounts to Smalera how his first foray into Twitter was inspired by a chat with Ashton Kutcher:
“I remember I was travelling back to my law school and driving up highway 95 talking to him. He spent must have been 45 minutes on the phone, really challenging me and explaining to me the benefits of taking control of your own media, of connecting with thousands of people. He said, “Look, I want you to do it but I don’t just want you to do it. I want you to dive in head first and be authentic on the platform, take risks.’
Booker’s social media skills have earned him the title of “Hometown Hero” in “TechCrunch’s 20 Most Innovative People In Democracy 2012,” which observed that his “million-strong Twitter feed spouts everything from dense nuggets of inspiration to real-time problem-solving with his constituents.”
Earlier this year at SXSW Interactive, Booker spoke about how he has “used Twitter to interact with his constituents on a daily basis, responding to questions and complaints at all hours of the day,” as well as how, with the help of Twitter, his “constituency is technically only 280,000 people, but it’s also the United States.”
Even someone as tech-savvy as Booker is prone to the occasional social media misstep, as his brief, past correspondence on Twitter with an Oregon stripper has shown. But Booker’s response to the incident was characteristically cool and collected. “The mayor talks with people from all walks of life on Twitter,” Booker spokesman Kevin Griffis said in a statement. “The most shocking part of the story was learning that there is a vegan strip club in Portland.”
A potent tool
If he wins the special election next week, Booker, who even announced his run for Senate via Twitter and YouTube, “would arrive at the senate armed with a social media army that includes 1.4 million Twitter followers and a drive to shake up the system,” according to NBC News’ Kasie Hunt. The exact impact Booker would have in Washington isn’t easy to predict, but if his campaign is any indication, social media will be a central part of his strategy. On the day of his primary win back in August, Booker “posted prolifically to his various accounts — more than 100 times on Twitter, 12 on Facebook and three on Instagram, including one video,” according to Mashable‘s Fran Berkman.
Huffington Post has published an interview with Reputation Communications CEO Shannon Wilkinson about personal branding online. These are highlights from Stacey Cohen’s article:
“Personal brands are complex, shaped by our skills, our interests and the content we create, from our tweets to our blog posts.
But at the foundation of any personal brand is a singular – and paramount – trait: our reputations.
Without a positive reputation, no personal brand can flourish. If you’re not viewed as a dependable and trustworthy professional, your skillset, interests and output – no matter how impressive – won’t matter much.
And in today’s digital world, where photos, social media profiles and news stories are immortal, upholding a sterling reputation is more important than ever. One hiccup, whether an awkward photograph, or unforgiving article, can haunt a professional for years.
Few people know the nuances and importance of modern reputation care better than Shannon Wilkinson, a leading expert on online reputation management, or ORM. Wilkinson’s NYC-based firm Reputation Communications serves a suite of international clients and offers services ranging from reputation-building and reputation research to reputation repair. Wilkinson is a familiar byline in the Wall Street Journal’s “Crisis of the Week” column,” a seasoned speaker and regular blogger at her website, You(Online).
I recently caught up with Wilkinson about ORM and polishing and protecting reputations in the age of the Internet.
Wilkinson paints a vivid picture of just how important ORM is in today’s world and shares guidance on how to best navigate this new realm.
First, assess what’s already out there – and resist the belief that you can be invisible online. “The digital age ensures that each of us have an online reputation, whether we want one or not,” Wilkinson explains. If we throw up our hands and surrender, our reputations will be determined by “bots that scrape, index and republish the publicly available information about you,” Wilkinson warns.
Next up: Start creating content that accurately represents, and enhances, your reputation. “Counter-balance third-party content and replace it with new, positive and authentic material,” Wilkinson says. “This is a key ORM strategy.” Ensure the items you do have control over – your LinkedIn profile, your company bio, your blog and your Twitter – carry the right messaging.
There’s lots more to ORM than just this, and mercifully Wilkinson is quick to share her agency’s most popular blog post, “The Essentials: Online Reputation Management FAQs.” It’s a useful inventory of strategies and tactics you can use to start burnishing your online reputation today. If you have a presence online (and remember, everybody does), it’s worth the read.”
We are all increasingly hearing about hot button issues such as fake news controversies, the “digital divide” and the range of narratives influencing public opinion on the internet.
In the United States, those issues are affected by the laws governing free speech and Internet content. At Reputation Communications, we are committed to educating the greater public about the laws, opportunities and nuances inherent in Internet perception-shaping and publishing.
Here at You(Online), we publish the most extensive resources specific to those topics.
Recent highlights include the following articles, which examine the “Right to be Forgotten,” Internet laws and one way President Trump protected his brand–something every public figure and many CEOs should do.
Dan Shefet: Creator of the Internet’s OmbudsmanHe made worldwide headlines in 2014 when he forced Google to remove links to defamatory information about him. He has since established the Association for Accountability and Internet Democracy (AAID).
As a trusted source of information on these topics, our blog has attracted a worldwide readership and been cited in leading media platforms. Please share our content with your friends and colleagues who care about these issues…and follow us on Twitter @reputationnews.com.
Law enforcement agencies have traditionally been behind the curve with using digital, social media and reputation management tools in their day-to-day operations. To help police departments become more effective in engaging with a digital media savvy public, three other experts and I have become active presenters in The Hetty Group’s Coptics Program. With the Coptics workshops and consulting program, Florence Chung, Bill Carmody, Matt Horace and I aim to help law enforcement professionals expand their use of the platforms that are helping shape public perception.
The Wall Street Journal has published an article about our new initiative. “Business Offers Blueprint to Improve Law Enforcement Optics,” by Ben DiPietro, is reprinted in full here.
“A group of reputation-management experts has banded together to create a program to help law enforcement agencies better manage their social media engagement and improve their perceptions with people and within communities. The so-called “Coptics” program developed by the Hetty Group draws from best practices employed by large companies that already have seen the value in being active members of social media to tell their stories and address issues that if not handled properly could blow up into big controversies, said Florence Chung, founder of the Hetty Group.
“We believe that if you aren’t telling your story, the world will,” said Ms. Chung. “And the world often doesn’t know the facts.” Shannon Wilkinson, chief executive of reputation-management firm Reputation Communications, said that although many people in law enforcement have stayed away from social media out of fear or because they prefer to stay out of the spotlight, doing so only cedes the conversation to their critics and others who aren’t representing their viewpoints. For law enforcement agencies or companies wanting to get more active in social media, Ms. Wilkinson said they need to ask themselves two questions: “How do we want to be perceived and by what audience? And how are we currently perceived and by whom?”
Bill Carmody, a digital marketing expert and chief executive of the firm Trepoint, said by teaching law enforcement how to be part of the digital conversation, and giving them tools to properly engage their audiences, will allow for departments to get involved in discussions before they go viral. Through better engagement, when incidents do occur, law enforcement will be in a better position to respond in real time because “that’s where the conversation is happening,” he said. “Your brand is being shaped by social media if you’re not shaping it yourself.”
Matt Horace, a former law enforcement official who now serves as a law enforcement analyst on CNN, said whether it’s a law enforcement agency or a big corporation, an organization needs to know how to manage a crisis and the communications surrounding it. And a key part of that is engaging on social media, knowing what’s being said and interacting in a way that is authentic and not in a way that seems disingenuous or that will erode trust. “This can’t be a stunt,” he said.”
If you work in law enforcement and would like to schedule a workshop or consulting session, please visit The Hetty Group. We also welcome support from corporations and philanthropies that would like to underwrite a workshop series in their community.
Left to right: Shannon Wilkinson, Matt Horace, Bill Carmody and Florence Chung lead an August 18, 2016 Coptics workshop at the National Asian Peace Officers Association Conference in New York City. Photo by Leven Bastian/Jolie Photography.
Baylor is the oldest continually operating university in Texas. Chartered in 1845, the private Christian University is a nationally ranked research institution. Now it is embroiled in a crisis: sexual-assault victims, administrators accused of being indifferent to the issue and athletes who reportedly conducted the assaults. Kenneth Starr, a former U.S. Solicitor General, has resigned as chancellor at Baylor as “a matter of conscience.”
Benjamin Wermund, higher education reporter for the Houston Chronicle, has been covering this story since it broke. He interviewed several communications experts about Baylor’s handling of the crisis. Reputation Communications’ CEO Shannon Wilkinson recommended more transparency, including participating in the discussion on social media:
The school could do more to go on the offensive online, where the news about the scandal initially broke and where most people are forming — and sharing — their opinions of the situation. It could push its message out more on social media, including via Twitter, where the school has said little about the situation to its more than 68,000 followers. They aren’t addressing the crisis on Twitter, and they need to. They need to have a system to participate in the discussion, otherwise they completely lose control over public perception of how they are managing this.”
An Epic Crisis Facing Higher Education
We have written extensively about the sexual assault crisis at U.S. universities. Here are our most relevant posts, including a recent one about a different type of scandal at UC Davis.
Institutions throughout the U.S. have failed to provide the information and resources that students need to protect themselves from becoming victims of sexual assault on campus…and to appropriately address the crisis when they are. If you would like to learn more about the issue, we recommend viewing The Hunting Ground, a documentary film about institutional cover-ups of campus sexual assaults. CNN premiered it last year.
