Spokeo Archives - Reputation Communications

Blake Lively, Smear Campaigns & Your Reputation

If you’ve followed Hollywood news since the holidays, there’s one story that’s been pretty hard to escape — the bombshell report that actress Blake Lively (one-half of a power couple with movie star Ryan Reynolds) filed a lawsuit against co-star and director Justin Baldoni.

In the lawsuit, Lively accuses Baldoni and his PR team of orchestrating a smear campaign with the purpose of destroying her reputation. This all stems from Lively bringing up concerns of alleged harassment and misconduct on the set of their recent film, “It Ends With Us.”

It caused a media storm, complete with news articles and counter lawsuits from Baldoni. It paints a shocking picture of the tactics some PR and social media consultants will take to smear a person’s reputation. As one hired gun boasted in text messages revealed by Lively’s team, “You know we can bury anyone.”

This isn’t just news that applies to global celebrities. It should matter to you. At Reputation Communications, we have consulted on ways to repair the reputational damage that comes in the wake of aggressive smear campaigns:

• A political smear campaign. Dozens of Twitter posts and social media videos from fake accounts were released online daily with the sole purpose of denigrating a powerful political donor’s reputation.

• A defamation campaign. Fraudulent websites were created to mimic legitimate business sites, spreading harmful misinformation in the process. Fake social accounts published malicious and profane posts falsely attributed to the person who legitimately bore that name.

• Doxxing a high-profile financial industry leader. This individual’s personal address was published online — including satellite photos of their home. Crowds were encouraged to go there and stage public protests. [These types of doxxing campaigns can happen after a company performs a mass layoff, putting the safety of executives, managers and their families at risk].

There are legal remedies here. But, keep in mind, it can take weeks or even months for them to be activated. In that time, malicious actors can continue these destructive smears.

We’ve seen it all.

We’ve consulted with people who have been the victims of baseless lawsuits that have been filed for no reason other than denigrating or punishing an employee. Even after it’s dropped, the filing can persist at the top of a person’s search results online. This poses grave reputational risk. This can prevent the individual from being hired anywhere else. We’ve also worked with someone who, after a promotion, became the subject of continual embarrassing social media posts by someone assuming her identity. There are many examples of this with details too unsavory to delve into here.

Expect more — AI is compounding this situation exponentially.

What you should know

The less online content that you take ownership of yourself, the more your reputation is at risk. No factual material attributed directly to your name that ranks high on Google? Then, there are more opportunities for bad actors to spread misinformation about you.

Content is king.

Articles, blogs, podcasts, websites, press materials, and strategic uses of social media like TikTok and Instagram are opportunities where content that shows the best of you to the world can preserve your reputation. It can also offer a marketing tool for your companies and brand. It’s a win-win.

Online reputational management will push that outdated or undesirable content lower in search results. If you fail to do this, that negative, disparaging information may resurface to the top of Google. This often happens within three to six months. Keep your content current!

Also, make sure your personal data — think home address, phone numbers, personal email addresses — are not readily available publicly. Personal info for you and your loved ones may be on up to 25 search databases like Spokeo and PeekYou. This sensitive information puts your privacy and personal security at risk.

We use privacy protection services like Abine’s DeleteMe as one vital tool. It removes this information for $129 annually. Several similar services are detailed here.

Blake Lively’s case is not over, with countersuits being filed and a range of commentary from crisis and legal experts flooding the airwaves and internet. Consider it a lesson in how smear campaigns can — and do — work…though this case is just one example.

The free flow of information online has made online reputation management essential for nearly everyone. But CEOs, industry leaders, the C-suite and VIPs face special challenges. They are scrutinized both online and off. That loss of privacy can impact all areas of their professional and personal life. They can be the subject of articles, Internet conversations, commentary and speculation on topics ranging from their appearance and behavior to leaked company documents. Whether on mainstream platforms or posted anonymously, such content can go viral—or end up on the front page of The New York Times. This often occurs when the actions or statements of industry leaders portray them as out of touch with the culture of the people their companies target as consumers. Such visibility is now more pressing with the increased use of AI in search engines like Bing and Google.

Pressing Issues

When subjects of such attention are high-net worth individuals or philanthropists who support major political or social justice issues, every move they take is examined closely from both social and political standpoints. When a CEO is given a raise on top of a multi-million dollar annual salary, the public evaluates its appropriateness on social media as well as on TV. They want to know if the organization he or she heads fairly compensates its employees, has generous benefits or has had mass layoffs recently. Whether you are the CEO of a public company or an active political donor, motivated and anonymous detractors can overwhelm the Internet with inaccurate and derogatory commentary about you, your organization and business. That is not an uncommon tactic. It can be used by anyone who opposes your views or would benefit from diminishing the stature of your company. Not all the news is bad, though: public figures also attract large numbers of legitimate, supportive followers. Supporting those followers with online resources can be a powerful tool in protecting a reputation.

The Online Public

All of these sources contribute to the amount of information available about such individuals online, where the majority of the public now conducts its research. The source, credibility, tone and authenticity of the information available on the Internet can benefit or harm their business relationships and brands. It can reinforce their credibility and influence in supporting the issues important to them – or not. It can also reduce or enhance value for their company’s shareholders. For example, Corporate Responsibility magazine found in a survey of 1,000 people, 69% of perspective employees would not take a job at a company with a bad reputation and 84% would take a job at a company with an excellent one. Even ten years ago, it was possible for high-profile “influencers” to keep a low personal profile outside of their roles in business, philanthropy and politics. Doing so enabled a reasonable level of privacy and contributed to physical security. Conventional public relations tools served as a reliable way for CEOs to influence public opinion, especially if it was unfavorable.

Maintaining a Low Online Profile is Now Difficult

Maintaining a low profile in the business media has also been a longstanding tactic used by individuals with high professional positions. Minimizing the visibility that results from media interviews makes them less of a target for competitors and peers and enables them to focus on doing their job…including building the key relationships that help them advance. Many people prefer to be invisible online – and not only people in high-profile positions. For that reason, many leaders in business and philanthropy have only the minimum amount of biographical and other information on Internet platforms (often only on their organizations’ websites). Unfortunately, that no longer works.

Data Scraping Invades Privacy

One reason is “data scraping.” Computer “bots” continually scan the Internet and collect the personal information of people who often don’t even realize that information is available. It is scoured from public records such as online telephone directories, driver license bureaus and the local courthouses that maintain legal records of property ownership. Then it is published in one of dozens of online databases such as Intelius, Peek You and Spokeo. Virtually anyone can access it for free or a nominal amount of money. Hacking and internal leaks of private conversations, emails and documents are just two additional examples of common Internet content that often surfaces. Unless you have an online reputation management strategy, such information can dominate how people view you online.

Don’t Become Isolated from Consumer Sentiment

Many companies have taken positive steps taken to expand diversity opportunities among suppliers and employees. But high numbers of social media users still feel like the upper echelons of corporate America continue to exclude them – even though they purchase their products. CEO backlash often begins online. So it is important not to become disconnected from widespread consumer sentiment. Millennials are top social media users. Women are the dominant users of most social media platforms. If your customer base includes them, ensuring they are well-represented in your employee base and providing them with senior opportunities will help your decision-makers understand how to best serve them.

Online Reputation Management Ensures an Accurate Online Image

What does that mean? It means personal information you don’t want public can become publicly available online. That information that appears could be incorrect or skewed, or may consist of nothing more than an outdated or unflattering image. If you don’t have a well-established presence online, that information threatens to top search results made in your name—as do miscellaneous scraps of information from every conceivable source. Such information may not always be about you, either, but someone who shares your same name.

Online reputation management lessens the prominence of and counterbalances negative and false content. It ensures an accurate and powerful image of you is presented online. Done effectively, it is a proactive tool that reinforces your credibility and influence in supporting the issues important to you. In its early days—the mid-1990s—online reputation management focused on repairing malicious content: anonymous, negative online commentary posted on Internet forums and in the comments sections accompanying blogs and media platforms.

In the online world, it is close to impossible to remove such information unless its source voluntarily takes it offline. However, it can be displaced from one page to the next, and many more, through a combination of strategies. As a result, ORM is often described as “pushing down” or “suppressing” negative content. Today online reputation management is most often associated such actions because they are the most widely advertised by ORM firms. No wonder the practice is exploding as an industry. (It is an unregulated industry. There is no independent, nonprofit organization to protect ORM consumer rights.)

Take Control of Your Digital Footprint

But prominent, factual information on highly ranked, highly credible Internet platforms can’t be suppressed – or, in many cases, displaced from the first page of Google search results. There is no magic wand to make Internet content disappear. Strategically placed, new content is the single most important tool in changing the lineup of online content. And a proactive content strategy is best— is becomes much more difficult after inaccurate or biased content appears.

That is why ORM now includes taking ownership of your digital footprint—all of the publicly available information about you and your organization online that you have control over, either directly or indirectly. When prominent individuals are not proactive in creating and managing the information available about them online they leave their reputations vulnerable. So does everyone else: no one is immune. But as Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and Ideas Director Jared Cohen observe in The New Digital Age (Knopf), “Smear campaigns and online feuds typically involve public figures, not ordinary citizens.” If you are a public figure and want to take an active role in determining how others perceive you—rather than leaving it up to others— online reputation management is essential. Our free eBook, Reputation Reboot: What Every Business Leader, Rising Star and VIP Needs to Know, can help you understand why.

Our Case Studies also provide insight into the types of issues CEOs can face.