I feel a bit mean.
A while back somebody – a PR executive - asked me to remove a blog post that mentioned him professionally in a bad light and I didn’t.
It probably has affected this person’s career and I wonder what I should have done.
On one hand, blogs are a real-time commentary on life, warts and all. And on the other, with a large readership I have the influence - albeit not as large - as a mainstream media property.
And having published, I now wonder whether I should take down stories when people request it. Which means giving in to censorship.
Then I found myself this week consulting to a chairman of a company about social media. He was worried about Facebook, wanted to know about LinkedIn but really what bugged him was the negative story that comes up as number three in a Google search for his name thanks to a combination of comments, traffic and links to the blog post.
Having something negative appearing in the first five Google search results is a huge concern, as people often don't look beyond the first page
The dilemma is how to get rid of the story once it's appeared. This started me thinking on the comparatively new field of reputation management on the web. Asking somebody to take down a blog post is a risky choice that can backfire.
Often bloggers will report such requests and make matters worse. The same goes for lawyers' letters, which are likely to find themselves published.
There’s not a lot you can do. Or can you?
My plan is to try and knock the story down the Google search. The company has three websites and so far his name only comes up on the umbrella site. I reckon by profiling him on the other two with some decent search engine optimisation and then opening up his LinkedIn profile, we can knock the story down four or five places.
But the challenge is to find another two or three places to take it to the second page. Perhaps we can place some stories on online comment sites that will publish his profile.
It’s going to be tough but an interesting challenge to find how far I can take reputation management online.
Any suggestions?
I feel a bit mean.
A while back somebody – a PR executive - asked me to remove a blog post that mentioned him professionally in a bad light and I didn’t.
It probably has affected this person’s career and I wonder what I should have done.
On one hand, blogs are a real-time commentary on life, warts and all. And on the other, with a large readership I have the influence - albeit not as large - as a mainstream media property.
And having published, I now wonder whether I should take down stories when people request it. Which means giving in to censorship.
Then I found myself this week consulting to a chairman of a company about social media. He was worried about Facebook, wanted to know about LinkedIn but really what bugged him was the negative story that comes up as number three in a Google search for his name thanks to a combination of comments, traffic and links to the blog post.
Having something negative appearing in the first five Google search results is a huge concern, as people often don't look beyond the first page
The dilemma is how to get rid of the story once it's appeared. This started me thinking on the comparatively new field of reputation management on the web. Asking somebody to take down a blog post is a risky choice that can backfire.
Often bloggers will report such requests and make matters worse. The same goes for lawyers' letters, which are likely to find themselves published.
There’s not a lot you can do. Or can you?
My plan is to try and knock the story down the Google search. The company has three websites and so far his name only comes up on the umbrella site. I reckon by profiling him on the other two with some decent search engine optimisation and then opening up his LinkedIn profile, we can knock the story down four or five places.
But the challenge is to find another two or three places to take it to the second page. Perhaps we can place some stories on online comment sites that will publish his profile.
It’s going to be tough but an interesting challenge to find how far I can take reputation management online.