Online Reputation Management: - Techniques and Tactics

Online Reputation Management: Techniques and Tactics November 30, 2010 Omar Ha-Redeye AAS, BHA (Hons.), PGCert, J.D. CNMT, RT(N)(ARRT)

Overview• Part 1 - Introduction to Online Reputation Management• Part 2 - Control or Influencing Public Opinion• Part 3 - Evaluating Your Online Presence

Part 1 - What is Reputation Management?• Online reputation management (ORM): research and analysis of reputation represented by online media content• Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM): tactics to proactively shield brands or reputations from damaging content through search engine queries

Internet Users Around the World Source: Wikipedia (File:Internet Penetration.png)

The New Age of Public Relations

Data Privacy Day: Perceptions study•The impact of online reputation on professional life •Nationality plays key role in determining whether online content will harm reputations •Companies have formal policies for checking online reputational data, but male recruiters are more likely to check - except in France •Recruiters typically conduct deeper searches than most consumers are aware of, and feel justified in doing so •Not all online content is true – but candidates may be rejected nonetheless •Recruiters say they tell candidates if online content factored into their rejection, but consumers do not seem to be hearing it •Good online reputations matter to recruiters

Reputation of the 50 Largest Canadian Companies

Social in the Front SeatChristopher Barger, Global Director of Social Media, General Motors• “The brands are now baking social into their overall marketing budget. It’s incorporated into all the programs.”• “We can start thinking about a social strategy that is more in line with the rest of the strategy for marketing, rather than picking off opportunities piecemeal and hoping that they fit.”

What About Small Businesses?

Part 2 - Control or Influencing Public Opinion

Part 2 – Control and Influencing Online ReputationData Privacy Day: Perceptions study• What people do to manage their online reputation – Divide between personal and professional identities. – Use measures to protect and manage their online reputation. – Apply both proactive and reactive methods of reputation management. – Divided about ability to manage their online reputation and on ownership of issues.

Reputation Defender to the Rescue...

…Or Not?

Omar’s 4 Steps to Reputation Management1. Dedicate2. Collaborate3. Mitigate4. Litigate

1. Dedicate• Web presence is part of branding – Reliability creates loyalty• Time commitment – Scheduling posts – Long-term planning • Can be as little as 15 min. a day• Content is king – Regular posts; predictability – New, original content – Or is it?

2. Collaborate• Collaboration is Key – Links are still basis for traffic flow – Be aware of rel=“nofollow”• Link to other reputable sites• Link internally to related content• Build relationships – With related material – Other websites/writers• Don’t “Flog”

Political Blogger Alliances• Blogging Tories (www.bloggingtories.ca/) – 300 blogs, avg. 3,000 readers/day• Liblogs (www.liblogs.ca/)• New Democrats Online (http://www.newdemocratsonline.ca/) – Formerly Blogging Dippers• Progressive Bloggers (www.progressivebloggers.ca/)• Blogging Canadians – All parties and non-partisan

Collaboration Tools• Track inbound links – Reciprocate • Use short urls – Acknowledge – Tiny.url (2002) – Tr.im• Microblogging • Link rot issue – Twitter – Bit.ly – Facebook Status

Internal Group Collaboration

3. Mitigate• Create web presence in advance – <name>.com• Own brand on social networks – Verify social media accounts where possible• Monitor regularly • Google Alerts • SocialMention • BoardTracker• Adapt to changes over time

Shel Israel• Author in Silicon Valley – “Naked Conversations, How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers” (2006) – “Twitterville” (2009)• Hosted an online talk show, Global Neighbourhoods with Shel Israel• Lorne Feldman registered ShelIsrael.com (2008)

Rep Mgt Enters the HouseMr. Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast, CPC): Mr. Speaker, the only additional element that the hon. member has brought to the Chair’s attention relates to a matter which is in no way, shape or form within the purview of this House or your honour and it never has been, and hopefully never will be, that is to say, the registration of domain names on the World Wide Web. I understand my hon. friend opposite is learned with respect to parliamentary procedure but I must infer from his remarks that he is stupefiedly (sic) ignorant about the commercial practices on the Internet.

JasonKenney.Org

Stay Above the Fold

4. Litigate• Litigation is only an option of last resort – Extremely costly – Not time effective – Potential for backlash• Know and assess adversary – Seek non-confrontational resolution if possible – Address through 3rd Parties• Potentially public permanent legal record – Google Scholar now indexing legal cases• Do not engage in flame wars

Pre-Litigation Options• Simple request• Educate – Discussion page on wikis – Provide your POV on own site• Notice-and-Takedown – Enforce copyright, trademark• Warning letter• Ignore completely

When to Litigate• Don’t litigate • Do litigate – View expressed is: – History • an opinion • Litigation • true • irresponsible – Metatags commentary – Malice is not needed • Keywords vs. ads (Hill v. Church of Scientology) – Fair use (copyright) – Anonymous bloggers – Political (usually) • Reveal identity through proceedings

Vigna v. Levant, 2010 ONSC 6308• Judgment released November 18, 2010• Plaintiff was a lawyer with Canadian Human Rights Commission• Sued Ezra Levant, lawyer and political activist, for blog posts on his site• Judge awarded $25,000 in damages, and ordered defamatory posts removed

Anonymity is a Myth• R. v. Cuttell, 2009 ONCJ 471 – 3rd Party custody of confidential information does not automatically extinguish any reasonable expectation of privacy – rights reserved by the third-party vis-a-vis• York University v. Bell Canada Enterprises, 2009 CanLII 46447 (ON S.C.) – Use of Norwich order • Privacy interest v. interests of justice • Limited for specific purposes, not absolute – Privacy interests overridden by s. 7(3)(c) of PIPEDA• Cohen v. Google, Inc., Index No. 100012/09 (N.Y. Cty. Aug. 17, 2009). – Skanks in NYC (Blogspot) – pre-action disclosure

Ratings and Ranking SitesThe Ratingz Network • RateMyProfessors.com – CampRatingz.com – ChildCareRatingz.com – ClubRatingz.com – DrugRatingz.com • RateMyTeachers.com – LawyerRatingz.com – RadioRatingz.com – RealEstateRatingz.com • RateMDs.com – VetRatingz.com – AccountantRatingz.com – CollegeDormRatingz.com – MechanicRatingz.com • Foda et al v. RateMDs, – RestaurantRatingz.com Inc., California Northern – SalonRatingz.com – SkiRatingz.com District Court – TVratingz.com

Case Study: The Obama Campaign

A Global Brand

My Barack and Neighbor toObama (MyBO) Neighbor (N2N) •Focus on what matters; use the online tools to organize offline action. •Incite the right actions; •Making users comfortable Building incentives that •Creating small and frequent reward the right type campaigns •Leverage creativity; engage with the campaign on their own terms

Customized EmailThe Mandate:• Mobilization — Ensure a consistent messaging strategy that encompassed both short - and long-term communication objectives.• Messaging — Reinforce the campaign’s overall new media strategy to encourage offline action.• Motivation — Draft compelling content that would invite voters to contribute financially to the campaign.• Meaningful content — Provide supporters with meaningful and relevant content that was applicable to their personal situation.

SMS and Mobile• Always let users opt in — All aspects of the campaign’s text messaging program depended on voluntarily offered information• Create a conversation — The Obama team was unique in its use of SMS text messaging because the campaign staff responded to inquiries and feedback.• Portable engagement — The campaign’s innovative iPhone application made supporting Obama easy everywhere you went.

The Obama Blog• Tell a story — The campaign regularly profiled grassroots organizers and featured compelling guest blogs• Use an old feature in a new way —standard comment section transformed iinto an area of lively discussion and debate• Provide a digital gateway —positioned the blog as a gateway for supporters to discover other ways to participate with the Obama movement (MyBO, emails, etc.)• Lead by example —publish content and feedback provided by supporters reinforced through example the philosophies that guided the campaign

Social Networks – Obama Everywhere• Be where your consumers are• Make sure it fits• Understand online social etiquette• Transform social networks into distribution platforms• Embrace internal and external content

Video• Build a history• Speak directly to consumers• Share your content• Different types: – Life streaming – Campaign created – User generated

Analytics and Ads•Think like the end user•The power of iteration

Twitter’s Largest, On Ice

Part 3 – Tools and Techniques

Establish your Brand• Become a broadcaster…• … and beyond…

Monitoring Page Rankings• Technorati: an Internet search engine for searching blogs – Not updating properly recently – 112.8 million blogs (2008)• Alexa rankings – # times users with toolbars visit site – Can be inaccurate – Subject to manipulation• Google PageRank (U.S. Patent 6,285,999) – Does not consider relationship of page to referring resources – depends on the number and quality of inbound links

SEO v. SEM• Search engine optimization (SEO): increasing the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid search results• Search engine marketing (SEM): a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion

SEO Basics• Google ranks web pages according to perceived relevance and authority – possible search terms by the user (keywords)• SEO not an exact science, more of an art – basic principles are well-established – easily understood – readily implemented by the non-technical.• algorithm is a closely-guarded secret, constantly changing – intelligent guesswork • relative importance of factors – analysis and experience of what works

Blogging is Vulnerable

Types of Factors• 2 sets of factors affect page ranks• On-site and on-page factors – inherent value of your pages – design and structure of your website generally – layout and content of individual pages• Off-page factors – how others value you – number and value of links from other sites to your pages – work consistently at gaining and retaining these “votes”

On-Page and Off-Page Factors• On-site and on-page • Off-page factors factors number of links to website IP address website server location PageRank of links to domain name of website website URL of page number of links to page title of page PageRank of links to meta description of page page freshness of page content text in links to page links on page to external (anchor text) websites page click-through rate page “theme” (CTR) website “theme” “stickiness” of page total number of pages on website

Monitoring Tools• Google Alerts • Twitter• Site Analytics • Learn about staff – LinkedIn• eBay • RSS Feeds

Google “Reputation Management Lawyer”

SEO Tools

HandoutGroup 1 Group 2• http://www.urltrends.com/ • http://www.google.com/trends• http://www.seotoolset.com/ • http://www.thumbshots.com/• http://www.compete.com/ • http://www.alexa.com/• http://tools.seobook.com/authority- finder/ • http://www.touchgraph.com/na• http://www.spyfu.com/ vigator.html• http://adlab.msn.com/ • http://www.quantcast.com/• http://www.charlesproxy.com/ • http://seodigger.com/• http://www.webceo.com/download/ • http://www.seomoz.org/ • http://www.webuildpages.com/

Thank You• http:// OmarHa-Redeye.com• Omar.Haredeye@Gmail.com• @OmarHaRedeye

Online Reputation Management: - Techniques and Tactics

by Omar Ha-Redeye on Dec 02, 2010

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Online Reputation Management: - Techniques and Tactics Presentation Transcript