1. The Reputation Economy
Managing Your Online Identity
in the Age of Google
Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS
Librarian for Digital Life
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
University of Virginia

2. My Perspective
• Reputation management is not for:
– erasing the deeds of convicted criminals
– erasing institutional history
– erasing negative business reviews

3. In this presentation:
• Defining the “reputation economy”
• What is “Google Truth”?
• How does Google work?
• Defining online reputation management services
– Individual
– Corporate
• Establishing a reputation management plan
• Understanding the real-life ramifications of
reputation damage
• Reputation restoration
• Further resources

4. What is the “reputation economy”?
• Refers to the way in which the standing of
a product/person/institution/business is
shaped by the contributions of end users.
• “wisdom of crowds”/crowdsourcing

5. Your own habits
• How many of you Google the following?
– Job candidates
– Dates
– Children’s friends/counselors/teachers
– Doctors
– Products
– Hotels
– Restaurants
• How much are you influenced by what you find?

6. How would you react to an attack
on your reputation?
Toni & Candace respond to
a bad review on Yelp

7. Incidentally…
• 2011 report on Yelp ratings by Harvard
Business School assistant professor
Michael Luca:
– a one-star increase in the rating of an
independent restaurant leads to a 5 to 9
percent increase in revenue.
•http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%2
0Files/12-016.pdf

8. Why
?

9. Google was King
Data from Hitwise, 1/21/2012

10. Google
is
STILL
King

11. “Google Truth”
• the automatic acceptance of Google results as
an accurate representation of reality

12. How Google works (1 of 7)
• Google is comprised of three distinct
parts
– Googlebot
– Indexer
– Query processor
• Each part has its own specific and unique
function.

13. How Google works (2 of 7)
• Googlebot
– Composed of 1000’s of computers engaged
in parallel processing:
•Requests & retrieves 1000’s of different pages
simultaneously; does this two ways
– “Add URL” forms
– Find links via web crawling
» Fresh crawls
» Deep crawls

14. How Google works (3 of 7)
• Indexer
– Receives full texts of pages from Googlebot;
stores them in databases
– Index sorts search terms alphabetically
•Ignores “stop words”
•Converts all text to lower-case
– Each entry in index stores list of documents with
that search term and also the location within the
text of that search term

15. How Google works (4 of 7)
•Query processor
Multiple parts
•Search box
•“engine” that evaluates
searches & matches to relevant
documents
•Results formatter

16. How Google works (5 of 7)

17. How Google works (6 of 7)
(It’s a popularity contest… sort of)
• PageRank
– Link analysis algorithm
– Page with higher rank displays higher in results
list
– Google uses over 100 factors to determine rank
– How is PR calculated?
•Basically, the more times that a page is linked to
determines its PR
– Built from this algorithm, which is used iteratively:
» PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

18. How Google works (7 of 7)

19. Hummingbird
• Google replaced its algorithm in August 2013
• The preceding seven slides are still valid
• Hummingbird is semantic; i.e., based on
natural language queries
– Conversational search technology
– Uses Google’s Knowledge Graph
• Google is looking towards future
– 60% of Americans access Internet on mobile
device
– Spoken searches

20. Mobile-Friendly Update
• April 21, 2015
– Mobile-friendliness
•Tappable buttons
•Easy to navigate from a small screen
•Important information front &
center
– Mobile speed
– Desktop speed

21. Why did I just spend 8 slides
on Google?
• If you understand how Google works, you
will understand how to:
– Positively increase your online presence
– Monitor your reputation
– Formulate a basic reputation restoration plan
– Understand when you need to seek
professional help

22. What is ORM (online reputation
management)?
• Basically, “…the practice of making people and
businesses look their best on the Internet.”
www.reputation.com
• For whom is this service?
– Individuals
– Professionals
– Institutions
•Who can perform this service?
•You
•Reputation management professionals

23. ORM is big business
• “American companies will spend $2.2
billion in 2012 for "reputation and
presence management," according to Jed
Williams, senior analyst for BIA / Kelsey, a
media-consulting firm based in Chantilly,
Va.By 2015, that sum will grow to $5
billion, says Williams.”
– “Can you erase your online blunders? With
effort, and luck, it's possible”; Lacitis, Erik;
Seattle Times; July 29, 2012

24. Should individuals/institutions
bother with ORM?
• In my opinion, if you aren’t monitoring
your reputation in the same way that you
monitor your credit, you’re crazy.

25. • Do-it-yourself options have cropped up
– Brand Yourself
– Reputation-Fix
However, traditional ORM
services are expensive

26. •Loss of professional opportunities
•Financial losses
•Personal toll
Why should you care about
reputation damage?

27. Pew Internet & American Life’s
Internet & Health Report 2013
http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2013
/Health-and-Internet-2012.aspx

28. “Rising Use
of Social &
Mobile in
Healthcare”
- 2012

29. Social Media &
Online Reputation matter

30. Some online
healthcare ranking sites
• HealthGrades

31. Some online
healthcare ranking sites
Rate MDs

32. Yelp again
• Study shows high Yelp rating
correlates with better Hospital outcomes
– Bardach NS, Asteria-peñaloza R, Boscardin WJ,
Adams dudley R. The relationship between
commercial website ratings and traditional hospital
performance measures in the USA. BMJ Qual Saf.
2012.
• http://www.imedicalapps.com/2013/02/yelp-hospital-
outcomes/

33. But then there’s this:
• “Fake It Till You Make It:
Reputation, Competition, and Yelp Review
Fraud”
– Investigated economic incentives for creating fake
reviews for self or competitor
http://people.hbs.edu/mluca/fakeittillyoumakeit.pdf

34. Establishing a
reputation management plan
• Begin monitoring your online presence
– Good
•Search for your name at least once per month (use a
Google Incognito tab)
–Best
• Create a search alert for your name
•Check your privacy settings on all social media
•Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc
•Feed your online presence with positive content
•Blogging, Tweeting, profile sites, YouTube,
professional directories, newsletters, etc.

35. Examples of Positive Content
Kimberley R. Barker vs. Kimberley Barker

36. •Tell your supervisor
•Be aware of who might be looking for information
about you
•Think about to what sites Google will direct
searchers
•E.g., those searching for information on clinicians will
be directed to sites such as HealthGrades, etc
•Accept the fact that no information does NOT equal a
positive image and, in fact, can be viewed with
suspicion
Establishing a
reputation management plan

37. Establishing a reputation
management plan (TL; DR)
• “6 Steps To Managing Your Online
Reputation”
– Search yourself
– Buy your domain name
– Put all of your content in one place
– Join social networks
– Optimize your presence on those sites
– Keep private things private; assume nothing is
private

38. Reputation Restoration
•First steps
–Take time to process your emotions.
–You will need the support of family and
friends.
–Realize that you are not the first
person whose reputation has been
damaged- you are not alone.

39. Reputation Restoration
– Realize that there exist tools to
restore your good name.
– Assess the damage; if severe,
consult a professional reputation
management consultant
immediately. Accept that you
cannot repair the damage on your
own and that the issue won’t just
go away.
– DO NOT respond with posts of your
own.

40. Reputation Restoration
(information drawn from
Chapter 12 of Wild West 2.0)
• Understand the problem
• Make a plan
• Implement the plan

41. Understand the problem I
(WW 2.0, Chapter 12)
• What is the extent of the problem?
•Perform an online reputation
audit (see Chapter 10 of WW 2.0)
•Google your name; check the
first three pages of results.

42. Understand the Problem II
•Find the source of negative content
• Use an Internet archive provider to check the
URL’s of negative content. Try to determine
where it began.
•Determine whether it is accidental or deliberate
• accidental- “name collision”- reinforcing cycle
• Deliberate- a lie about you; legitimate
complaint

43. Make a plan
(WW 2.0)
• Create a recovery road map
– As in Chapter 10: create list of people who might
search for you
– Create list of sites to which they are directed
– Prioritize which sites to repair first- some smears
easier to repair than others

44. Make a Plan (WW 2.0)
• Create recovery goals
– Be realistic: it may be impossible to
completely expunge false information-
News sites and some blogs will may
always show up in top 10 results and
only feeding positive content (and
time) can remedy that.
– Pushing negative content to bottom of
search results may be just as effective

45. Implement your plan
(WW 2.0)
• Try to find a human
– Contact page administrator via form or email
– CALMLY explain the problem- you need
his/her help!
– If a human will not help you, figure out
from where that website is drawing its
false information. Try to correct the
information at the source (claim your
online identity, etc)

46. Also…
• Sites like Yelp, Facebook, HealthGrades, etc,
are protected from liability for content on
their sites by section 230 of the
Communication Decency Act (CDA 230), part
of the 1996 Telecommunications Act:
– “no provider or user of an interactive computer
service shall be treated as the publisher or
speaker of any information provided by another
information content provider.”

47. Implement your plan
(WW 2.0 Chapter 12)
• Malicious attacks
– Determine seriousness of threat & frequency
•If a one-off, let it fade away
•If dedicated, persistent attacker, understand that
no matter what you do, this person may continue
to spread lies.
•Try to identify attacker
– Sometimes use info known only to a few
– Sometimes pseudonym is a clue
– Try through legal means- understand expensive and
lengthy

48. Implement your plan
(WW 2.0, Chapter 12)
• Choose your strategy
– Fight back directly
– Try to resolve offline
– Try to isolate negative content indirectly; i.e.,
“Google walls”
•Create more positive & neutral content than
attacker creates negative. Play the Google
algorithm.

49. Implement your plan:
Claim as many corners of the web as you can!
about.me

50. How does
reputation restoration work?
• Remember all of those slides about Google?
• ORM professionals will always be more effective than
an individual simply because they can devote more
resources to it.

51. The future of ORM
• Just as institutions have attorneys, they
will have contracts with reputation
management companies which cover:
– Institution itself
– Individuals who have support of the
institution
After all, the reputations of its individuals
affects the reputation of the institution.

52. Don’t be an ostrich!
• Not only SHOULD you not ignore your
online identity, but you soon WILL NOT be
able to
• The way in which you respond to
legitimate criticism can in fact bolster
your reputation (individual or institution))

53. Further Resources
• Wild West 2.0: How to protect and restore your online
reputation on the untamed social frontier; Fertik &
Thompson
• “Fake it Til You Make It: Reputation, Competition, and
Yelp Review Fraud”
http://people.hbs.edu/mluca/fakeittillyoumakeit.pdf
• The Reputation Society: How online opinions are
reshaping the offline world; Masum & Tovey
• How Google Works: http://www.googleguide.com/
google_works.html

54. Further Resources
• How hospitals hope to boost ratings on Yelp, HealthGrades,
ZocDoc and Vitals
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/sites-
like-yelp-can-be-tough-but-hospitals-embrace-online-
reviews/2015/06/03/a07a68b6-fe63-11e4-805c-
c3f407e5a9e9_story.html
• 6 Steps To Managing Your Online Reputation
– http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/03/14/6-steps-
to-managing-your-online-reputation/#175ee16ec1ac
• The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
– http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.
html

55. Further Resources
• http://www.sirgroane.net/google-page-rank/
• Scrubbed
http://nymag.com/news/features/online-
reputation-management-2013-6/index2.html
• http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/
Health-online/Part-Two/Section-2.aspx
• http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/
February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx

56. Get in touch!
Grumpy_Cat@virginia.edu