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04.23.07
Online Impersonation & Personal Reputation Management
 By
Roger Dooley
Companies have been aware of the need for online reputation management, but today individuals need to be concerned as well.
Just about every hiring manager will check out a prospective employee on Google and other search engines; indeed, failing to do so might be considered negligent if important and easily accessible information about an applicant was missed. It's not just employers that may be checking on individuals - businesses may look up individuals hoping to provide products or services, and singles often Google their dates. While individuals hoping to manage their online reputation need to look first at themselves - do you really want those party photos that show you in a boozy stupor on your MySpace page? While such self-inflicted wounds are common enough, it's also a good idea to watch for online impersonators that could hurt your reputation. With so much emphasis on Web 2.0 and user-created content, would-be impersonators have never had so many tools and opportunities to pretend to be someone else.
The Register has a lengthy article by Dr. Neal Krawetz, Online impersonations: no validation required, that explains both how to search for potential impersonation problems and how to correct them if found. The searching advice is fairly standard, but Krawetz makes the point that a Google search isn't enough; using other tools like Technorati blog search, Google Groups search, and alternative web search engines may disclose content not in the Google index.
If one finds impersonating content, the next step is to get it taken down. This isn't always easy. Krawetz describes the convoluted requirements of MySpace, a favorite site for impersonators. MySpace requires complainers to validate themselves by sending them a photo containing the individual holding a sign that says, "MySpace" and lists the individual's ID. Beyond the fact that MySpace has no idea what individuals look like (and hence can't say who the individual holding the sign really is), such images could be created in Photoshop without much difficulty. The process is further complicated by no obvious means of submitting the picture in their text-only complaint form. (In fact, after submitting the form the user will be contacted with an address to which the photo can be sent.) The good news is that teachers, a favorite MySpace impersonation target, have an express removal process for bogus profiles that is both faster and less complex.
Those of us who are engaged in online community building often receive requests from individuals who have been impersonated or unfairly maligned in forums. I know that I always try to respond to these issues in a timely and effective manner, but there are certainly many moribund forums where receiving a response from an administrator is unlikely at best.
Some types of impersonation may be almost impossible to remove - phony comments in archived mailing lists, for example. These are rarely edited, and are often replicated by many archive sites, making a cleanup impractical. And while in general big Web companies like Google and Yahoo have mechanisms for removing bogus email accounts and web sites, many other providers of these services have little or no inclination to assist maligned individuals.
Krawetz's article has links to quite a few removal resources, and is a valuable guide to personal reputation management. Overall, though, the picture is a bit depressing. In my experience, trying to stamp out bogus content is kind of like killing cockroaches with a hammer - once in a while you'll get lucky and smash one, but many of them will easily escape to unreachable dark corners.
Comments
About the Author:
Roger Dooley is the founder and president of Dooley Direct, LLC, a firm specializing in web marketing and online community building. Dooley's background includes direct marketing, publishing, and strategic planning. He holds a BS from Carnegie Mellon University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee. He authors several blogs, including Neuromarketing and the eclectic rogerd's notebook.
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