#digital_identity

By Joseph K. Adkins | Ryder Cash NewsBreak Let’s call it what it is: the password era is over. Google didn’t just whisper it—they broadcasted it to every Gmail user on the planet. Not because Gmail got breached (it didn’t), but because the entire password paradigm is collapsing under the weight of AI-driven scams, phishing warfare, and criminal automation. This isn’t a tech update—it’s a…

Misleading or inaccurate content has the potential to cause lasting damage to your personal and professional profile. Outdated newspaper articles, unfair posts on forums and embarrassing photos can all spread rapidly unless dealt with promptly.

What should I do if this happens to me?

Many people’s first reaction is to request removal of content directly. However, removing content from external sites is notoriously problematic.

Following a crisis, repairing your personal and professional reputation can be a daunting prospect.

You have moved on from the situation, but the internet might not. When people look for you online, negative or outdated content could still be ranking highly in search engines.

How can Epic 360 help?

Epic 360 can help you to repair your personal and professional reputation. If there’s is untrue or defamatory content about you online, we can challenge it directly to help you get it removed. In certain countries including the EU, we can also request that Google removes the listing of the content in the search results.

Sometimes, the content might be highly relevant for certain searches, and be published on high-authority media sites. This makes it much harder to remove. But we can create and implement an effective PR, content and social strategy to get the right information about you to the right places.

Removing and challenging unwanted content is only one part of repairing your reputation. To ensure positive information about you is visible, you need to be proactive.

We develop strategies to optimise and create online assets that you can control. We also target the press and media with profile-enhancing news and comment to rank in search engine results, improving your online presence.

We are transparent and honest in our methods, working with you on the best approach and being upfront with how long it could take to improve your profile.

Our survey finds that digital marketers plan to allocate more resources to online reputation management in 2018 to boost business success.

With the growing popularity of social media, third-party reviews websites, blogs, and other digital platforms, maintaining a solid online reputation is necessary for businesses.

In 2018, businesses understand the importance of remaining vigilant of what’s being said about their brand online. Companies are allocating resources to online reputation management (ORM), the process of maintaining a healthy brand reputation.

Our Findings:

More than half (54%) of digital marketers consider ORM “very necessary” to their company’s success.

Businesses monitor their online reputation frequently: 42% monitor their online reputation daily.

Social media is used most often by businesses (46%) to monitor what’s being said about their brand online.

The biggest achievement companies experience from investing in ORM is a growth in sales (25%).

Nearly 35% of businesses plan to allot more time and money to ORM in 2018.

(1) Digital Marketers Recognize Online Reputation Management as Necessary to Their Business

ORM is necessary to the health and success of a business. In fact, 54% of digital marketers consider ORM “very necessary” to their company’s success.

(2) Businesses Monitor Their Online Reputation Frequently

Because online content circulates rapidly, how people perceive brands can change within seconds. For this reason, businesses always should track what’s being said about them online.

More than 40% of digital marketers monitor their companies’ brand daily, while 21% monitor their online reputation every hour.

(3) Businesses Consider Social Media Most Important Platform for Online Reputation Management

From social media and blogs to reviews and news websites, there is a range of outlets that businesses must be privy to when monitoring their brand online.

Most digital marketers consider social media the most important platform for monitoring online reputation: 46% of businesses use social media the most for ORM.

(4) Online Reputation Management Helps Businesses Boost Sales

Though maintaining a positive brand reputation seems like an ongoing, immeasurable process, it can lead to tangible results.

A quarter of digital marketers (25%) expressed that the main result of allocating resources to ORM is a growth in sales.

(5) Digital Marketers Will Invest More in Online Reputation Management in 2018

Fake news isn’t new. The deliberate spread of misinformation goes back thousands of years, with examples throughout ancient and modern history. In Roman times, it’s believed that emperor Mark Anthony committed suicide as a result of a misinformation campaign.

As the media industry has grown it has frequently been used to deceive as well as inform, but the advent of the internet and the growth of social media as a public news platform has made propaganda campaigns easier and more effective. The term ‘Fake News’ came to prominence after a number of websites were found promoting false and often outrageous information in support of the 2016 Trump campaign in the US. Since then, the term has frequently been used as a political weapon to undermine legitimate news sources by labelling them ‘Fake News’.

Yet it’s important not to underrate the power of fake news, in spite of the clichéd nature of the term. With the internet at our disposal, it’s relatively easy to disseminate negative information about a business, organisation or person, while it’s much harder for the target to prove that this information is false. Companies working to establish an effective reputation management strategy need to factor in the potential impact of fake news and what it could do to the brand’s image.

What Is Fake News?

Not all damaging information found on the internet can be considered fake news. Many stories may simply take a mistake or a mishandled crisis and blow it out of proportion. As every publicity expert knows, spinning information in a positive or negative context has a big impact on how it is perceived, and many news organisations have an incentive to make headlines as sensational as possible in order to attract clicks.

However, using false or miscalculated statistics can quickly turn a negative exposé into fake news. In 2016, CNN cited a hospital in Florida for mortality rates three times the national average based on the number of children who died during open heart surgery. The hospital subsequently closed its paediatric program, but later challenges have undermined the accuracy of CNN’s reporting. In 2016, Dr. Michael Black, former head of the program, filed a defamation suit claiming that the mortality rates cited in the report were falsely calculated.

The most dangerous fake news campaign goes far beyond a single story that got the facts wrong. It is a deliberate and well-organised attempt to mislead the public. As well as spreading stories through traditional news outlets, perpetrators will register fake accounts to share and comment on their own material and make it sound more legitimate.

In a political context, fake news relies on hot button topics such as immigration or threats to job security. Racial tension and allegations of sexual exploitation are frequently added as clickbait. In the 2016 campaign, a story that Trump’s opponent Hilary Clinton was running a child sex-trafficking ring through a pizzeria gathered enough attention to severely damage the reputation of the store, in spite of the fact that the idea was outrageous and completely unfounded.

Businesses aren’t immune to these types of attacks, unlikely as it may sound. Competitors, disgruntled customers, and former employees with a grudge all have an incentive to attack an organisation, and with the internet at their disposal, they have the means to do a lot of damage

Protect Against Fake News

Ongoing reputation management is one of the best ways to protect against fake news. If the company already has a strong positive profile, with accurate, up-to-date facts and statistics available online, it will be much harder for a fake news campaign to gain ground. At the same time, it’s important to actively manage reputation for the CEO and other high-level executives, since a personal attack against one of these people can quickly threaten the company’s image.

Avoid negative stories as much as possible, since misinformation infiltrated with elements of truth has a much better chance of appearing legitimate. Of course it’s impossible to prevent every mistake, but active crisis management, effective employee policies and a transparent company culture can help to minimise the effect of fake news.

When problems occur, get out ahead of the news story with an honest assessment of what happened and why. Be ready to admit mistakes and apologise when appropriate so it’s clear you have nothing to hide. Above all, avoid spreading your own fake information since this is likely to backfire and undermine the organisation’s credibility.

Contact Epic 360 for more information on how to build a reputation that can withstand the worst types of fake news.

Your Personal Search Results We will help you to repair your online reputation. Check out Epic 360 Solutions

In dem langen Beitrag betrachtet Chris Messina Google+ im Hinblick auf eine digitale Identität und warum es gescheitert ist. Er erläutert auch, was das mit Facebook (warum es blöd ist, Facebook das Feld zu überlassen) und Privatsphäre (deutsche Datenschützer lesen das besser nicht) zu tun hat.