The Reputation Economy

Managing your online identity in the age of Google

Kimberley R. Barker, MLISEmerging Technologies & Digital Initiatives

Claude Moore Health Sciences LibraryUniversity of Virginia

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

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

– Nothing new

– Changes in technology mean that reputations are damaged faster than ever

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?

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%20Files/12-016.pdf

Yelp again• One 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/

“Google Truth”

• Defined as the automatic acceptance of Google results as an accurate representation of reality

Google is King

Data from Hitwise, 1/21/2012

Google is

STILL King

• This is normally where there are seven slides about the inner workings of Google!

How Google works (8 of 8)

Why do I 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 for Online Reputation Management

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

– Institutions

•Who can perform this service?•Reputation management professionals (for when there’s trouble)

•People just like you (for establishing & maintaining your presence)

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

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.

Pew Internet & American Life’s Internet & Health Report 2013

http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2013

/Health-and-Internet-2012.aspx

Social Media & Online Reputation matter

Some online healthcare ranking sites

• HealthGrades

Some online healthcare ranking sites

Rate MDs

Establishing a reputation management plan

• Begin monitoring your online presence

– Good

• Search for your name at least once per month

– 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.

Search results for meKimberley R. Barker vs. Kimberley Barker

• Be aware of who might be looking for information about you (and also about how they might spell your name)

•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

•The time to create a reputation management plan is when you don’t need one

Establishing a reputation management plan

Reputation Restoration• First steps

– You will be hurt, scared, and angry. Take some time to process your emotions.

– Tell your family and trusted friends. You will need their support to get through this.

– Realize that you are not the first person whose reputation has been damaged-you are not alone.

Reputation Restoration(information drawn from

Chapter 12 of Wild West 2.0)

• Understand the problem (online reputation audit; first three pages of Google)

• Refer to your previously-established plan

• Implement the plan

Determine how to proceed

• If this is a one-off, decide to either

– work with Communications to craft a genuinely-meant, but blame-neutral, statement with which to respond

– Do not respond

• If this is big (you’ll know)

• Ask for the support of your institution for positive content (“Google walls”), and contact an ORM professional immediately

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.

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.”

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.

Don’t be an ostrich!

• Not only SHOULD you not ignore your online identity, but you soon WILL NOT be able to (HoosWell)

• The way in which you respond to legitimate criticism can in fact bolster your reputation (individual or institution)

– Yelp example from Atlanta

Further Resources

• Wild West 2.0: How to protect and restore your online reputation on the untamed social frontier; Fertik & Thompson (available digitally in Virgo)

• The Reputation Society: How online opinions are reshaping the offline world; Masum & Tovey

• How Google Works: http://www.googleguide.com/google_works.html

Further Resources• http://infolab.stanford.edu/~backrub/goog

le.html

• http://www.sirgroane.net/google-page-rank/

• http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Health-online/Part-Two/Section-2.aspx

• http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx

• http://thesparkreport.com/infographic-social-mobile-healthcare/