An abbreviated version of my 1.5 hour class on reputation management, and the forces which shape it.

1. The Reputation Economy
Managing your online identity
in the age of Google
Kimberley R. Barker, MLIS
Emerging Technologies & Digital Initiatives
Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
University of Virginia

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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?

5. 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

6. 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/

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

8. Google is King
Data from Hitwise, 1/21/2012

9. Google
is
STILL
King

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

11. How Google works (8 of 8)

12. 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

13. 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)

14. 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

15. 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.

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

18. Social Media &
Online Reputation matter

19. Some online
healthcare ranking sites
• HealthGrades

20. Some online
healthcare ranking sites
Rate MDs

21. 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.

22. Search results for me
Kimberley R. Barker vs. Kimberley Barker

23. Establishing a
reputation management plan
• 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

24. 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.

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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.

28. 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.”

29. 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.

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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/