The Web indeed is just like an elephant; it never forgets what gets stored inside. If let loose, it can end up causing a lot of trouble! One couldn’t really help being reminded of this adage after recent incident about the women who happened to receive Representative Anthony Weiner’s rather lewd photographs (The New York congressman admitted to sending them to her via Twitter).
Do you generate enough positive mentions?
Though the woman in question seems to have done no wrong, the name is likely to be linked to Mr. Weiner forever in an online search. Sadly, most people don’t generate enough positive mentions online in order to push those negative in nature lower in search engine rankings. Describing the intricacies and complexities of the whole process and its implicit repercussions, a recent insightful article by tech writer Paul Sullivan in The New York Time mentions,
“This would not have been the case a decade or two ago. Most embarrassing incidents then simply died away. Or if they didn’t, people could simply move elsewhere and reinvent themselves. The Web has completely changed that. The Weiner episode is highly visible, of course. But the risk is out there for people involved in far less publicized incidents.”
Ignore bad publicity and you will end up facing the consequences
Narrating case of mistaken identity that has damaged his reputation, a small-scale business person notes in recent Google Webmaster interaction: “There was an article about me in a leading newspaper, which is false and apparently not about me! I contacted the paper in New York City. However, they didn’t respond to my e-mails.
“The webmaster though, contacted me just a few months ago and informed it was going to be removed. The person did, but then it was put back on Google. I’ve a business to run and every time a user searches (for) my name, this news article does come up for my name. I can no longer do business as a result of it.”
Gauging the implications of mistaken identity and purposely damaging material posted on the Web, online reputation management experts point out that these are people collaterally damaged…
The NYT writer cites the case of a person he had interviewed about a year ago from real estate industry. While searching for his track record, the former found a mention of his arrest for driving offence in Google. The incident had added to his problem and made it difficult for him to find a job for over a year.
The point is: Once your reputation is negatively influenced on the Web, the economic career and business related consequences can be quite substantial. So you need to act in time, before the problem gets out of hands…
