There are a lot of ways to protect your online reputation, but if someone wants to write a negative review of your business, or post negative comments about you, there’s not much you can do to stop them.  One way to counter negative online comments is to be proactive and create positive content for you and your business.  This positive content can take many forms, like blog posts, social media posts, and setting up online business profiles.  Once the positive content is on the web, it may prevent future negative content from making its way to the first page of Google.  Positive content can “bury” any future negative content in search results.  It won’t eliminate the negative content from the web, but it may push it to the 5th page of search results, which means it is practically invisible to the person searching for you and your business.

So what if a negative comment has already been posted about you or your company?  Often negative reviews are an opportunity to respond and interact with the online community.  Responding is something you should do as soon as possible, but respond in a positive way and try to resolve the issue.  Hopefully the person who posted the negative comment will post a positive review about how you handled the situation. 

There are many other ways to protect your online reputation and manage your online presence, but these items should help you get started.

On April 5^th’s episode of the Today Show on NBC, they aired a segment about a new social networking website named UnVarnished.  This site represents yet another hazard in online reputation management.  UnVarnished targets business professionals to become users.  Once a user profile is set up, those users can review other business professionals based on topics from attitude to work habits.

At this time UnVarnished is in beta testing, so most people cannot create a user profile.  However, it is possible to sign up for the wait list.  An email invitation to create an account will be sent to those on the wait list once UnVarnished is launched.

Why would anyone want to sign up to yet another social networking site?  ANYONE can create and/or claim a profile, even if that profile is someone else’s. Once claimed, a profile is VERY difficult to change.  And, according to the Today Show, users can post very detailed information to their profile.  A profile claimed incorrectly, whether by mistake or on purpose, creates a very serious online reputation management threat.

Once a user sets up a profile, she may go out and review any other user on the site.  This causes two major issues if another person (let’s call him John Smith) is unaware that they have a profile on Unvarnished that someone else (let’s call her Jane Murphy) set up. 

First, any user can rate and review John Smith’s profile, and that information will be searchable on Google, Bing, etc.  If John is in career transition, and his potential employer finds negative information on UnVarnished about him, it would probably reduce John’s likelihood of getting that job.  This would all happen without John even knowing it because he did not set up his UnVarnished profile – Jane Murphy did. 

The other major issue would be if Jane went out onto UnVarnished and posted a lot of negative reviews on OTHER users’ profiles while using John’s name.  John could also have a lot of angry UnVarnished users out there, having negative conversations about him, and he wouldn’t even know.

Since UnVarnished is still in beta testing, the true impact of the site will not be known until it is open to the public.  However, most people should consider signing up on the waiting list to be notified when beta is open to the public.  Once open to the public, setting up a profile is a good idea; even if it will not be actively used, it will help protect that user from someone else taking their identity and causing online reputation issues.

With the introduction of Google Buzz, it’s reasonable to be concerned about this new social medium. There are likely millions who have been praying for Google to become a real social networking player, as well as to fuse old and new services into a more streamlined application. Many factors render this the reasonable, even predictable evolution of the social web.

The integration of Buzz with Gmail, however, introduces it not just to eager, tech-savvy socializers, but to…your mom. This is an obvious goldmine, opening up a whole new market of reluctant late adopters. The problem goes both ways, thrusting compulsory social networking activity upon people you don’t want seeing your online activity, and who aren’t the least bit interested in sharing their own.

Email is the one function beyond turning on the hardware that many techphobes have embraced. With its metaphorical name and relatively standard application, email has provided a safe, controllable haven away from the rapid-paced, privacy-lacking frontiers of the open web. People knew what they were getting into with email, and it’s vital for them to be aware there’s a little more to it when it comes to Gmail.

A number of troubling scenarious come to mind.
- “I didn’t sign up for Google Buzz. I never even heard of it.”
- “I’m fine! I use Outlook. It will be three years before I figure out that my employer uses domain Gmail with Outlook.”
- “So, you mean that stalker can find out who my friends are (despite my completely hidden facebook page) just because he nabbed my business card?”

Though both rants and raves abound in these early weeks in the life of Goggle Buzz, the privacy issues will likely subside. Google’s has been shockingly responsive to complaints, only adding to Buzz’s momentum. Social networking has caught on with the masses, and those unwilling to participate will now have to put in more effort to opt out. Google Buzz provides a new (big) reason to stay aware of your online reputation and take control of your online accounts.

If you do not want to use Google Buzz, DO NOT JUST DISABLE IT. Check out this guide to properly turn off Google Buzz.