Online Reputation: What You Need to Know and How to Protect It

Last updated on February 2nd, 2017 at 06:39 am

Since the evolution of the internet technology, everything has been made available online.  With a click of the mouse, you can get information about anything and anyone.  Every video or information is now uploaded to this big database of information and is made available to anyone either for free or for a certain amount of money.

With this development comes great risk of fraud and other illegal activities.  Moreover, your responsibility as an internet user becomes greater.  Each picture or video of you, or articles or blogs or posts about you should be watched and filtered. Every single that you share online can be stored in this big database of files and can be accessed by anyone at anytime.  It can be used for you or against you.

With this risk comes a great need to protect your online reputation.  It would be one way to manage others’ perception towards you. This is very important because every single photo or video or article uploaded about you is imprinted in the system.  Even if you delete it, there is still a way for it to be retrieved in the future.  

For example, your friends may think that a photo of you doing something illegal or crazy is really funny.  They capture you doing that and decided to post it in a social networking site and tagged your name.  Even if you delete this photo, it can still be retrieved in the future.  You will be held liable for whatever crazy or illegal thing you have done.

Another reason why you need to protect your online reputation is that most of the companies go through social networking sites and do background check when you apply for a certain position in their company.  They go through the blogs that you posts, the pictures that you upload and even watch your videos.  These crazy photos and videos that you have may be a reason why you will not be hired for a certain job.  No company would like to associate themselves with a person who has a negative reputation online.  This would be detrimental to their growth and public relations.  Of course they would want to hire someone who is responsible not just in the office but also with what you post online since these posts shows who you are as a person.  

Online Reputation

Moreover, your blog posts and photo uploads are a reflection of your professional success. There are several ways to protect your online reputation. 

  • One of the surest way is to make sure that your settings are always set to private.  There is no need to share everything with the public.  
  • Second, be picky or choose who you connect with through social networking sites.  If you do not really know the person or barely have an association  with the person, there is no need to add them to your friends’ list.  Only add the people you are really close to and trust.  
  • Third, there are companies that offers reputation management which will take care of those negative stuff about you. Check out the 10 of the best  online reputation management agencies below.

Reputation.com
SEO Image
WebpageFX
Digital Current
Netmark
SEOValley
SearchBloom
SearchRPM
Capstrat
OneIMS

  • Also, add those who you know are responsible when it comes to the feeds that they upload.  
  • Lastly, if you find any unusual or inappropriate blog or picture about you, ask whoever who uploaded it to delete it immediately. 

Herbert Kikoy

Surigaonon by birth, Butuanon by heart and now an adopted son of Cebu, Herbert is a hobbyist photographer who focuses on Food, Sports, Travel and Festivals photography.

One thought on “Online Reputation: What You Need to Know and How to Protect It

  1. I think that everything we do must be intentional. And that includes how we project our image on social media. Daily, when we go out, regardless if it is work or anything else, we follow certain standards and rules. It follows that we should be doing the same thing on social networks, especially when we consider that there are other people looking at it. And when you factor in the kind of profession we are in to, then our image may affect what we do, such as what you pointed out where some companies do check social networks of employees.

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