It's All About Your Reputation
In lol...OMG!, by Matt Ivester, Chapter 7 explores the safeguards to help protect and manage your online presence.
This are tips to help with long term safeguards for your online reputation. These seven steps are Google yourself, clean
up contents on your accounts, update on privacy settings, ask for content to be removed, update and strengthen passwords,
set up Google alert for your name, and claim your name.
First is Googling yourself. This allows you to understand what type of information is out there about you. Ivester
points out that Google only contains about 66% of the informatal searches, and for thorough results would be to
check other search engine sites, such as Yahoo! and Bing.
The next step is to go through your accounts and clean them up to best represent your best self. Ivester suggested
going through Facebook first, looking at the different pages you "liked" and what they can be associated with, go through
your photos, videos, posts, and tags. This will allow you to establish your baseline and move through your other accounts.
When your reviewing your accounts, the next thing is to update your privacy settings. This will help ensure that
your information will not be able to be seen by anyone whom you might not want to and allow more control over the
information you share with the world. This would mean to go through and anyone you feel out of touch, or just don't
remember, unfriend and unfollow. Ivester suggest creating lists for your friends to control the amount you share with them.
Some of the lists include:friends, family, professional contacts, and acquaintances. In Facebook's privacy settings, you can
manage old posts, who can see those posts, people tagging you, and how your profile looks from a public setting.
The fourth step is to ask for content to be removed. There are a few ways going about removing information.
An example for a simple removal is asking a friend who posted something on Facebook that is in poor taste, or negatively
depicts yourself, you can ask them to remove the post. If there is something on a website, asking in a calm, polite manner
often works better than aggressive, nasty language. There is usually a contact information on websites and you should
be able to go through those channels. Websites are not obligated to remove information, but with common courtesy,
most would likely comply. If the website refuses, you might be able to use the DMCA, digital millennium copyright act,
if the content is not their ownership.
The fifth is to update and strengthen your passwords. Passwords should only be know by yourself, and not given
out. This is easier said than done in this digitally dominant world. The ingredients of a strong password includes an
uppercase letter, lowercase letter, and symbols.Passwords for credit cards, banks, or payment tools, such as PayPal,
should be changed every six months and you shouldn't use the same exact password for every account.
The sixth step is to set up a Google Alert whenever your name is searched. Google Alert is offered through Google for
free. You can provide specific words and terms searched to your account, than Google will email you. An important note,
is to add misspelling of your name, and content that can be linked to yourself .
The final step is to claim your name. There are many people in the world, and you might not be the only person who
has the same name as you. If this person creates negative content with your own name, or if someone uses your name
in a negative light, than you need to reclaim your name. You can reclaim your name through various platforms, such as
Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Flickr, Friendfeed, and TripIt. Ivester suggests using NameGrab to get a list of recommended
sites to put usernames on, or you can pay them to do it. Another way by reclaiming your name is to create a website
domain to bring higher prevalence with a search results.
There are many different ways of keeping your privacy off the internet. Going through the proper
channels within the server, and getting in contact with the representatives is an option. If these fail, there is a way
through legal options. Sensitive information can be also managed through a search results through SEO.
SEO is a search engine optimization. This is a way of trying to tie your name into a positive, or neutral, search
results when you Google yourself. Google can flag this, and might remove the results. There are many companies
which specialize in making your reputation online built better and maintain a positive online presence. Ivester
stated that one of the most prominent site is Reputation.com. There is a sub portion of the company aimed for
students. The best thing is to research what would best fit your needs and to be a proactive in your own
management.
There are many different types of examples of people having their reputation being harmed through the use of social media platforms. One individual is Victor Paul Alvarez. He was a respected journalist of nine years and a graduate of Towson University. On January 13, 2015, Alvarez published a piece that was in poor taste of the House Speaker, John Boehner, life threat from the former bartender at his country club, Michael Hoyt. Hoyt had succumbed to the darker side of mental illness and threaten to assassinate Boehner in December of 2014. Alvarez did as all good journalist did and researched the subjects and their backgrounds. There was a well known fact that Boehner enjoyed to indulge in drinking, and pulled together a very eye-catching story. He wrote “Stories about Boehner’s drinking have circulated for years… Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins.” This was meant to only be a joke, but there was huge backlash. The backlash came from social media, mostly through his Twitter presence. He was later fired days later. He was ordered to stay silent, and once he was able to comment, he apologized and shared he was fired. Journalism is faced with many different types of change in the digital age. The internet has brought forth new types of social media and platforms to interact people around the world in an instant. The ethics of journalism is in a transitional stage of finding the lines and codes where writers can or cannot cross. Victor Paul Alvarez is one such journalist who tested the line in our social ethics. The media society utilized to correct and protest his ethics hiccup was through social media platform, Twitter. This brings up the different types of rules of journalism ethics that are changing and some alternative paths to correct a misshapen from happening again. There were checks and balances in place that were not used to prevent this type of work to be published. Alvarez has started to regain his footing, but will never be as a reputable writer then he was previous to the event.
This are tips to help with long term safeguards for your online reputation. These seven steps are Google yourself, clean
up contents on your accounts, update on privacy settings, ask for content to be removed, update and strengthen passwords,
set up Google alert for your name, and claim your name.
First is Googling yourself. This allows you to understand what type of information is out there about you. Ivester
points out that Google only contains about 66% of the informatal searches, and for thorough results would be to
check other search engine sites, such as Yahoo! and Bing.
The next step is to go through your accounts and clean them up to best represent your best self. Ivester suggested
going through Facebook first, looking at the different pages you "liked" and what they can be associated with, go through
your photos, videos, posts, and tags. This will allow you to establish your baseline and move through your other accounts.
When your reviewing your accounts, the next thing is to update your privacy settings. This will help ensure that
your information will not be able to be seen by anyone whom you might not want to and allow more control over the
information you share with the world. This would mean to go through and anyone you feel out of touch, or just don't
remember, unfriend and unfollow. Ivester suggest creating lists for your friends to control the amount you share with them.
Some of the lists include:friends, family, professional contacts, and acquaintances. In Facebook's privacy settings, you can
manage old posts, who can see those posts, people tagging you, and how your profile looks from a public setting.
The fourth step is to ask for content to be removed. There are a few ways going about removing information.
An example for a simple removal is asking a friend who posted something on Facebook that is in poor taste, or negatively
depicts yourself, you can ask them to remove the post. If there is something on a website, asking in a calm, polite manner
often works better than aggressive, nasty language. There is usually a contact information on websites and you should
be able to go through those channels. Websites are not obligated to remove information, but with common courtesy,
most would likely comply. If the website refuses, you might be able to use the DMCA, digital millennium copyright act,
if the content is not their ownership.
The fifth is to update and strengthen your passwords. Passwords should only be know by yourself, and not given
out. This is easier said than done in this digitally dominant world. The ingredients of a strong password includes an
uppercase letter, lowercase letter, and symbols.Passwords for credit cards, banks, or payment tools, such as PayPal,
should be changed every six months and you shouldn't use the same exact password for every account.
The sixth step is to set up a Google Alert whenever your name is searched. Google Alert is offered through Google for
free. You can provide specific words and terms searched to your account, than Google will email you. An important note,
is to add misspelling of your name, and content that can be linked to yourself .
The final step is to claim your name. There are many people in the world, and you might not be the only person who
has the same name as you. If this person creates negative content with your own name, or if someone uses your name
in a negative light, than you need to reclaim your name. You can reclaim your name through various platforms, such as
Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Flickr, Friendfeed, and TripIt. Ivester suggests using NameGrab to get a list of recommended
sites to put usernames on, or you can pay them to do it. Another way by reclaiming your name is to create a website
domain to bring higher prevalence with a search results.
There are many different ways of keeping your privacy off the internet. Going through the proper
channels within the server, and getting in contact with the representatives is an option. If these fail, there is a way
through legal options. Sensitive information can be also managed through a search results through SEO.
SEO is a search engine optimization. This is a way of trying to tie your name into a positive, or neutral, search
results when you Google yourself. Google can flag this, and might remove the results. There are many companies
which specialize in making your reputation online built better and maintain a positive online presence. Ivester
stated that one of the most prominent site is Reputation.com. There is a sub portion of the company aimed for
students. The best thing is to research what would best fit your needs and to be a proactive in your own
management.
There are many different types of examples of people having their reputation being harmed through the use of social media platforms. One individual is Victor Paul Alvarez. He was a respected journalist of nine years and a graduate of Towson University. On January 13, 2015, Alvarez published a piece that was in poor taste of the House Speaker, John Boehner, life threat from the former bartender at his country club, Michael Hoyt. Hoyt had succumbed to the darker side of mental illness and threaten to assassinate Boehner in December of 2014. Alvarez did as all good journalist did and researched the subjects and their backgrounds. There was a well known fact that Boehner enjoyed to indulge in drinking, and pulled together a very eye-catching story. He wrote “Stories about Boehner’s drinking have circulated for years… Had he been poisoned as planned, perhaps his pickled liver could have filtered out the toxins.” This was meant to only be a joke, but there was huge backlash. The backlash came from social media, mostly through his Twitter presence. He was later fired days later. He was ordered to stay silent, and once he was able to comment, he apologized and shared he was fired. Journalism is faced with many different types of change in the digital age. The internet has brought forth new types of social media and platforms to interact people around the world in an instant. The ethics of journalism is in a transitional stage of finding the lines and codes where writers can or cannot cross. Victor Paul Alvarez is one such journalist who tested the line in our social ethics. The media society utilized to correct and protest his ethics hiccup was through social media platform, Twitter. This brings up the different types of rules of journalism ethics that are changing and some alternative paths to correct a misshapen from happening again. There were checks and balances in place that were not used to prevent this type of work to be published. Alvarez has started to regain his footing, but will never be as a reputable writer then he was previous to the event.
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| Victor Alvarez via Twitter |
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