Online Reputation Management, the vigilant attorney, and a yellow pool

"Dude, you can't take something off the Internet.. that's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool."
-Joe Rogan on NewsRadio.

It used to be a rumor was a rumor, a myth, a myth and your knew the squeaky wheel could never be oiled enough.
Everything has changed with the internet. Now anyone with a beef and a free email account can smear your reputation up and down the block without consequence.
Most companies hire public relations firms and the larger ones monitor these events. The real victims are qualified professionals.
No one, no matter how honest, competent, diligent and hard working can please all of the people all of the time. There are many sites out there that allow commentary on events and persons. There are alos many sites out there that are not monitored in any way but because of being well optimized, linked and verebose often show up.

What does this men for attorneys? A variety of corners where you can be miquoted, slandered, plagerized and all of the other foul words for the abuse of written language.

How do you prevent it? Besides being the best possible lawyer, there is not much you can do.

How can you erase it? You can make sure there are things to counterbalance any negative effects. Updating your Findlaw Profile is one way. Making sure you monitor your search results is another. By that I mean watchin what comes up when you google your name, in a variety of spellings as well as keyword combination. One way to do this is to pull up your keyword report from your site and type in any of the results that has your names. That way you can at least address any comments.

If there is a large enough repsponse I will add a section on this in my quarterly newsletter with things to do to manage your online reputation.