Manage Your Online Reputation: Don't Let Angry Clients, Jealous Lovers, or Ruthless Competitors Ruin Your Image

by Tony Wilson

Overview

Learn how to protect yourself ... from yourself!
What are people saying about you, your business, or your children online? If you're being slandered on the Internet, what can you do to stop the damage?
A negative reputation can have harmful effects on your business and personal relationships. It is becoming increasingly important for companies and individuals to be able to effectively manage their online reputations. While businesses are springing up to help corporate customers deal with online reputation management issues, most small businesses, parents, and individuals will need to do the work themselves; and very few will have any idea how to do it.
In Manage Your Online Reputation, author and lawyer Tony
Wilson guides readers through possible issues and on the steps to take to prevent or avert issues if negative things are being said about you,
your business, or even your children on the Web.
You will learn:

How to monitor what people are saying about you online
What to do if someone slanders you, your company, or your child on the Internet
Best practices for Facebook and other social sites
How to be proactive and manage your online legacy going forward

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770400566
Publisher:	Self-Counsel Press, Inc.
Publication date:	01/16/2011
Series:	Law/Computer & Internet Series
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Tony Wilson practices in the areas of franchising, licensing, and Intellectual Property Law, and is ranked as a leading Canadian Franchise lawyer by LEXPERT. He is an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University and a regular business columnist for The Globe and Mail and Lawyers Weekly. His articles have appeared in Maclean's, BC Restaurant News, TEACHER, World Trademark Review, Bartalk, and Canadian Lawyer magazine. He is author of the best-selling book Buying a Franchise in Canada: Understanding and Negotiating your Franchise Agreement, the only comprehensive legal guide for persons seeking to buy franchised businesses in Canada, and Manage Your Online Reputation, a book written to guide individuals and businesses in monitoring and protecting their personal and corporate reputations on social media.

Table of Contents

Introduction xiii

1 An Overview of Social Media 1

1 Networking Sites 2

2 Video Sharing 3

3 Cell Phones and Texting 5

4 Twitter 6

5 Social Media is Here to Stay 7

2 Managing Your Reputation 9

3 Why Reputation Management is Important 15

1 Damaged Reputations 18

1.1 A Tiger by the tail 18

1.2 Other damaging scandals 21

2 Case Studies 25

2.1 Case Study 1: United Airlines 25

2.2 Case Study 2: Domino's Pizza 27

2.3 Case Study 3: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) 31

2.4 Case Study 4: The teachers and the pep rally 33

2.5 Case Study 5: Ed Hardy 34

2.6 Case Study 6: Asleep at the switch 35

2.7 Case Study 7: The candidate 35

2.8 Case Study 8: The Russian policeman and YouTube 36

4 A Lesson in Branding and Reputation Management 39

1 Places Consumers Search Online for Reviews 40

2 What is a "Brand," and Why Is It Important? 42

3 Brands Aren't Trademarks 46

4 Copyright 47

4.1 How copyright may affect you or your business 50

5 The Apology: Sometimes You Have to Say You're Sorry, and Mean It 53

1 Accepting Responsibility 54

2 Sincere Apologies 56

6 Your Right to Privacy and the Protection of Your Personal Information 61

1 Privacy 63

1.1 Privacy laws 64

1.2 The United States' approach to personal information 67

1.3 Personal information in Canada 68

1.4 The United Kingdom's approach to personal information 70

2 Canada versus Facebook 71

3 Defamation 73

3.1 Anonymity doesn't exist online 76

4 Lawyers May Gain Access to Your Facebook Account 78

5 Social Media and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) 80

7 Teenagers Sexting, Cyberbullying, and Academic Dishonesty 81

1 Sexting 81

1.1 Serious legal and social consequences 84

2 Cyberbullying 86

3 Academic Dishonesty 89

3.1 How to prevent academic dishonesty 91

8 The Dangers of Metadata 93

1 Digital Images 93

2 Word Documents 96

9 Reputation Management, Social Media, and Your Business 101

1 Why Social Media Is Important for Your Business 103

2 The Importance of Setting Social Media Policies for Your Business 104

3 Social Media and Internet Policies for Employees at Home 108

4 Monitor What Is Said about Your Business 113

4.1 Be aware of your identity, and who may be using it 118

10 Social Media Campaigns 121

1 Try to Be Your Customers' Friend 121

2 Find True Believers 122

3 Dedication and Commitment 122

4 Consider Using Different Types of Social Media 123

5 Don't Ignore What Your Customers Are Saying 123

6 Monitor Your Influence on Twitter 123

7 Monitor Conversations 124

8 Things Change So Be There When They Do 124

11 Understanding Privacy Policies on Social Media Sites 125

1 Facebook's Privacy Policy 127

1.1 Facebook's statement of rights and responsibilities 129

1.2 Facebook and minors 130

1.3 Facebook's copyright and intellectual property infringement policies 131

1.4 Tagging 131

1.5 Protecting yourself on Facebook 132

1.6 Places 133

1.7 Improper content on Facebook 134

1.8 Facebook and the legal realm 135

1.9 Facebook safety and privacy advice 136

2 YouTube's Privacy Policy 136

2.1 YouTube community guidelines 137

2.2 YouTube and copyright infringement 138

2.3 Improper content policy on YouTube 138

2.4 Protecting yourself on YouTube 139

2.5 YouTube and minors 139

3 Protecting Yourself Online Generally 140

3.1 Privacy breach 141

3.2 Someone is pretending to be me 142

3.3 When do you get a lawyer? 142

12 Resources and Interesting Facts 145

1 Never Underestimate the Power of Social Networks and Social Contagion 145

2 Every Cell Phone Is a Camera and Every Microphone Is Live 147

3 All Facebook 150

3.1 Other resources 153

4 Don't Make Death Threats on Facebook 154

5 A Different Approach: A Wild Reputation Can Be Good for a Company! 155

6 You Can Only Have 150 Friends 156

7 Barack Obama Says, "Watch What You Say on Facebook" 156

8 Top Ten Mistakes Lawyers Make with Social Media 157

Samples

1 Technology Use Policy 109

2 Basic Social Media Policy 111