Have you ever tried “googling” yourself before a date? Most of the time, on online dating sites, two people don’t exchange full names before meeting up and attempting (awkwardly or no) to get to know each other, but sometimes, before any sort of first meeting, full names are in fact exchanged or both parties are already aware of what they are ahead of time.

When this is case, one party (or sometimes both) might use a search engine like google and look for untoward information about a person before going on the date. The problem is, for some people, things that happened in the past can make them look bad unnecessarily. Imagine if you were busted for a minor crime like disturbing the peace a decade ago, and information is now coming up on google (on page one no less) about what happened even though it was so long ago. Or a person who was accused of a crime even though they were not guilty of it, and was never convicted (yes, this does happen, we hear about it all the time), and is now having that information displayed openly to everyone. Or even a person who got a DUI by accident many years ago, for (again by accident) only being slightly over the legal limit, as part of a legitimate mistake.

We would like to believe in society, that these things never happen, and when they do, they are the fault in entirety of the person who was directly involved. The fact of the matter is, neither of those two things are true, and if many years later someone is doing a google search before a first date and sees these things, it can unnecessarily bring back problems of the past to the “front page” of a person’s life. In some cases (though not all) this can be unfair. That’s one reason Online Reputation Management can help, it can “push” negative listings far down in the rankings. And studies show that once they are much lower on search engines, the chances can be as low as 2% (or sometimes much lower believe it or not) that anyone will ever see them again. HopLite Online Reputation Management is a company that we believe can be of assistance when it comes to dealing with this, and we argue should be highly considered as a choice. There is a link at left to their homepage (and again, another one right here); and we think anyone who’s having trouble with their results should consider contacting them.

So the next time you go on a blind date, try putting your name into google and other popular search engines (like yahoo and bing), and see what comes up. Or, you don’t have to wait that long, give it a try right now. Anything negative you find can be dealt with, and that’s what ORM is all about.

Drupal is another choice of content management system besides Joomla or WordPress. Actually, it is the second most popular of all the three major choices of CMS. If you’re thinking of using it, there are some things to keep in mind about it; and some major differences that separate it from the other two. It isn’t simply that Joomla, WordPress, and Drupal are essentially the same, or in other words, are just different brand choices of a very similar service or idea, that is not the case at all, and it’s important to be aware of what makes them distinct.

There is a bit of a myth going around about Drupal; specifically that no one uses it. This is false, The British government, General Electric, and Pfizer all use it, just to name a few. Out of all the available options, it is the most secure; hell, even the White House uses it. One should not underestimate the reasons why. It is the most “technical” of the three, its code is the strongest, and anyone who seeks to use it should understand that coding knowledge of HTML, XML, and PHP (at least) are needed. Since it is the most well coded, it is also the fastest option, and takes the least time to load for pages and sites that utilize it. Drupal is (by definition) the most difficult option to use from a purely computer science standpoint. And while it is a good option for some as such, it is not for the previous reasons a good option for all.

There are some disadvantages to using Drupal as well; beyond simply the technical expertise needed to harness it (one can see from above that the previous is both an advantage as well as a disadvantage). It is much less “popular” than wordpress is, and does not have as many “plug-ins” available for it, as well as themes. This can be a problem for some users. You also must absolutely host it yourself on your own site. While that’s not a “deal-breaker” at all as far as the system itself goes for its usability, the other two options have “.com” versions of their sites where you can sign up for free hosting. Again we can see how highly “technical” an option Drupal is, but that’s exactly why the White House can’t say enough good things about it. They love it, it serves them well; for high security sites like the American or the British Government it is a perfect choice, and they’re not shy about saying so. Drupal is the best option for those with a high degree of skill, those who need lower-level customization, want a fully “open-source” option, (etc.). One should not underestimate it for a moment.

We can see that when it comes to CMS, there are choices available; but they’re all very different from each other. That’s why here at TRMW.com, we’re glad to help clear up any confusion about which one is which, and which one is the best for you.

This site here talks about the real consequences of Online Reputation Management and bad google search results (and keep in mind, it’s important to be aware of negative listings from other popular search engines as well) and how they can do serious harm to any major venture.  This includes businesses of course, but here in the article we also see a political campaign that has a reputation problem as well, and we can easily take note of how damaging the situation can be.

The article talks about Ben Quayle, who just so happens to be the son of Vice President Dan Quayle, and an issue he had with his online reputation in regards to a political campaign for an Arizona congressional seat.  Quayle had apparently made contributions to a salacious website known as “Dirty Scottsdale” and pages about what he had done were coming up on page one of search engines.  The article points out that with effective ORM techniques, Quayle could have ensured his reputation would have been safe (at least online), but because he did not use them, the incident in question put his run for office in serious jeopardy.

If his organization had taken reputation management seriously and engaged in an ORM campaign to deal with it, perhaps the matter would have been less of a problem.  As the article rightly points out, only one in every million people who are on search engines, plum for results on the fifth page or more; very few people see listings that are located there, and negative results can indeed be pushed back that far.

If you have any questions for us at TheReputationManagementWay.com about how to do just that, feel free to visit our contact page and let us know.  It’s important to keep in mind that for any business, political campaign, or even individual just trying to get a job or look better online, these problems can be dealt with.  Check back for updates regularly.

An Online Reputation Management Campaign is a plan to target, isolate, move, and suppress negative content on search engines that might be causing damage to an individual or business. It involves creating positive content on a number of sites that, over time (key words: “over time,” it cannot be done all at once) comes to supplant negative listings as the most relevant information for that particular search as it rises in the search engine rankings. Say for example, that you had a hardware store named “Jane’s Pine Village Hardware”; then that would be in general the specific search term that you would wish to target. If you are an individual, then generally you would target the search rankings of your full name.

All ORM Campaigns take several months (or in some cases more), that is their nature; there is no way to accomplish all the objectives of one overnight. Therefore, it’s important to have a good plan about how you will approach it. What sites will I use? What type(s) of content will I create? What order will I roll out my new sites in? What type(s) of content are search engines most likely to be interested in? How much content will go on my own sites that I own or create (if any), versus sites that others hold the proprietary rights to (like blogs, social media, etc., which usually make up the bulk of 95% of all campaigns)? How will I update these sites periodically, and with what? These are all important questions to ask when it comes to ORM, and making a good plan is surely important. But the reality is, these campaigns can be very effective, and can drive negative listings far down in search engine rankings, so they can no longer cause any more problems. That’s why if you need help with internet results, an ORM campaign should certainly be considered.