HOW TO: Take Control of Your Google Search Results
http://mashable.com/2009/02/19/control-google-search-results/

Google is the dominant search engine, with over 63% market share. Aside from it being a place to discover product reviews and corporate information, it is the personal brand destination of choice.

some great links to social networks for major newspaper sites

Influence is difficult to ascertain online. What about that guy on Twitter with 25,000 followers? Isn’t he influential? Here are a few factors to consider.

A first approach ...

Interesting article

Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readwriteweb.com%2Farchives%2Fhow_to_sell_your_soul_on_twitter_and_whos_buying.php

"... We were disappointed when a browser script showed us a Magpie redirect behind a shortened link in a Skype testimonial today. Then we used a search on the service BackTweets to find out who else is buying fake Tweets on the service. It's so revolting and pitiful that it's kind of sad. ..." [Accessed Sunday, 12th April, 2009]

ReadWriteWeb

What are you doing? No what are you doing Apple, Skype, Flip, StubHub and Box.net?? These popular companies just couldn't resist paying off Twitter users to put advertisements into their Twitter streams using the new pay-per-tweet service Magpie. So there's the Twitter-sphere for you! Bring on "real time search," bring on a globally connected community, bring on vapid, vile, stupid shilling. It all seems pretty sad to me. And to the advertisers out there - is this cynical scheme the best you can do to engage with all the new ways people are communicating online? That's pretty bad.

Twitter

1

"If you have customers, chances are they're talking about you to their friends, to their coworkers, and to anyone else who will listen. Here are some of the top tools for listening to and monitoring the online chatter about your brand:"

You're a marketer who's hip to the idea of social media: You have a blog for your company or client, you know Facebook inside and out, and you can Tweet with the best of them. So you've got the communicating part down pat.

Great commentary on why social media is a double-edged sword for businesses.

Excellent survey information re: social media and business

Online conduct

RT @LilianMahoukou: Online reputation management guide: http://bit.ly/18WIY9 (via @Adgenius) [from http://twitter.com/hvaudaux/statuses/1971066316]

The following Online Reputation Management Guide will show small businesses how to assess, build, track and monitor their online reputation. In most cases, you can follow these simple steps to easily grow your personal brand and/or small business. If you’d prefer, you can also download the ORM Guide as a PDF.

"..Objectivity without transparency increasingly will look like arrogance. And then foolishness. Why should we trust what one person — with the best of intentions — insists is true when we instead could have a web of evidence, ideas, and argument?.."

Interesting post about bloggers, journalism, and how we require the abiliity to peer through an author's thoughts to dig at the sourcs of their [objective] arguments.

David Weinberger explains a phrase he coined: "transparency is the new objectivity."

"Objectivity used be presented as a stopping point for belief: If the source is objective and well-informed, you have sufficient reason to believe. [...] We thought that that was how knowledge works, but it turns out that it’s really just how paper works. [...] Objectivity is a trust mechanism you rely on when your medium can’t do links"

"In fact, transparency subsumes objectivity. Anyone who claims objectivity should be willing to back that assertion up by letting us look at sources, disagreements, and the personal assumptions and values supposedly bracketed out of the report. Objectivity without transparency increasingly will look like arrogance. And then foolishness. Why should we trust what one person — with the best of intentions — insists is true when we instead could have a web of evidence, ideas, and argument? In short: Objectivity is a trust mechanism you rely on when your medium can’t do links. Now our medium can."

David Weinberger - his keynote at Open Government and Innovation conference draws on this post

[Blog entry] via elanguage

Instead of just a "Citation Needed", we'll now have various shades to give us hints as to the reliability of information.

Wired.com

Starting this fall, you’ll have a new reason to trust the information you find on Wikipedia: An optional feature called “WikiTrust” will color code every word of the encyclopedia based on the reliability of its author and the length of time it has persisted on the page. More than 60 million people visit the free, open-access encyclopedia each month, searching for knowledge on 12 million pages in 260 languages. But despite its popularity, Wikipedia has long suffered criticism from those who say it’s not reliable. Because anyone with an internet connection can contribute, the site is subject to vandalism, bias and misinformation. And edits are anonymous, so there’s no easy way to separate credible information from fake content created by vandals.

This idea (and the tool for its implementation) has been around for a while. Now it seems that wikipedia is going to implement it. Interesting debate here about the nature of truth: truth by consensus, or, the loudest voices win. Has it ever been any other way? Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wired.com%2Fwiredscience%2F2009%2F08%2Fwikitrust

Below are some tips for "reputation management": influencing how you're perceived online, and what information is available relating to you

The first step in reputation management is preemptive: Think twice before putting your personal information online. Remember that although something might be appropriate for the context in which you're publishing it, search engines can make it very easy to find that information later, out of context, including by people who don't normally visit the site where you originally posted it. Translation: don't assume that just because your mom doesn't read your blog, she'll never see that post about the new tattoo you're hiding from her.

Find all online public information about you (and other people)

"Find all online public information about you (and other people) and get your PeopleRank: your visibility score on the web."

Find all online public information about you (and other people) and get your PeopleRank: your visibility score on the web.

m. Google rates Web sites, in part, by how many lin

For years, I winced at what popped up when I Googled my name. The top result of a search on "Julia Angwin" was an article I wrote for The Wall Street Journal in 2005 after I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted for making false statements, perjuring himself and obstructing justice by lying about how and when he learned the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. I hated seeing the story at the top of the list for a number of reasons: It was not a topic I normally wrote about; it had an underwhelming headline, "Novak's Role is Still Largely Unknown"; and -- most horrifyingly -- the story contained an error and had a correction appended to it. Mysteriously, this article had become my hallmark online, showing up in my top-five search results for years.

Seznam zdrojů

A smorgasbord of ideas and executions in the world of marketing and beyond.

In terms of its social media presence, Domino's Pizza gets a lot of things right. It has a YouTube Channel, a Twitter account, and both a Facebook and MySpace profile. What Domino's could not plan for, however, was that two of its employees at a North Carolina franchise would use YouTube to broadcast a rather disgusting video that would severely damage the company's brand. Since the video first appeared, Domino's has quickly stepped up its social media presence in order to regain some positive momentum.

Domino's: How One YouTube Video Can Ruin a Brand http://tinyurl.com/cnu2ms [from http://twitter.com/AdNerds/statuses/1540990281]

Attempting to command, as well as deal with, the on the internet status has become increasingly hard.

But the nonsense we’re all worried about today? I just don’t think it will carry the same weight in a few years. Because if there are pictures of the person hiring you smoking pot in college online, and there are pictures of every other candidate smoking pot in college online, it just won’t be a big deal any more. And the kind of accusations that can kill a career today will likely be seen as a badge of honor, and a sign of an ambitious individual who has pissed off a few people along the way. At least that’s what I hope will happen. Because there are a few pictures of me in high school and college that I’m tired of trying to keep off the Internet. Let’s just get it all out there sooner rather than later, and move on.

by Michael Arrington, TechCrucnh - March 28, 2010

Trying to manage, or even control, the on the web status has become progressively difficult.

Trying to handle, or maybe deal with, ones on-line popularity has become significantly hard.

Attempting to command, and even manage, the on-line popularity is now increasingly tough.

Trying to command, or even manage, the online standing is now more and more challenging.

With the advent of online tools that make it easy to share information, meet new people and keep in touch faster than ever, reputation has taken on a twofold dimension. Individuals and businesses no longer have to worry about their reputation in real life but in the virtual world as well, making it twice as hard to keep up with what’s being said. There are some ways that you can work to manage your online reputation, however, whether you’re doing it for yourself or for your business. These resources provide tips and tools to make it easier to track, control and manage your online reputation so you stay on top and in control of your personal and professional image.

Some tips to get you thinking about your online reputation

Great article with lots of important resources to help monitor and control your own or your company's online reputation.

WSJ.com | Top-Ten Lists Abound Online, but Following the Herd Can Make You Wonder About the Wisdom of Crowds

Look at This Article. It's One of Our Most Popular Top-Ten Lists Abound Online, but Following the Herd Can Make You Wonder About the Wisdom of Crowds

another piece about "stupidity of crowds"

Popularity is, unfortunately, still all the rage.

These online rankings are public, creating a positive-feedback loop. The more popular something becomes, even if just from a random burst of interest, the more likely it is to grow ever more popular. And that has troubling implications about the effects of all sorts of popularity rankings, from bestseller charts to election polls. Frequently, popularity rankings speak less to the merits of what's being observed and more to the fact that crowds are observing it. In other words, peer pressure.

This used to be called the "lowest common denominator." Now it is called "the wisdom of crowds" or "the democratization of X." Anyway upshot: "Frequently, popularity rankings speak less to the merits of what's being observed and more to the fact that crowds are observing it."

"Top-Ten Lists Abound Online, but Following the Herd Can Make You Wonder About the Wisdom of Crowds"

"...the study showed that popularity is both unstable and malleable ... Deducing merit from popularity 'can lead to self-reinforcing snowballs of popularity, which can become decoupled from the underlying reality," says [the] study co-author."

"More than half (57%) of adult internet users say they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006. Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, more than two-thirds (71%) of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online. Reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users, especially the young. … When compared with older users, young adults are more likely to restrict what they share and whom they share it with. “Contrary to the popular perception that younger users embrace a laissez-faire attitude about their online reputations, young adults are often more vigilant than older adults when it comes to managing their online identities,” said Madden."

"Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, more than two-thirds (71%) of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online."

More than half (57%) of adult internet users say they have used a search engine to look up their name and see what information was available about them online, up from 47% who did so in 2006. Young adults, far from being indifferent about their digital footprints, are the most active online reputation managers in several dimensions. For example, more than two-thirds (71%) of social networking users ages 18-29 have changed the privacy settings on their profile to limit what they share with others online.

When most people think about the advantages of using social media for business, they immediately think of the marketing benefits. However, many businesses are starting to use social media as a tool for listening and providing customer service. When a crisis or emergency erupts, the power of social media can be an amazing tool for businesses. A crisis can include anything from a simple website outage to negative publicity. This article will reveal how to use social media during a crisis and provide many examples you can model.

RT @pattyschinzing: How to Use Social Media for Crisis Management. http://bit.ly/aMQGap #smallbusiness

How to Use #SocialMedia for #Crisis #Management - http://ow.ly/1XWpO

Social media can be used for more than just marketing- what about crisis management? http://ow.ly/1XRzs – Big Fuel (bigfuel) http://twitter.com/bigfuel/statuses/16228528084

This article needs a great big "citation needed" slapped on it. Yes, people need to think about what they post on the web, but no, that stuff will not stay around "forever." If anything, the web suffers from the opposite problem: memory loss.

"We’ve known for years that the Web allows for unprecedented voyeurism, exhibitionism and inadvertent indiscretion, but we are only beginning to understand the costs of an age in which so much of what we say, and of what others say about us, goes into our permanent — and public — digital files. The fact that the Internet never seems to forget is threatening, at an almost existential level, our ability to control our identities; to preserve the option of reinventing ourselves and starting anew; to overcome our checkered pasts....It’s often said that we live in a permissive era, one with infinite second chances. But the truth is that for a great many people, the permanent memory bank of the Web increasingly means there are no second chances — no opportunities to escape a scarlet letter in your digital past. Now the worst thing you’ve done is often the first thing everyone knows about you."

Use a lot of thought and caution before posting to the web...it never forgets and is a critical part of what others may see about your one-time identity...even if it was 40 years ago!

La Red significa "el fin del olvido". Súper interesante artículo en el NYTimes. http://nyti.ms/anOZh7 (para los que gustan de la tecno y...

By Jeffrey Rosen

Interesting article about how the Internet remembers everything we put in it and how it would be better both for us and our society if it forgot with time (like humans).

When historians of the future look back on the perils of the early digital age, Stacy Snyder may well be an icon. The problem she faced is only one example of a challenge that, in big and small ways, is confronting millions of people around the globe: how best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing — where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever. With Web sites like LOL Facebook Moments, which collects and shares embarrassing personal revelations from Facebook users, ill-advised photos and online chatter are coming back to haunt people months or years after the fact. Examples are proliferating daily: there was the 16-year-old British girl who was fired from her office job for complaining on Facebook, “I’m so totally bored!!”; there was the 66-year-old Canadian psychotherapist who tried to enter the United States but was turned away at the border — and barred permanently from vi

How best to live our lives in a world where the Internet records everything and forgets nothing—where every online photo, status update, Twitter post and blog entry by and about us can be stored forever.

thx, lg :) RT @AmirKassaei: Great Read! NYTimes: The Web Means the End of Forgetting http://nyti.ms/anOZh7

NYTimes: The Web Means the End of Forgetting http://nyti.ms/anOZh7

The digital age is facing its first existential crisis: the impossibility of erasing your posted past and moving on.