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Internet is the way of life now. You open your eyes in the morning by searching for your smartphone. The day starts right from snoozing your alarm to setting your alarm at night on your smartphone. During your 17 hours of awakening during the day, the information you consume is immense and most of it is unwanted. But, in this article let us analyse how someone’s unwanted becomes your wanted and vice-versa.


The birds eye of a prey and the predator


In today’s world, information works the same way as bird’s eye-view of its prey and the predators view of the bird. In this metaphor, we would like to emphasise that the high-flying bird as a prominent person or a business which is very difficult to be touched or to interact with and the predator as the person or news agency who are in the search of controversial stories.


Your reputation and why it could be hunted?


It all depends on your societal positioning. If you are a businessman dealing with thousands of employees and millions of consumers, the chances of you being hunted by an ex-employee, a journalist or an ordinary consumer is high. The same happens to a politician, or a celebrity/artist. Therefore, the need of a media monitor or a third pair of ears and eyes is essential in this age of search engines.

A bad story about you or your bank is inevitable when you are in the spotlight. But there are the tier-three writers and bloggers who tend to twist the story and make it even worse. Thus, a news about you, be it an allegation or a truth can deeply bruise your online reputation.

Ever wondered how search engines pick it up so quickly?


The search engines are autonomous. They work on artificial intelligence. Its programmed to pick the most relevant, most popular and above all the most geographically closest location to the searcher. To add more fuel to the fire, the links are shared in mainstream social media.


Prevention – Can you prevent a bad story from being published?


It doesn’t matter how careful you are. Some people will spew out of revenge, or to cause you financial pain, mental distress or because their blog/journal needs to be famous and some do it for a ransom. You can simply avoid major negative stories by few tips. Be aware of what you’re saying in the public or use the language of opinion, try to minimise unofficial public presence (which can lead to candid clicks by strangers). On a personal level, try to be low on social media. If you are so passionate to be on the social media, use professional help who will plan and execute it in a creative manner for you.

How to counter defamatory news?


Relax, calm down, think through it. For a business a bad remark on the internet is inflammable. For an individual a bad remark works like gossip, people tend to share more. Both need to be dealt with strategically with surgical precision. There are several ways to handle the crisis in an organic manner. It’s the company’s responsibility to respond to the user reviews and talk to the customer on a personal tone. For an individual, the response and countering depend on the depth and the popularity of the news.

Our experience

This article is for information purposes only. It does not constitute professional advice or an opinion. Please contact us at info@lecocqassociate.com for any questions regarding our Online Reputation Management service.

Bedi Philips
Bedi Philips
ORM Associate