Paying Someone Else to Worry About Your Online Image

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | facebook.com/voalearningenglish A reputation -- what people think of you, good or bad -- is built one message at a time. The difference today is that people can get their messages out to lots of other people at lightning speed through websites and social media. So, not surprisingly, an industry is fast developing around managing online reputations for individuals and businesses. Ken Wisnefski is chief executive of Webimax, a company he started in two thousand eight. He says, "Up to eighty percent of people have been influenced in a purchasing decision by what they've read or seen online." Webimax is a search engine optimization, or SEO, company. Search engine optimization involves different ways to improve the results of online searches. Webimax offers several different services, but Ken Wisnefski says reputation management is growing the fastest. Some of his customers need help with urgent publicity problems. Others are seeking long-term management of their online image. Mr. Wisnefski says about one-fifth of his business is with companies and individuals outside the United States. How does reputation management work? Webimax has two sides to its business. The company can organize online publicity campaigns to try to limit the harm done by negative comments or bad news. Mr. Wisnefski says when a client gets in the news for the wrong reasons, his company does not try to hide what happened. Instead, it develops a campaign to show that the client is dealing with the problem in a productive and positive way, he says.In that way the work seems a lot like old-fashioned public relations, but in cyberspace.But what if clients are the target of lies or maybe an organized effort to harm their reputation? Then Webimax would use its legal team to try to have the comments removed. Ken Wisnefski thinks the legal side of reputation management is only going to grow. In the United States, not all speech is protected by the Constitution. And even if the comments are true, the threat of a costly legal fight may be enough to get them removed.Clients of companies that manage reputations can pay thousands of dollars a month or as little as a hundred a year. But here is some free advice from Ken Wisnefski: "If you're not paying attention or at least monitoring what's being said about you online, you're making a mistake because other people are paying attention to that."For VOA Special English, I'm Carolyn Presutti. (Adapted from a radio program broadcast 22Jul2011)