Managing Your Digital Reputation.The Panama Papers have shown how quickly reputations can be damaged online. How can you mitigate this threat?

by Charles Lankester, SVP, Reputation Management, Ruder Finn

The recent leak of twelve million documents belonging to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca has placed a spotlight on the online aspect of individual reputation management.

With an estimated 30% of the firm’s clients being from Greater China, prominent Hong Kong politicians and businesspeople have been publicly named and details provided of their dealings. In most cases, those involved have stated “they did nothing wrong” but the insinuations are damaging and individual internet search results will be permanently changed for the worse.

Reputation is now an asset class

The unpleasant reality of having your online reputation tarnished has been an issue for companies for many years and they have become adept at managing and mitigating the risk. Employing ever larger social media and digital strategy teams, damage control on an industrial scale is deployed by international corporations when they are in the news for the wrong reasons. 

The recent UK Reputation Dividend Report (January, 2016) calculated reputations contributing ￡790 billion of shareholder value at the start of 2016, or 36% of market capitalisation in the FTSE350.

Reputations are equally valuable at an individual level. Maria Sharapova’s recent admission of taking banned drug meldonium reportedly cost her sponsorship deals with Porsche, Tag Heuer and Nike, the latter being estimated to be worth US$100 million.

At a more day-to-day level, your reputation means people invest in you, hire you, work for you and trust you. It is well-known that many employers study potential hires’ Facebook and other social media to see what the candidate gets up to in their private time.

Internet search results are a key driver of individual reputation in 2016 and represent vitally important reputational real estate

Numerous academic studies repeatedly show that 90% of searchers do not go past Page 1 of any results, so this content really matters. It is the first place potential business associates, investors, professional advisers, employees and even romantic partners look. Your search results, quite literally, define you in 2016 and any threat to them must be taken seriously.

Litigation, divorce, bankruptcy, allegations of criminal, or just murky, activity are all high-velocity topics of extreme third-party interest

Such threats are developments likely to be of interest to those outside an individual’s closest circle, especially to the media, and need extremely careful management. 

You don’t have to be a global celebrity to be of global interest, as many have found to their cost.

 Another risk that many are unaware of is digital hijacking

High net worth individuals are regularly shocked to find they no longer own their own name. Someone else does. A third party has registered all the .com, .net, .com.hk and other popular domains of a person’s first and last name.

So what can individuals do to mitigate these new digital reputation threats? 

First, audit where you are

Engage a high-quality social media analytics firm and undertake detailed research into your current digital profile. How much is positive? Negative? Is there a stubborn, embarrassing photograph or press story that you have learned to live with? This audit will deliver an invaluable “heat map” showing the good, bad and ugly of your digital reputation. The value of this work? You'll know precisely where you are starting from.

Second, register everything

Best done through a specialist firm, you need to own the title deeds of all your digital real-estate. Your name, your company name and possibly all your family names. Consider also permutations, such as johnsmithsucks.com and similar. Once you own this portfolio, you have an invaluable resource, should you need it, if you experience challenges in the future. Without it, you are almost powerless to manage your reputation online.

Third, create a digital reputation strategy

It is likely most people reading this will wish to have as little personal material as possible online. That’s fine. But it is important to have a plan, even if only for reactive use, in the event you are caught up in controversy. Despite the popular belief that search results can be made to go away, in the majority of cases they can’t. In certain cases a legal remedy is available, as is the “right to be forgotten” European Court of Justice Google ruling. But in most cases the best way to remedy negative content is to replace it with new content, carefully managed, packaged and presented to be as search-engine friendly as possible.

As with everything online, and in life, common sense and good planning help a great deal. Be clear what your goals are and, most importantly, who to call if there is a problem.

 (A version of this article originally appeared in the May 2016 edition of The Peak magazine)

Charles Lankester (@CA_Lankester) advises individual and corporate clients in the areas of reputation management and digital risk. He is located in Hong Kong and works at Ruder Finn, an international communications consultancy employing close to 800 people in Asia-Pacific, Europe and North America.