Is Your Company Getting Slandered Online?
New “Online Identity Managers” Are Becoming A Must For Business Owners Who Need To Keep Their Online Reputation Clean...
A recent front-page story in the Washington Post brought to light
a fast-growing trend in today’s digital world: online identity
management.
According to the article, Sue Scheff, a consultant
to parents of troubled teens, was getting slandered online after one of
her clients turned on her, calling her “a con and a fraud,” and
accusing her of taking kickbacks and destroying people’s lives.
Negative comments were being posted on online bulletin boards, forums,
and threatening videos were posted up onYouTube for the world to see.
Even though Scheff sued for defamation and won an $11.3 million verdict, the attacks worsened. To resolve this situation, Scheff was forced to hire ReputationDefender, a PR firm that cleaned up her reputation online.
While
the costs for hiring this firm were steep (reputation management firms
charge $15,000 to $100,000 for their services), the cost of her time,
litigation and reputation make their fees seem like a drop in the
bucket.
So what should you do if you are an average Joe small
business with limited resources? Fortunately, an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure, and you can easily monitor your image online for
free with a few simple steps.
First, the easiest way to check
your online reputation is to Google your name or the name of your
company and see what appears. Next, set up a Google Alert on your name
and your company name. You’ll be alerted by e-mail whenever you or your
organization has been mentioned in a blog, by the media, or in an
online forum.
Next, make sure your web site and your company
is coming up first in search engines. If you own the top positions
online, negative media may not show up on the first listing when your
name is Googled.
To do this, create a profile of your expertise using social bookmarking tools and news aggregators such as del.icio.us and Newsvine.
Contribute to online forums and write articles for user-generated content sites such as Squidoo.
You can even create book and product reviews at Amazon.com to help
establish your authority on a particular topic or subject matter.
You
should also create a blog for yourself and your company, and then link
that to your main web site. Tech Experts can help you set up a blog
using your existing domain name. Post to your blog frequently and make
sure your posts are key-word relevant.
Other obvious ways to put a positive spin online about your company is to create content pages on social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace.
Finally,
be very careful about posting any incriminating evidence about you or
your company or sending e-mails with incriminating information,
tasteless jokes, or messages that could easily be misconstrued.
You
don’t want a search on your name to bring up pictures of you in
compromising situations or sexist, racist, or off-color jokes you
thought were only being sent to your friends. If you wouldn’t want it
posted to a billboard, don’t post it or send it via e-mail.
Rebate alert! Don’t Get Ripped Off!
The offers are irresistible but misleading; retailers advertise
after-rebate prices on hardware and software to grab your attention and
get you to buy. But are you really getting the bargain you expected?
They’re Counting On You To Forget
According to the NPD Group, a global market research firm, almost
one-third of all computer products and twenty percent of all consumer
electronics are sold with a rebate. Manufacturers use rebates as an
easy way to offer discounts without actually having to take the full
financial hit; that’s because thirty to fifty percent of the buyers
never attempt to redeem them and therefore end up paying full price for
the merchandise.
Get Ready To Jump Through Multiple Hoops
To further tip the scales in their favor of not having to pay out, some
manufacturers and retailers are imposing impossible restrictions,
complicating the process to request a rebate, delaying payments, and
creating other barriers that make it difficult to get your money. All
of
these are delay tactics to get you to give up on the idea of getting your rebate out of frustration.
New Laws Protect You
With consumer complaints to the FTC and Better Business Bureau piling
up, regulators have tightened the rules around advertising rebates.
Last year, the Federal Trade Commission settled its first dispute with
a Dallas-based CompUSA store for knowingly advertising rebates from
computer peripherals manufacturer Qps Inc., even though they knew this
manufacturer wasn’t fulfilling on the rebates advertised.
After this settlement, CompUSA was not only required to advertise the
time frame for securing the rebates advertised, but also had to take
financial responsibility for any rebates not paid during the promised
time frame.
Even though the government is on your side, getting stuck in the middle
of a rebate war is very frustrating and a huge waste of time. If you
are going to try to cash in on a rebate, here are some tips that will
help.
5 Tips To Collecting Your Promised Rebate:
- Follow the rebate instructions carefully. Many manufacturers will
reject a rebate over a tiny technicality. That means reading the small
print and following the instructions to the letter.
- Make a copy of all the paperwork, receipts, and documents before
mailing them off. Some manufacturers may request the original receipt;
if you mail in your only copy, you could be out of luck if it gets
“lost” in the mail. Which brings us to tip #3...
- Mail your rebate via certified mail to have proof of delivery.
- Schedule a reminder to yourself to call the company if your
rebate doesn’t show up within the time frame promised. Most companies
will have a web site or toll-free number to call to track your rebate.
- If the manufacturer rejects your rebate or is holding your check,
let them know you plan on contacting the FTC or the BBB. Ask the people
you speak to for their names and ask to speak to their supervisor.
Are Your Co-Workers Stressing You Out?
It seems like every office has at least one jerk, loudmouth, or
snooping pest that drives everyone crazy. Even if they are only mildly
annoying, interacting with them on a daily basis can be incredibly
stressful.
What are some of the things that co-workers rate as the most annoying?
Loud cell-phone talkers, habitual space-invaders, and general rudeness
and inconsiderate behavior towards others.
According to one ABCNEWS.com story titled, “
Trapped in co-worker hell,”
co-workers’ annoying habits are the #1 source of workplace stress
(survey by www.truejobs.com).
Nearly 60% of the 2,200 who responded said bad habits and manners of
co-workers as the cause of stress that negatively impacts their work
life, and 40% said that annoying co-workers have led them to seek new
jobs.
Do You Roll Out The Red Carpet For Identity Thieves?
Just about every web site you visit these days wants you to register and choose a password, especially when making a purchase.
However, if you do this carelessly, you may be setting yourself up as an easy prey for online criminals.
Although we know we should choose unique and hard to decipher passwords
that contain both numbers and letters, most people still use easy to
remember passwords and words for their convenience.
Below are the top 10 passwords used online according to PC Magazine. If
you are using any of the following, you’re putting a big red bullseye
on your account for identity theft:
- password
- 123456
- qwerty
- abc123
- letmein
- monkey
- myspace1
- password1
- link182
- [your first name]
If you want to avoid having to remember dozens of hard-toremember
passwords, Robo Form is a great FREE software you can download without
having to fear adware or spyware. RoboForm was named PC Magazine
Editor’s Choice, and CNET Download. com’s Software of the Year.
After you download the software, it memorizes your passwords and logs you in automatically to every web page with one click.
Best of all, it encrypts your passwords and generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess. You can even back up your passwords so you can copy them to another computer.
How To Keep Your Laptop Safe and Secure
You can’t beat the convenience of checking e-mail and hopping on the Internet at (Wi-Fi) hotspots found in airports, coffee shops, and bookstores. For the uninitiated, hotspots are areas where you can use your wireless laptop to surf the Web.
But the question you have to ask yourself is, just how safe are hotspots? With the proliferation of hackers, viruses and identity theft at an all time high, you’re smart to be concerned. Wi-Fi spots are very attractive to hackers because they can use what’s called an “evil twin” connection to access your laptop.
An evil twin is a hotspot set up by a hacker to lure people from a nearby, legitimate hotspot. For example, when you log in at your favorite coffee shop, you might actually be logging onto the evil twin Internet connection set up by the innocent-looking person working on a laptop at the next table. The most dangerous evil twins remain invisible.
and allow you to do business as usual. But in the background, they record everything you are typing. Buy something online and they are recording your credit card information. Log on to your bank account, and they can grab your password.
So what can you do to make sure you are not giving an evil twin access to your laptop?
First, know the name of the hotspot you’re going to use by asking someone who works there. Some businesses will give you printed instructions that include the hotspot name. But be careful. Hackers will name their evil twin network by a very similar name as the real hotspot, and may even show up as a stronger signal.
The best protection you can have is connecting via your company’s VPN (virtual private network). A VPN will protect your online information by encrypting your data and activity even if you’re connected through an evil twin.
If you don’t have a company VPN, you should assume that someone is looking over your shoulder and recording everything you type in. Therefore, the BEST protection without a VPN is to never type in information such as credit cards, passwords, or social security numbers when connected to a public Wi-Fi hotspot.