Online PR Philippines

Ways Your Online Reputation May Be Sabotaged

2009-07-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

In 2006, while I was working in a lobbying and political management firm in Pasig City, I was assigned to work on a client. The client sought help because typing his name in Google generated negative results from an investigative journalism site and other news sites. This client's case got me acquianted with online reputation management.

Negative online reputation not only come through a negative comment from forums, blogs or tweets. There are other ways your competition or a previously terminated employee can attack you and your company. I'm writing this post not to promote the negative side of Search Engine Optimization but to educate others as to how else your name, company or brand can be smeared online so that you know what to look for when monitoring your online reputation.

In 2007, Forbes.com interviewed a seasoned SEO and discussed about the saboteurs of search. Among the ways you can be attacked and sabotaged are as follows:

GOOGLE BOWLING is done by creating spam sites and linking it back to your site. In 2003, then US Pres. George W. Bush has been Google bombed. Web users using the search query "Miserable Failure" are sent to his profile on the White House website.

GOOGLE TATTLING. When a site violates some of the rules Google has set in their webmaster guidelines, the site is penalized. This would lead to a drop in rankings, or getting banned in the search engines. Some people report sites as violating these rules. So it is important to read Google's Webmaster Guidlines lest your competitors may see that as an opprtunity to put your site down.

CONTENT DUPLICATION Google is very particular with duplicate content. Sites with duplicate content is either penalized or banned. This is one reason why any website should monitor and make sure that the copies they up online are not duplicated.

GOOGLE INSULATION Not all negative seo tactics are done directly. One way to drop other site's rank is by setting-up many websites and optimizing all of them so that they will go up the SERP and outrank your site. This may also be done to hide some nasty search engine results down the 6th or 7th page of the search engines.

CLICK FRAUD Aside from the organic search, another way to generate traffic is through paid ads, also known as PPC or Pay-Per-Click ads. Click Fraud involves sending fraudulent clicks to a PPC listing. The clicks can be artificially generated via automated technology methods (bots) or via manual clicking. The intent of the fruad may be to raise money for the site hosting, ad space, or to financially hurt the advertiser.

DENIAL OF SERVICE ATTACK is an attempt to make a computer resource unavailable to its intended users. Although the means to carry out, motives for, and targets of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted efforts of a person or persons to prevent an Internet site or service from functioning efficiently or at all, temporarily or indefinitely (wikipedia).

I hope that these information has been helpful. If you have comments, topic suggestions, or some general query on online reputation management, please feel free to contact me or leave a message in this post.

Own Your Name Online

2009-06-05T21:39:00.000-07:00

Imagine you are " Company ABC". A user typed "Company ABC" into the Google search box and gets search results from sites with a negative comment about your company. Or a potential employer or investor doing a background check on you and sees a Rip-Off Report post about you. These scenarios are potential headache to any business or individual.

As of March 31, 2009, there are around 1,596,270,108 internet users all over the world according to internetworldstats.com. 50-70% of the 1,596,270,108 use internet to search information. This means more and more people are going online to look up a product, a service, a company or an individual.

There people online looking for what is being said about you or your company. Some may base their judgment and decision on these online feedbacks. If you are a company or an individual, it is important that you own your name online because every negative comment said about you or your company may mean missed-out revenue or job opportunity.

For these reasons, you might want to considering looking up your online reputation. You want your official website or your professional profile to be on top of the Search Engine Result Page when searched.

In my future posts, I'll be featuring some of the tools you can use to monitor and manage your online reputation. Meanwhile, here are two things you can do to start claiming your name online:

LinkdIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded by Reid Hoffman in December 2002. It was launched in May 2003 and is mainly used for professional networking. For companies and indivisuals, this is a good site to establish your reputation.
Facebook - with the large population of Facebook users, this is a good site to build your reputation. For businesses, you can create a Facebook page and send updates about your company or brand. This is also a good way to connect to your target audience or target market. Big brands like Coca-Cola is already connected to their consumers through Facebook. In the local political arena, Cong. Roilo Golez of Paranaque and Sen. Chiz Escudero already started ahead of their political rivals by connecting to as many constituents.

There are other sites such as MySpace and Multiply that you can use for your online branding. But the key here is to know the demographics of the users to have the maximum benefit for your business.

Online Reputation, Online PR and Search Engine Reputation

2009-03-02T02:29:00.000-08:00

Reputation is a very important asset. May it be corporate or personal. It is base from the collective perception of different people. For corporations, a positive reputation means confidence from its stakeholders which, consequently creates patronage and good returns. For individuals, a negative reputation may mean disapproval from prospective employer, rejection from a boy/girl you like, and missed opportunities.

Public Relations, the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its stakeholders, deals with perception, reputation and managing both.

The Internet technology, particularly the Web 2.0, has empowered the people to proactively communicate their opinions on something or someone and share experiences to other people. The growing number of internet users which, according to World Internet Usage Statistics, is growing at 305.5% annually, stirs the need for Online PR.

Online PR practices the management of information available online. Online Reputation , is the general evaluation of the stakeholders toward an individual or company in the Internet. Search Engine Reputation is the quality of Search Engine Result Pages (SERP) generated by the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.

I think the next logical question is how to do online PR, ORM and SERM. Three steps: Monitor, Optimize and Engage- three steps which I’ll discuss further in my next posts.

Welcome to OnlinePRPhilippines.Com!

2009-03-02T02:27:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Online PR Philippines! Your online resource on topics such as Online Public Relations (online PR), Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) and Online Reputation Management (ORM).

It took me a while to set-up this blog for two reasons. One, my regular job as a Serach Engine Marketer for a company in the Central Business District of Makati, has been keeping my schedule tight. Second, and perhaps one that caused me dilemma, is my hesitation to try this relatively ambitious endeavor.

The latter has caused me dilemma because I was afraid of personal attacks. As much as every company holds their reputation like a precious stone, my reputation is that important as well (at least for myself). I’m hoping that by this time, you have read about the blogger of PR Philippines. So I assume, by now, you have some idea on how I got into Online PR.

Anyways, this blog will focus on the Online aspect of doing Public Relations, which is, I must say, really tricky. The off-line PR is already tricky in itself, but doing your Public Relations really entails a lot of knowledge of the online medium, and a lot of skills and creativity when executing campaigns.

The main goal of Public Relations is to build, enhance or manage reputation. Online PR can strengthen this since it involves activities geared towards engaging and creating an impact through communities and audiences that exist solely on the Internet using online channels, which include search engines, blogs, news search, forums, discussion threads, social networks and other online communication tools.

What to expect in OnlinePRPhilippines.Com?

I’ll share some Online PR tactics, case studies, tools and strategies on how to: monitor your online reputation, optimize your websites to control your online image, and engage with your stakeholders to build your brand and manage your reputation.

I hope you follow OnlinePRPhilippines. And should you have questions, comments or any message, do not hesitate to contact me.

Contact Details

2009-03-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

Do you want to monitor your online reputation? Are there negative feedbacks and comments online you want removed? Need to know how else you can improve your online visibility? Contact me so we can discuss how I can help you.

If you have questions, inquiries, clarifications or topic suggestions, here are the details:

Email: delapena.sheila [at] gmail.com

Mobile: +632 917-571-9079

For those of you who are active in the online community, you may also add me in this accounts:

Or just leave a message and I'll try to answer them as quickly as I can.

Tech Fatale authors Online PR Philippines

2009-03-01T02:04:00.000-08:00

In the blogosphere and online communities, I am known as Kutitap, a self-confessed Tech Fatale , a blogger and an online communicator.

I graduated from Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM or University of the City of Manila) with a Degree in Mass Communications. As a student, Advertising and Public Relations have always interest me. My transcript, I believe, would attest to that.

In 2004, after graduating, I landed a job in one of the contact centers in the central business district of the Philippines, Makati City. I was a Customer Service Specialist dealing with irate customers, resolving head-aching customer issues and trying to keep a positive image of the US Telecom company for which I was working for.

In November 2004, I was offered a job to do research and production coordination for a radio project of a Lobbying and Political Management company. The radio program aired for two years with each episode discussing corporate social responsibility; small and medium enterprises; and, good governance and responsible citizenship. It was a radio program promoting optimism and pride in being a Filipino.

Besides working for the weekly radio program, I was also involved in various projects of the company doing Strategic Communications for political campaigns during the Philippine Mid-term Election in 2007; trainings and capability buildings for several groups; and, monitoring and managing the online reputation of a political personality.

Soon after the radio program went off-air, I was assigned to handle the online lobbying magazine of the company as its Creative Editor. My involvement in the project went beyond looking after aesthetics of the website. I was doing the site optimization of the website until I left six months into the online magazine operations.

After almost four years of involvement in a Public Relations firm, I am now a Search Engine Marketing Specialist for a company handling websites of hotel and accommodation providers. My current job and previous work experiences led me to online public relations or online PR, online reputation management and search engine reputation management (SERM).

I started PRPhilippines.Com with the hope of sharing information on online PR, online Public Relations, online reputation management and search engine reputation management (SERM).