john p. david Archives - Web Fact Check | Online Reputation Management

3 Pieces of Advice From an Online Reputation Fixer

Posted in: Blog June 8, 2015

Originally published on PRDaily.com

By John P. David, Partner, WebFactCheck.com and President, David PR Group

For the past two years, I have been building a segment of my business around helping people with online problems.

Striving to get negative content removed from search on behalf of my clients has been, without question, one of the most interesting things I have done in my 25-year career in public relations.

I gained interest in the practice due to a number of factors. Part of it was directly related to hearing an increasing number of online horror stories, and the other part of it has to do with my sometimes overly righteous personality. I have strong opinions about what is fair and what is unfair in life, and the Internet can be incredibly unfair. It enables people to say almost anything they want. The door to the online world is wide open for crazy people, mean people and folks with an axe to grind.

As I develop my own reputation as something on an online reputation fixer, I have learned that a huge number of folks have issues with our digital world. The Internet plays a major role in how we are perceived, and many of the challenges facing PR professionals today have to do with online issues. Quickly and steadily, the two worlds are starting to collide.

By the way, it’s not always people who have done something terribly wrong who have online troubles. In many cases, folks find themselves in a bad spot because of an honest mistake or an act of immaturity that gets catalogued digitally. Though I hold client engagements in the strictest of confidence, there are some lessons to be learned from them, particularly if we change the names to protect the digitally disenfranchised.Read more

How to Remove a Hate Blog

Posted in: Blog May 18, 2015

Few things can do more damage to a person’s or organization’s online reputation than a hate blog. Often created anonymously and sometimes by very web-savvy individuals, a negative blog can put an immediate dent in search engine results of even the most sophisticated individuals and businesses.

The word blog is a shortened form of the term “web log,” and it was first coined in the late 1990s. Blogs were originally thought of as simple, online diaries. They were first written by individuals who memorialized their lives and pontificated on a number of subjects. Blogs were esoteric in the early days but then some clever entrepreneurs created easy-to-use blogging platforms (like Blogger, Tumblr and WordPress) – making it simpler for anyone to “blog.” Blogger was later purchased by Google which helped bring blogging to the masses.

Some blog sites have morphed into bona fide news sites — think Huffington Post or Nate Silver’s 538 blog. Others remain simple, homespun entertainment and hobbyist websites. The blog has truly helped democratize communication around the world. Yet as many have quickly figured out, with freedom of expression comes people who may not be happy with certain businesses or people.Read more

Every Business Needs a Reputational Firewall

Posted in: News January 25, 2015

The Huffington Post regular runs articles we have written about online reputation management and how to manage and remove search results from Google. Learn how every business needs a reputational firewall. Full article can be read here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-p-david/every-business-needs-a-re_b_5337711.html

WebFactCheck on New Hampshire Public Radio About Right to be Forgotten

Posted in: News July 14, 2014

Listen to John P. David of WebFactCheck on New Hampshire Public Radio discussing Google and the “right to be forgotten.” More information on the right to be forgotten can by found here. David was joined on NHPR by David M. Ewalt– a journalist covering technology and the game business and Nuala O’Connor, president and CEO at the Center for Democracy & Technology.