Managing Online Reputation

If you’ve been hiding under a pile of brick and mortar for years, you may not have noticed how much the world has changed.

Online publishing has become easy, fast, inexpensive or even free, and that’s not to mention newsgroups, forums, social networking, rating sites, and and mainstream media sites, all of which can be decreasingly distinct from each other.

Reputation and news reporting, formal or informal, is no longer local, offline, or restricted to the largest companies or most prominent individuals.

Yesterday’s news no longer lines today’s bird cage. Online transcends time and location, with content staying there as good as forever, often cached or duplicated even if the originator has removed or stopped maintaining a copy he controls.

It can be hard to grasp or counterintuitive that if you play whack-a-mole with something online you don’t like, you simply draw attention to it. Large companies and big names, seemingly comfortable with the online world, have fallen for this and become laughingstocks, looked guilty of something that was nothing, or lost business and public relations opportunities.

There are ways to respond - which can include not responding at all - that will minimize or counter the impact of something opined or reported about you, or even leave people with a more positive impression than before.

Mind you, it’s seldom about outright lies or even mistaken facts, but about presentation, spin, or the potential for others to see the same words but misconstrue them in odd ways. You can’t control the truly crazy or semi-literate, but as such they will only be taken seriously for so far.

So what do you do about managing your online reputation?

Sometimes the best action is no action, though you may want to be aware of what’s out there. Then again, being aware of what’s there means having to not take it too personally. This is harder if, like most, this will be little more than a one-time thing. At the same time, if you can assume it will be rare at best, it’s harder to have a plan ready.

Just remember, reacting too strongly can and usually will make matters worse. Legal recourse almost never makes things better, even for you. Nobody likes a bully. Legal threats without substance or against what is true but negatively spun have ruinous potential for backlash. Misuse of tools like DMCA notices can get the issuer in trouble.

Bloggers and commenters online may buy their virtual ink by the proverbial free or cheap barrel, but so can you. Do you have a web presence of any kind? A blog? Would you know how to set one up rapidly and promote it? Do you know about commenting right back in response to what people say? Do you grab your identity everywhere you can, before someone can appear to be you?

They got their message out. Now get your message out. Better, get your message out there before it’s an issue. Build a positive presence. Build the ability to respond. Build awareness. Be way up there in searches, so things you can’t control aren’t alone in the results when people go looking.

It may seem unpleasant to have to deal with what seems like a million small town gossip rags with global reach, but it’s out there and it’s not going to change.

We can help you with these matters.

About Time for an Update

I recently modified the color scheme slightly, making the lighter part of the pages lighter and the text more readable as a result.

We’re working on defining a set of blog-related services to post as one of the offerings here, with Deb sharing that work.

We’ve been thinking about what could or should be under the Welcome to Help umbrella, and generally expanding on it. There will be a heavy emphasis on online or remote services, as opposed to local at-your-place or pickup and delivery computer services. I’ve described the overall bundle in brief as:
Online Services • Digital Coach • Virtual Assistant • Computer Support

Which can mean a lot of things, and will probably be shaped in part by demand. If you have something in mind that might fall under these categories, you can always ask. The worst we can do is recognize it doesn’t fit our skills and send you looking for someone more appropriate for the task in question.

Stay tuned for more as it develops.

Specials Posted

I’ve created a specials page covering a couple of key service packages typical computer owners tend to need and be price-sensitive about.

No offense, but the special prices listed are probably what people expect to pay as ordinary prices, but are in fact dramatically discounted. Each of the separate ones represents at least a $41 discount; almost 50% off. Thus the time limit, even though I expect to go easy on overages.

Malware removal can take four hours or more, but it’s worth having a demarcation at which you can evaluate progress and decide how far you’re willing to go, versus the alternatives, and balanced against retaining your environment reasonably intact.

I am pondering additional specials, all of which are in an effort to build momentum and word of mouth, while testing service options. For instance, I want to offer general support in the form of answering questions for which I needn’t be present, or even taking remote control of a computer. How do I do this? What does this error mean? How should I troubleshoot that myself? The kinds of things one can ask and answer via e-mail or phone.

But what’s a question worth? Depends on the question. I keep thinking I ought to be able to offer a bundle; so many questions or incidents, so much time, that sort of thing, with support I don’t have to drive to being discounted versus on-site.

Pricing is tough. Defining services in marketable packages is tough.

What is Malware?

Malware is a generic term I’ve long used primarily to mean adware, spyware and trojans, and which can also be construed to mean more traditional viruses. Basically it’s Bad+softWare, which you presumably don’t want and at a minimum means one more thing running and using resources on your computer, potentially slowing its performance.

We’re talking about unwanted programs, though unwanted tracking cookies are related and usually lumped in with the rest. These can be programs that deliver popups or other forms of advertising. The advertising can include phishing scams, or can try to fool you into installing other malware. These can be programs that “phone home” and report information about you, more actively than mere cookies. These can be programs that allow someone to take over control or make background use of your computer remotely. These can be programs that merely propagate and spread themselves, or that change settings, modify files, or cause other system damage.

You may see no overt sign anything is there, while your system slows noticeably. In a way, that’s the gentle way to be infested, but it’s insidious, frustrating, and a productivity drag.

Now With OnForce

I am now an approved service provider through the OnForce marketplace

Site Updates

Modified the home page to be more direct yet comprehensive, adding the e-mail addresses and phone number. Separated items I have no specific provision for just yet, including remote help, meaning remote control of a computer, for no other reason than I have not selected and, if needed, purchased or subscribed a tool for it. The first instances of remote support will probably be tests of available tools, leading up to selecting one based on the results and evident demand for that service.

Modified the “where” page to reflect the revised tone and make it sound more clear and complete, without changing the official on-site coverage area.

Determined that I did not want to crowd the front page by enumerating experience, being more specific about service packages, or advertising specials or even ordinary pricing. So after removing multiple pages to trim it down, it’s time to add some back and make them dance and sing harmoniously.

Now on Twitter

You can follow Welcome to Help on Twitter for the latest brief news, status updates, and pointers to blog posts or other items of possible interest. The profile is at http://twitter.com/DigitalCoach.

Changes

I got stalled in getting this thing seriously off the ground, even as a side stream of income. Life happens. My last post here remains a half done draft, interrupted by toddlers or who knows what, perhaps as long as two months ago. That post was a launching point for talking myself through how the site needed to be revised and completed. Life happens.

However, for life to happen, money must happen, and computer work, even a bit of it on the side, is among my most expedient, sustainable sources.

I was recently inspired by a coherent description of one of my favorite types of computer-related work as “digital coaching.” I usually love running down a mysterious problem, or even slaying stubborn malware.

However, there is nothing quite like seeing the joy someone experiences upon learning how they can do something more effectively, or at all. That’s the digital coach aspect. That’s the aspect I tend to slip in small ways among the routine, as a value-added extra. Tech support lagniappe.

I’d never seen it described so well, or emphasized as something too few people are available to do. Instead, I took it to be something people didn’t want or appreciate. Certainly not anything they’d pay for.

So I am going to emphasize that. Yes, I diagnose and fix computer hardware. Yes, I support software in the broader sense. Yes, I can build you a web site or blog. Yes, I can tune and speed up your computer, to the degree possible. Yes, I can search and destroy malware. Yes, all the expected things; install software, setup new systems, get you online, network your computers, and so forth.

But I can also be a digital coach. Intentionally, not just as an aside in small, micro-training, micro-organizing ways.

That includes listening and learning your current what and how, if there is one; not far removed from business consulting, or determining custom software or database needs. That includes figuring out how to improve all that. That includes helping you organize data, use or locate appropriate tools, and so forth.

Which goes back to the point I always like to make about the work and the cost involved in computer support. It’s not about the hardware, but about the data and established comfort level. Computers are inexpensive. What’s stored on them and how it’s arranged can be priceless.

Back to the other points of this post, I’m going to simplify the site, at least for now. It is, after all, just me, possibly helped by a couple of other skilled people on the side, if and as needed. As I type this, their are pages for home, who we are, what we offer, where we are, why hire us, how to buy, policies, and, of course, this blog. Obviously this won’t be going away, or the too long I just spent collecting and laying out my thoughts will have been pointless. I love the idea of a blog in this type of business, as a way to be more personal, announce plans and information, and even be broadly educational. A case could be made for a blog as part of the front page, but it’ll stay back here for now. I may start with just that and the home page. Haven’t finished deciding.

Since I am changing things around, it seemed like a good time to update the software. Did that before starting this post, along with making before and after backups, and making sure the existing text of the pages is in a form I can look at as needed.

That about covers it. Here we go with the changes…

September 3 CotC: “Under Construction” is no Barrier to Self-Promotion

Welcome to the September 3, 2007 edition of Carnival of the Capitalists, being published on September 4 in accordance with Monday holiday policy and my having been occupied by other things enough to enforce such a delay. Originally I signed up to host at my much neglected tech blog, Geek Practitioners, which was going to share a name with the new business. I did so in part due to a since abated shortage of hosts, and in part on the idea I could promote the new business.

Since then, I decided it would make sense to use the blog page of the new business site to host. It would introduce the business, even though a lot of the focus will be local, get a lot of links and mention, and highlight the fact that the business sponsors the CotC site hosting. Which isn’t as big a deal as it can be made to sound, but hey; cross-promotion and all that.

That gave me a list of things I’d ideally do beforehand. Change the template and spruce up the CotC site? Check! Er… not. Add mention of the sponsorship to the CotC site? Che- er, not. Complete the business site? Um… er… not. Oh well; that will give you reason to come back and visit again, right?

Then there’s the fatalistic-sounding fact that I am unlikely to generate enough new business revenue quickly enough to stay out of trouble, making this an opportunity to maximize the number of people who are aware that I’m interested in side or temporary work - or reason to render the business strictly a side venture - in a way that I never have since I started blogging in 2003. I’ve become a believer in multiple income streams. The original concept that led to Welcome to Help was for something to supplement the other business and its dependence on one oversized client. Heck, one might think running Carnival of the Capitalists for almost four years could have resulted in an extra income stream, however modest, but it remains voluntary. Thus the attempt to derive whatever benefit I can from self-sponsorship.

The entries included below are in the order received, except that the first one is a post of my own that I am pointing out, and the last three are posts I took the liberty of including unasked by the authors.

Pricing is the bane of my business existence, in part because I haven’t sufficiently internalized taking things “businessally” rather than personally, so I react too strongly to negative price perceptions on the part of those I shouldn’t want as customers anyway. A while back I wrote On Pricing at this very blog. You might find it interesting. Now on to the other entries…

Edith Yeung is promoting the idea that what you say becomes your attitude and impacts your success. It’s interesting advice for the entrepreneurial among us, and reminds me of my human resource management professor’s bizarre yet thought provoking rant against the word “just” as dangerously self-limiting or belittling. Disempowering Phrases Successful People Never Say is actually a followup, and in my opinion superior to, her earlier post 7 Phrases Successful People Would Never Say. Some of them are Yoda-like “do or do not; there is no try” in nature. Or, put another way, A is A. We’ve all been guilty of some of them, and I am not convinced they are all that bad, but item 5 on the second list, the one actually submitted to this CotC, hits especially close to home. Especially if you extend it to cover that more often I did think of that, but either you do something about it, or not.

Trade Show Display Exhibits has a rather niche post, on Establishing a Budget for Trade Shows, yet when you get down to it, there’s a deeper, more broadly applicable message about marketing focus.

Instigator Blog points out and elaborates on a useful list of 10 Questions Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors Are Going To Ask. Again, this is thought provoking beyond the obvious target audience for the post.

InsureBlog has a cautionary tale of how not to behave for any business, really, in Insurers Behaving (Very) Badly.

Reflections of a BizDrivenLife has a cute entrepreneur-oriented story, about the frustration of being self-motivated among those who are not, in Moving without Pushing.

Med Journal Watch is almost completely off-topic for this carnival, but gets honorable mention for having a classic look at correlation not automatically implying causation in But he has nothing on!

Trust Matters points out the classic scenario of alternate, informal leaders within an organization, the ones who make things happen or influence others all out of proportion to their official roles (been there, done that; I tend to fall into it without trying) in Social Network Mapping and Trust.

Sox First brings us Three rules to successful negotiation, which sound useful, logical, yet easy to forget in the heat of the moment. I find the first the hardest to internalize. The second and third tend to pair, because if you have the empathy for the third, the second is easy to employ.

My Wealth Builder examines the problems facing Countrywide and suggests a PR Opportunity For Countrywide’s CEO.

Real Estate Investment Blog takes a more positive look than some at real estate investors overall in Forclosure Fiasco :: who’s to blame.

Write To Right Your Business Opportunity lists a basic Ten Ways To Get Rid Of Debt And Cost In Business.

Marketing Deviant suggests that creating radio ads can be useful, if you have the right target audience, and provides the basics of How to Create a Radio Ad. I’ve dealt enough with speech and recording on computers that I’d further suggest that quality of hardware, especially microphone, may matter more than you would expect. The same is true if you get into, say, guerilla marketing with video, hosting services for videos, and associated viral marketing to maximize views. That aside, I wonder how often radio is an overlooked option.

SavingAdvice.com slips in what could be considered more of personal advice than business post, yet Dress For Success is an interesting post with ramifications in the business world. Way back in the day, I read the original book of the same name, which overlapped significantly with how I actually tended to dress, at least in things like colors. There was a time I wouldn’t be caught dead in a T-shirt, even for casual, around the house and yard wear. Now I seldom wear anything else, yet I still appreciate the perpetual findings that presentation of yourself can matter, depending on environment. It will be interesting if I have to go on any interviews, be it for side or temporary work, or for something that renders the business side or interim in nature, as I am lacking in the right attire. Thus the subject has been on my mind.

How I Will Be Rich goes back to the basics of business advice, thinking about business structure in How to start a Business in California (Pt. 1), which is applicable outside California, in this case.

Wally Bock remembers his experiences with the US Marines in one of the best pieces of advice on good business leadership that I have ever seen: Leadership Lessons from the US Marines.

Queercents gets into the ever popular topic of pricing in Why Theater Tickets Are Expensive. One or two points might surprise you, but there are also more general truths about perception and the pricing of products and services.

Lip-Sticking has the vocabulary building question of the week: Are you a bricoleur? I read it initially as “bricolor,” rhyming with tricolor (rather than sounding French as it appears it must) but making less sense as a word. Find out what it means. I definitely tend to be one, even if I may wish otherwise.

Lee Thayer opines that The Tongue always Outpaces the Understanding, especially when it comes to a term like “leadership,” cheapened by its use as a buzzword.

Blog Business World discusses the joys and challenges of increasingly common virtual companies in Virtual Companies :: Long distance employees. A friend and former business partner of mine works for just such an organization, programming. Part of the set of ideas that led to my new business involved doing business nowhere and everywhere. To the extent I will need to supplement the business with other work, the virtual company concept would fit my lifestyle perfectly. It would seem to take the challenges of telecommuting and step them up a notch, while giving them a more welcoming environment.

Sam Dinkin at Transterrestrial Musings hit close to home with Fighting the Last Credit Card War, in which he takes to task the business tactics of card issuers, who by intentionally discrediting cardholders have discredited themselves.

Weekend Pundit takes on Minimum Wage Bunkum, an erroneous assumption we see time and again about the who and when of minimum wage employment. I found it intriguing that the inflation calculator (a fun toy) says my only stint at minimum wage, $3.10 an hour in 1979, would be worth $9.26 now (as of 2006; close enough).

In keeping with the topic of transient passage through minimum wage, Coyote Blog notices that Poverty Ain’t What it Used to Be.

I also meant to point out Rob’s (off-topic, but hey) computer post for its entertainment value, since he didn’t enter CotC this week. Just keep telling yourself that Switching To Mac is Great as you read the post and comments it attracted.

That’s it for this week’s Carnival of the Capitalists. Next week’s edition is scheduled for About.com Entrepreneurs, and subsequent slots are filled through October.

News to Blog

On another note, loosely associated with opening, I have changed the name of the “News” page to “Blog.”

It’s a fine idea to create a site based around blogging software. It’s a fine idea to use the logging feature for the traditional news page to be easy to update. However, I have been using this more like a blog, see merit in making it a blog, and know that company blogs are excellent alternatives to traditional news pages.