It has been an interesting week – a few blog posts out there attacking others, a nice article on online reputation that was syndicated from the Seattle Times, and a phone call via Facebook asking me about … defending your reputation because of blogs.
Let’s start at the attacks – famously on TechCrunch some guy named Ronald is using Justin.tv’s software to lifecast his … well, so-called life. That’s fine. I’ve worn the hat, I’ve done the Jeremy.tv shtick with Justin’s hat … and while I would not do it fulltime, I can appreciate the performance art aspect of it, and think Justin’s done a great job with the shtick.
Jeremy Pepper.tv
Originally uploaded by b_d_solis.
Ronald, though, got into a little (forced) tiff at the movie theater. He wanted to wear his cap and lifecast from the movies … and boy, wouldn’t the MPAA love that. He tried to explain what lifecasting is – and, since I’ve seen Justin explain it, I do know that it’s sometimes a trick to people. When Bryanna politely told Ronald no … he called her a bitch.
Fine. I look at it as typical Detroit self-esteem issues (I know, I was born in that former city). It’s his right to call her a bitch and be unhappy with her treatment of him and his art … but what was the purpose of using Bryanna’s full name? To Google Juice her so that the first thing that comes up is someone calling her a fucking bitch? Um, great.
And, well, it shows a lack of honesty and respect to the “practice” of lifecasting. Anyone that blogs knows that if you have a big enough audience, and use a not “internet famous” person’s name … you will own that name on Google. It just shows a lack of respect or humanity … but what about Bryanna now? Her name is fully linked to that video, and unless she begins blogging or uses a system like ReputationDefender … her name will forever be attached to that While Ronald is going to apologize to her (hey, it’s another chance to do a video!), is that going to show up in Google as well? There is a certain bit of responsibility social media has … and instances like this show a lack of understanding of the esprit de corps of social media. Game over because a simple lack of respect or humanity has not hurt someone else’s online reputation.
Now, here’s a flip side. You’re a young, brash blogger and you’re taking on the world! You’re young, you’re hip … you’re the cat’s meow. And, all these social media PR people – quite a few that have earned their stripes because of projects that they have done, and clients they have worked on – well, they’re old farts that can never understand social media like the young buck you are because you’re that MySpace / Facebook generation.
No, serious. Read about it on David Parmet’s blog – and love well, the attitude.
And, that’s fine. I love a little bit of ‘tude as much as the next person. But, when you are representing a wire service – oh, like Marketwire – does it really behoove you (or the company) to insult and alienate a large group of PR practitioners? You know, I am in the market for a wire service right now, and I have my choices of PR Newswire, Businesswire and PR Web … but Marketwire is not on that list.
But, at the end of the day – it is about your own reputation. What do you do if you are a high-level employee at a corporation, and when you leave, the message trolls come out and come attacking? Soon, those results are the top results for your name.
Or, on another, more basic level – it does not even have to be leaving a job or starting a new job – schools are so wired, and people are so networked through networks like Facebook and MySpace, Facebook is searchable via Google (unless you opted-out, which I did) that your reputation is formed both through your own content and what others think of you … and knowing human nature, that’s not necessarily a good thing.
Photo by Brian Solis
