Celebrities and public personalities have a unique challenge when it comes to managing their online reputation.
Public personalities have to contend with the large quantities of published information on the Internet. This includes information generated from different sources, published on a variety of online properties, often containing content that is slanderous or inaccurate.
The problem is, once that information – right or wrong – is published online it immediately creates attention. Often that attention can avalanche like a bad domino effect as people re-post the info and before you can say “Google”, that misleading or downright false posts have been seen by hundreds of thousands of people.
And while it’s true in life that everyone is innocent until proven guilty, the court of public internet opinion often doesn’t allow for such judiciousness.
Let’s explore the ways that celebrity reputation management presents different challenges from those not in the limelight.
How is Celebrity Reputation Management a Different Challenge?
For many people or brands, the process of Online Reputation Management is relatively simple. For the average person or brand this process might entail managing feedback from review sites, and competing with only a handful of negative published opinions, if any, for top rankings in search results pages. For celebrities, there is much more information being created about them, and from a seemingly endless number of sources.
There are a large variety of sources which generate online content about celebrities. These include:
- Conventional news organizations
- Celebrity-focused news publications
- Fan forums that discuss a given celebrity or their work
- Social media content posted by other well known entities
- And many other types of websites
Online sources such as these may publish negative content about a celebrity that will easily rank high in Google’s search results. This is especially the case when a well known media-outlet or popular website is involved. These sources may also continually generate fresh negative content that will populate search engine results pages (SERPs). Ordinary people aren’t typically faced with this sort of reputation challenge.
How do you manage a celebrity’s online reputation?
So what needs to be done to protect online reputation for a celebrity? First, claim your online properties. This means it is important to reserve or create a profile or username on the different online media platforms, and other types of websites. This includes:
Social Media:
- YouTube
Other
- Wikipedia Page
- Reserve or use variations of domain names I.E. www.bobsmith.com, www.robertsmith.com
By claiming profiles on these popular and well-established platforms, you are creating online properties that are likely to rank well in Google’s search results with a minimum amount of legwork. These platforms already possess some credibility in Google’s eyes. The profile you create on one of these platforms will “borrow” some of this credibility.
When these profiles are claimed, it also makes it more difficult for someone else to pretend to be the celebrity. If the celebrity already controls social media accounts using their name and close variations of their name, it is not as easy for someone else to pose as the celebrity under a fake account. We explored this topic on here: How to leverage social media accounts for reputation management here.
Create Content!
Readers and especially Google value current content. No one searches for old news and thus it’s important to constantly be creating new content for your website. Online properties will not rank above negative harmful websites unless there is quality fresh content being generated.
For social media profiles, post or tweet updates at least once a week. The more often, the better.
Don’t focus too much on what these social media updates consist of, just focus on getting the updates out there. Over time your posts will get better. If your online-property supports long-form content (think of an article or blog entry) than writing content of 500 words in length or longer will go a long way to helping a website or blog rank higher as well.
Create Links
In order to help these online properties rank higher for a celebrity, above the masses of media-generated content showing up in Google, you will need some more help. This can be achieved by creating links also know as Guest Posts. These Guest Posts will contain links that connect one website back to your website.
When one website links to another, additional credibility is given by Google to the receiving website. Most importantly it helps users visit your website or social site easily, and be able to find other properties of yours. Make it easy for website visitors to find the content you want them to find.
For example, if a Wikipedia page now exists for your celebrity, see if you can add a positive website about the celebrity or other property as a source of information on the Wikipedia page. That “source” or reference will become a link going from Wikipedia to the positive website.
On your social media profiles, link to the other profiles and websites you have made. Make all these properties link to each other, where you are able to do so. Links from social media profiles typically confer less credibility than other types of online platforms, but all together, it will help. Did that 500+ word blog entry get written? Great, add some links inside the blog post going to positive sites or profiles about the celebrity.
It’s a Process
Achieving positive results for celebrity online reputation management will take time, consistency, and effort. Results won’t be achieved overnight. Creating online properties, generating content, and building links are just part (an important part) of an overall strategy for celebrity online reputation management success.
With enough time and know-how, you may be able to do some of this work yourself. But if doing this yourself is not sustainable over the months, consider seeking professional online reputation management help.
At the Avita Group, we are experienced in celebrity online reputation management. Working together, we craft a strategy with our client to improve online reputation for their unique situation. Especially in the case of celebrity reputation management, getting the results you want may require some extra horsepower.
Do you have any questions, or need some advice? Contact the Avita Group for a free consultation.