Weather is not climate.  Just because we have had an extremely cold winter, the likes of which we haven’t seen for 30 years, doesn’t mean that Global Warming has stopped!  Or does it?

None of us can have failed to notice the increasingly polarised (unintended pun) views of the skeptics and alarmist camps when it comes to the man made global warming argument.  The recent publication of the emails floating around the University of East Anglia has lit the touch paper on a whole new level of discussion with the number of searches taking place on the term “climategate” going through the roof.

I have tried to follow the debate and apply my limited intelligence – but to no avail.  What is interesting though is that I am becoming increasingly aware of individuals that are perceived to be major “players” in the debate.  Firstly, there is a chap called Michael Mann in the US that produced a graph a few years ago showing his version of history of global temperatures.  This graph has caused a bit of a fuss such that it now has its own name - the “hockey stick” graph.  Al Gore and the IPCC have reprinted the graph and publicised it as illustrating, as “settled science” that the world is heating up – not only that – it is heating up at an unprecedented and alarming rate. 

After a while, the sceptics camp got their act together and set about rubbishing the graph.  Apparently, because thermometres hadn’t been invented a thousand years ago, Mann used other measures called “proxies” (such as tree ring data) to give temperatures for the past.  Michael Mann became the chief target for the skeptics and his online profile has risen from faceless propeller-head to the devil incarnate insofar as the skeptics are concerned.

Mann’s qualifications, integrity, morals and ethics have been questioned openly on the Internet and his personal and professional reputation is under threat. 

Meanwhile, Dr Rejander Pachauri who is Head of the IPCC has found the Internet turning against him.  A little while ago, a search of his name would have revealed many responses referring to conference speeches, reports, conferences, etc i.e. all good stuff.  However, Dr Pachauri is now finding his reputation under fire with questions regarding potential conflicts of interest (it is alleged he benefits financially from the very “cap and trade” markets that he has promoted through the IPCC)  and the fact that he is oft quoted as being one of “the world’s leading climate scientists” when it is alleged that his degree is actually in Railroad Engineering.

From the skeptics camp, Steve McKintyre, Senator Fielding from Australia, and our very own Lord Monckton are personalities that have risen to the fore. 

These are very extreme examples of the power of the Internet and its ability to provide information about individuals.  Search their names if you want to find out more.  The point is, the Internet is increasingly seen as the source of information about someone or something.

For us mere mortals that are not at the centre of world events, we will not face the issues that the personalities mentioned above will have to face.  However, knowing what appears in response to a search of our name on Google and managing, as far as possible, the image the we portray online  is hugely important to our careers and our lives.

If you would like some help – call me!

Philip Westerman – De Leon Personal Reputation Management

I could be accused of shooting myself in the foot here, but I meet lots of people who are very interested at what we do on behalf of our clients but, for whatever reason, do not want/cannot afford to employ a professional services company, like De Leon, to transform their online presence.

If we assume that the case is made for actively managing our online reputation/presence then what can people do for themselves if they are not savvy in the ways of online PR, copy writing, search engine optimisation? Let’s also assume that an individual wants to see themselves represented positively and accurately online.

So here, free of charge and without obligation, are a few pointers:

• Firstly, if you are into Facebook, MySpace or other similar social networks, consider carefully what you allow strangers to see. The press has been littered with stories of people that have been “caught” as a result of comments written by them on Facebook. Famously, employees have had a go at their bosses online, only to discover that their bosses were able to read their missives with the inevitable results. There’s a reason you have a network of friends and why some people are in it and the rest of the world is not.!

• Create business profiles on social networks like LinkedIn as well as niche social communities according to your interest such as YouTube and Flickr, or any of the other many social media sharing and news web sites.

• Start a blog. Register your own domain name and use one of the big blogging sites to host it for you. The domain name costs £10/year and the blog host service is often free.

• Registering a domain that includes your own name is important and competition for domains is only going to increase over time. Very few people have unique names and there will always be competition for the best domain name and for recognition by the search engines such as Google.

• Consider registering domain names for your family members. Your children may not want/need a domain name just now but at some point they will be applying to universities or entering the job market. Either way, a unique, relevant domain name is likely to become ever more important and, even, a necessity.

• Find the good stuff that’s already out there about you that might not yet be ranking on the first page and get links to that content. Cross linking between profiles is one way to do this, but promoting your interests and even content that you’ve created online with links to the pages that represent your accomplishments can also work well.

There are many more things an individual can do to improve their online reputation but the important thing to remember is that whatever gets put online, is pretty much forever. Sometimes it seems like a good idea at the time and now it’s not, sometimes it’s simply not accurate and sometimes the information reflects a person’s previous situation but is not an accurate representation now.

That all sounds like a lot of effort but, spread over time, it’s possible to make progress and produce some decent results.

Alternatively, you could, for a very small fee, employ De Leon to do all of the above for you and also bring our PR, copywriting and SEO skills to bear and really make an impression.

Philip Westerman, De Leon

I had a meeting yesterday with a client for whom De Leon did some work a couple of months ago. He runs a small, provincial accounting practice and his major target market for new business is start-ups and local SMEs.

Prior to the personal reputation management work that we have now implemented, the “marketing” of his company, in his own words, comprised the company web site and the occasional advertisement in the local paper. However, he said that most new business comes by referral or recommendation.

We had discussed this process and the client had pointed out that most referred, or recommended, clients also got the names of other potential accountants during the process and that potential clients usually did some research on their options prior to deciding to pick up the telephone and call.

Our work concentrated on working on his digital presence and that of his partner (business partner). We determined the criteria upon which a potential client may decide that our clients were right for the job. We concentrated on getting coverage on articles about starting a new business, press releases about his clients that had grown from start up to successful businesses with him, and created a personal blog site for each partner.

We helped write the first few blogs to indicate the style, content and stories that would be interesting and attractive and helpful to his target market. The blog site also included, in this case, some additional pages covering their business roles, their background and provided some RSS feeds on local business content.

In his words, the results “are astounding”! He has got new business in the last couple of months of course – but, importantly, two of the new accounts indicated that they had “read up on them” before deciding to call.

He generously told me that our fees were more than paid for already!  The even better news is that he is a “total convert” and is now recommending De Leon Personal Reputation Management to others.

To any of you that are out there running businesses, you will understand how satisfying it is to work hard on behalf of a client and then be rewarded with unsolicited praise.

Philip Westerman, De Leon – Personal Reputation Management

We’ve recently been working for one company to raise the internet profile of all of their senior sales staff through the implementation of our personal reputation management services. Our client’s sales staff are some the best in their field and get involved in some very large contracts – in both the public and private sector.

Their market, (I’m being vague for reasons of confidentiality) is highly competitive and there are at least two other companies that they will meet on the battle field (so to speak) when a major deal is being decided.  All the companies are very professional and very capable so it is often the sales person from each of the companies that make the difference to a contract being won or lost.

Our client wanted to make sure that when (not “if”) their salesperson’s name is searched by a potential client then they will find information and insight with respect to his staff’s reputation, credentials and standing – and that this will give them an “edge” when it comes to the invitation to tender and presentation stage.

By this time, the potential client will already know, through his own research, that our man is a serious, knowledgeable, and experienced professional that has handled many accounts of the size and nature being discussed. The potential client will also know that our man is committed and interested in his work – and it is not just a job.  They will find not only facts about roles and responsibilities but evidence of thought leadership, creativity and problem solving.

It’s what we do. It hasn’t cost them very much compared to the rest of their marketing spend and yet our work has the potential to help, in a not insignificant manner, clinch major deals!

Philip Westerman, De Leon – Personal Reputation Management