SEO Reputation Management: What Good is It? If You’ve Been Sentenced to Hell with No Reciprocity, You’re Gonna Need It!

What does someone do when they have been tried by the media and then found guilty in the court of public opinion? Yellow journalism, also known as the "Yellow Press", is a type of journalism that downplays legitimate news in favor of eye-catching headlines that sell more newspapers; and, quite often, it deceives the readers it is intended for.

“One single, negative press article in just one major newspaper and my life and reputation was doomed to hell with no reciprocity,” said Mark Maupin, a former Detroit real estate investor. In May 2004, a Detroit reporter used one quote from someone that accused me of fraud.”

Because of one person’s biased opinion, Ralph Maupin’s, his family’s and his professional live all teetered like bobble-heads as he entered bankruptcy 6 years ago.

Just as the real estate market went bust for millions of investors in 2004, Mark was sued by one of his many investors who screamed “fraud” to a member of the Detroit media. With no money to hire an attorney, the investor got a default judgment against Maupin and then challenged him in a federal bankruptcy court. However, a Federal Judge ruled against the investor’s claim. And, stated for the record that Maupin acted appropriately, but “went above and beyond on his investment in the property.”

It was a bitter-sweet judgment in Maupin’s favor. He won the court battle, but lost the public perception war! Unfortunately for Maupin’s professional reputation, the Detroit media genius who ran the original attack stories never reported on the court’s decision exonerating him on the fraud complaint. Maupin continued to lose the perception war because the yellow press was still out there for anyone to read on the internet. It was so depressing that Maupin stopped searching his name on the engines because of all the negative print.

At what point does one say, “enough is enough.” What are the rules when it comes to Yellow Journalism with an axe to grind? How do you go up against the power of the press? What can a person or company do when they are tried and found guilty by the press?

“The anger and frustration overwhelmed me to the point where I just wanted to smash something,” confessed Maupin. “Every time a client or an investor canceled an agreement or backed out of a deal, I felt like going downtown to ‘clean her clock’ (the reporter).”

“Today,” Maupin says, “We can definitely do something about it.” Mark began the challenge to resurrect his good name and reputation using the same tool: the internet.

Maupin today runs a successful internet SEO company, Right Now Marketing Group, LLC, that puts small and large businesses at the top of Google in front of customer and client traffic for their company’s products and services.

“I discovered that I could have turned the tables not only on my accuser, but also on the reporter,” Mark said with conviction. “Compared to the attack on me, I could have reciprocated with a counter-attack on steroids!” Instead, Maupin stayed on the high road, using this experience as a lesson for life.

In today’s media-frenzied climate, the conduct and competence of professional men and women are increasingly under society’s microscope. Integrity and reputation are serious assets held by honest business owners; when one is lost, everything else follows, as Arthur Andersen fatally discovered with the Enron debacle.

A problem becomes a crisis when the media starts paying attention to it, amplifies it, and matters escalate rapidly out of an individual’s immediate control. If the focus is short term and media driven, it's a crisis. At that point, it becomes a matter of perception rather than reality; unfortunately, the individual, the company will be perceived as guilty until proven innocent.

“I did something about what happened to me,” said Maupin, defiantly. “And now I know how to help others to restore their reputation and credibility.”

Today Maupin takes on the assignment of Reputation Management for a very select number of people. His first assessment of every client is to determine whether or not he/she is the victim of yellow press.

It is a costly project to restore your reputation after you have been attacked. (It starts at $10,000 month and can take up to 6 months to clean up the negative press depending on how much damage has been done.)

When the media print something in newspapers or magazines, or videotapes events on electric media, the story will land on the internet and receive a high page rank on all of the search engines.

It takes massive actions on the internet, including doing thousands of press releases, classifieds, blogs, websites, and articles using powerful keywords, creating backlinks, and latent semantic indexing to position and maintain a client’s positive position over the negative articles.

This requires Maupin’s team of top notch writers, SEO work, and researchers at Right Now Marketing Group.

Out of misfortune, comes good. As the result of his experience, Maupin developed his expertise as an internet super star. Today he makes a living working for national franchise companies to small businesses to individuals by publishing their information at the top of Google.

Given a choice of being accused of incompetence, negligence, or collusion, which would you select for your firm? Think before you answer; the wrong choice could spell the death of your organization-or your personal career. Confronting media crises is about acting properly to deal with the problem.

Maupin’s approach to Reputation Management is the process of tracking people actions/opinions in the media and on the internet, searching for positive and negative opinions. Reputation Management is Maupin’s solution of burying negative opinions, thus converting those negative opinions in to positive perceptions.

Reputation Management is not a new concept since everyone from Wall Street to “Joe Six-Pack” relies on their reputation to protect and enhance their livelihood. Reputations sway public opinion, positively or negatively. Opinions have a tangible impact on the success of any business or venture whether it’s been around for three months or three decades.

Contact Mark for an assessment of your reputation perception. Mark has a long list of satisfied clients who have benefited from his service.