In today’s world, it’s all too easy to let yourself be defined by a Google search. While you, and your clients, are far more than your search results, that fact may not be apparent to anyone who hops on the internet.

In today’s world, it’s all too easy to let yourself be defined by a Google search. While you, and your clients, are far more than search results, that fact may not be apparent to anyone who hops on the internet.

The growing importance of social networking and search engine rankings have created an opportunity and a challenge for wealth managers and their clients in the form of reputation management. Reputation management involves proactively creating a presence on the internet via websites, social media and blogging as well as reacting to any damaging information posted there.

A form of risk

For clients, reputation management is another type of risk management, says Steve Prostano, chief executive of Silver Bridge Advisors, a wealth management and family office firm in Boston, Massachusetts. It starts with the awareness of the risks involved in social networking and the internet in today’s world.

For clients, educating them about the risks and benefits involved in social networking and any interaction they have via the computer is important, he adds. “We’re going to be sponsoring a large event in October for clients on how they can protect themselves and navigate the social networking environment in such a way as to protect their reputations,” he says.

Proactive management

Experts in reputation management recommend that wealth managers take other steps to help their clients protect their reputations. These include frequently checking search engine results on themselves to see what pops up on the first couple of pages and engaging a firm with expertise in this area if there’s a problem, says April Rudin, CEO of the Rudin Group, a public relations firm in New York City, New York.

“Tell your clients to Google themselves every three months or so to see what results come up on the first few pages,” she advises. “The internet is forever: bad or damaging information about you or your clients can live there forever and the only way to manage it is to be aware of what’s there and proactively get more positive news out there that is recent, so it ranks higher on search engine results.”

Chris Cicero of Digital Whiteout, a firm that specializes in reputation restoration, agrees, saying, “Restoring and managing reputations online involves ensuring that there’s recent good news or at least recent neutral news that ranks high on search engines. Most people doing Google searches never go beyond the first or second page of results, so older bad news is harder for most people to find.”

Most HNW individuals are concerned about how any bad news about them or their families will be perceived by business associates and friends, he adds. Either these types of wealth management clients are trying to preventively manage their reputations in case some bad news comes out about them in the future or they are trying to get bad news to rank lower on search engine results, so fewer people are aware of it.

That’s why it’s vitally important for your clients to have LinkedIn profiles, Facebook pages and other information about themselves out on the internet, Cicero says. If you don’t have information out about yourself on the internet, bad news will show up in search engine results immediately. “There will be no positive news or neutral news to stop the negative news from rising to the top,” he adds.

Once damage to a reputation has been done, it can take months for a carefully crafted campaign of positive information to move the negative information down in the search engine results, because reputation management firms don’t want Google or other search engines to think they are being gamed to yield certain results, Cicero notes. By having a presence on social media and having a personal or company site that posts positive news about those high net worth individuals, it is easier to manage reputations and keep the negative news contained, Rudin says.

High net worth clients are concerned about their children and their use of social media, which is one reason why Prostano’s firm is sponsoring a seminar on social media and its implications. Also, some wealthy individuals have a checkered past, which can hurt them socially and professionally when friends, potential romantic partners and potential business partners dig into their backgrounds, Cicero notes.

In fact, his firm is working with a wealthy business owner, who, because of some issues in his past, has been unable to buy a co-op apartment in New York because the co-op boards won’t approve him. So Digital Whiteout is conducting a campaign to put positive news out there and move the negative results far back on search engine result.

When it comes to reputation management one of the best things that wealth managers can do is recommend reputable public relations and reputation management firms to their clients so they have firms with the necessary expertise to help them proactively manage their reputations in social media and online. “You wouldn’t want your client to create an investment plan without your help and it’s the same for a credible social media and reputation management campaign,” she adds. “Hire a firm that has the necessary expertise to plan and execute a credible and ongoing plan.”