Capabilities>>Capabilities of thespecial Projects Team
Use Cases>>Is Special Projects right for you?
Typical Engagements>>Typical engagement scenarios
FAQs>>Frequently asked questions
Case Studies>>Case studies
How important is your reputation?
When your reputation is mission critical, ReputationDefender’s elite Special Projects team offers the most powerful reputation management tools available anywhere.
Custom, personalized solutions Designed to your needs—no two engagements are alike
Powerful results delivered quickly Proprietary approaches not available anywhere else, fueled by over a decade of R&D
Discreet and confidential Handled by a dedicated team of experts who work exclusively on Special Projects
86% of executives say reputation risk is a potentially crippling business liability.
– Willis Towers Watson (2020)
90
%
90% of employers factor a job candidate’s social media accounts into their hiring decisions.
– The Manifest (2020)
⅔
A company’s reputation is responsible for nearly two-thirds of its market value.
– Weber Shandwick (2020)
Capabilities of the Special Projects Team
We have experience with virtually every type of online reputation and digital privacy issue imaginable. Below are some of the most typical requests handled by Special Projects.
Search management Reorder your search results to amplify true, positive materials and de-emphasize attacks or misleading items.
Autocomplete and search suggestions Change the suggested terms that people see when they start searching for you or your company.
SEO consultation Get the most mileage out of your existing Web properties with actionable advice on how to leverage them for reputation gains.
Image and video remediation Control which images and videos appear in your main search results, your knowledge graph, and in image and video searches.
Strategic publication If you or your business lack content that accurately reflects you online, we can build a network of positive, quality materials that promote your reputation naturally and effectively.
Analysis and reporting Receive detailed reporting and on-demand consultation for any type of reputation issue and the progress of your engagement.
Excerpt from a Special Projects client report
Tracking the progress of search remediation
Less competitive negative sites are quickly suppressed.
More competitive sites show some initial progress, followed by a period of regression as search engines test out new trends. Eventually, the trend is proved true and the negative site drops permanently.
ReputationDefender’s Special Projects team steps in when standard online reputation management approaches just won’t cut it. Special Projects clients have prominent public personas—or want to avoid developing them.
Defender®
Special Projects
Client profile
Notability
average
high
Search volume
low to moderate
moderate to high
Online presence
little or none
moderate to extensive
Type of threat
blogs reviews local news
national media images viral video PR issues
Engagement profile
Duration
12 months
variable
Content publication
required
optional
Technological search signalling
Custom, multi-pronged approach
Engagement targets
Search results
Images & video
Search suggestions
Search autocomplete
Optimize existing websites
Typical engagement scenarios
Scenario
Brand haunted by old news
Past mistakes by a previous executive team continue to dominate the search results, steering consumers to incorrect, outdated materials. In the news media, old issues continue to dominate, overshadowing recent successes. Hostile bloggers further highlight the negative.
Solution
Three-pronged approach
We use technological search tools to push down the old, outdated search results.
We push up more relevant, recent materials through search signalling.
We conduct SEO work with the company and mount a strategic publication plan.
Scenario
Executive being maligned
A former lover with an axe to grind makes up scandalous allegations against a successful executive. Crude, doctored photographs begin to appear in the executive’s search results, which attract attention from bloggers and the media. As a result, a potential hire ceases negotiations and a prominent client suspends orders. In addition, threats are made anonymously against the executive’s family.
Solution
Privacy and reputation
We begin robust, Deep Web privacy monitoring and protection for the executive and affected family members.
Search remediation technologies are used to suppress the doctored photos and negative press.
Under advisement from our Special Projects team, the company’s PR department publishes strategic news releases to change the online conversation.
How is this different from a standard Defender engagement?
Standard Defender® engagements rely on strategic content creation and publication. Special Projects engagements instead rely on a suite of proprietary technologies designed to influence broad search trends around your name or company name. New content is sometimes helpful for Special Projects, but it isn’t always necessary.
That said, the techniques employed in Special Projects are very resource-intensive and expensive. If you can solve your issues through a standard Defender® engagement, you should consider it.
I need to keep a low profile online. Can you still help?
Yes. Since Special Projects engagements are largely technological, we can often work entirely with pre-existing positive content that exists in your search results already. Our efforts will look completely natural—because they are. All we do is influence the order of the materials that are out there, drawing attention away from negative or misleading content.
How do your proprietary technologies work?
We can’t disclose the specifics, but broadly speaking, the technologies we use work by influencing search patterns. This makes it more likely that people will find relevant, positive materials about you or your company. Once people start finding and interacting with positive content, their behavior sends signals to search engines about what information is important to them. As a result, search engines reorder the results to better represent your reputation.
Can I get references or speak to past clients?
It depends. As you can understand, discretion is extremely important to our Special Projects clients, and most are not willing to speak to third parties they do not already know. However, occasionally we do have clients who are willing to serve as references, under specific circumstances. On request, we can reach out to potential references on your behalf. If they agree to speak to you, we will put you in touch.
Can you coordinate with my public relations team on content strategies?
Yes, definitely. In fact, Special Projects engagements are often much more successful when we can work jointly with your PR or marketing teams.
Will this make my search results look fake?
No, absolutely not. Since Special Projects engagements work predominantly with pre-existing content, your search results will be filled with natural links to real sites. If you do require the creation of new content, we will work with you or your team to design materials that faithfully represent you or your company.
Case studies
Philanthropist attacked by the press
Problem A respected philanthropist contacted ReputationDefender to help him suppress negative news coverage in his search results stemming from a minor altercation that happened to be captured on a television broadcast.
Outcome Despite the challenging nature of this case, we were able to achieve rapid initial success on most negative items, with only one particularly difficult search result (a video carousel) persisting beyond Month 7.
An executive contacted ReputationDefender to clear his company’s name after an ex-employee’s dispute with the business went viral. Years after the company resolved the dispute, articles about the conflict were still appearing when people googled the company or its leadership team, thereby giving potential stakeholders a negative first impression and leading to lost business.
Outcome
Even in this highly challenging case, we were able to achieve rapid initial success on the most visible negative items, with only one negative result briefly reappearing twice on the bottom of the first page beyond 14 months.
A well-known company garnered negative publicity after a public figure repeatedly disparaged it in the press. This increased attention, combined with the amount of easily accessible personally identifiable information (PII) online about the company’s workforce, made the workers vulnerable to hackers, scammers, and other bad actors.
Outcome
ReputationDefender’s Special Projects team was able to find and remove 97% of the employees’ PII within eight weeks of starting the engagement.
