Wall Street Journal rubbishes Reputation Management

We came across an article in the Wall Street Journal via Reputation Advisor.

It’s a shame the journalist didn’t speak to some of the more responsible elements of the reputation management industry while writing the article. It comes across as a somewhat shady practice because the tactics of the companies featured are not necessarily best-practice. The analysis at Reputation Advisor is spot-on in terms of pointing out that these companies are dealing with individuals rather than companies. A tie-in to corporate reputation management services would have been interesting, I think.

I guess it’s a good thing that online reputation issues are starting to creep into mainstream publications, but (just as with SEO), there is a lot of work to do in order to reassure readers of the honest intentions of the majority of an industry that contains some shady characters.