修復(fù)你的在線聲譽

By Steve Henn

Melissa Block： This year， more than 1.7 million students are graduating from college. And many are engaged in a 1）ritual of the digital age： cleaning up their online profiles. As NPRs Steve Henn reports， an entire industry has sprung up to help.

Steve Henn： I became interested in this business of cleaning up online reputations because two guys told me a great story. Its a story about how they founded their own business. And the story is so good its become a bit of an urban legend. It begins when Pete Kistler was in college at Syracuse.

Pete Kistler： My GPA was 3.9. I had a lot of relevant internship experience， and I wanted to go into software.

Henn： So Kistler started applying to a bunch of top computer software firms， looking for a summer job.

Kistler： And by a bunch， I mean dozens and dozens. But Im not hearing back from anyone.

Henn： Kistler says he was puzzled. No one was even calling him. Then...

Kistler： One of my buddies who works at one of the places that I applied to actually reached out to me and he said， you wont believe this， but the reason that you didnt get called back was because they Googled you and they found another kid with your name thats a drug dealer， and they thought that you were him.

Henn： When Pete Kistler was telling me this story， he said he still remember the exact moment he Googled himself. Kistler： I remember it 2）vividly. You know， my stomach dropped and I thought， oh， my God， everybody who Googles me probably thinks Im this kid， Im this drug dealer. And there are all these Google images of a car crash and 3）DUI.

Henn： It was almost kind of funny， he says， until he tried to clean up the mess.

Kistler： At that point， I didnt really know what to do because I didnt know how to fix my own search results in Google.

Henn： There are reputation management companies out there that could help Kistler out.

（Soundbite of advertisement）

Unidentified man： Reputation.com 4）combats negative material.

Henn： But the cost is steep. Michael Fertick helped create this industry and now runs Reputation.com.

Michael Fertick： Another one of our products starting at $1，000 dollars a year， OK—lets just be clear—called Reputation Defender， will help you take control of your reputation online.

Kistler： Of course， I had student loans and there was no way I could possibly afford that.

Henn： Did you talk to your parents about it？

Kistler： Yeah， I did. And they didnt have the money either.

Henn： These companies advertise a lot.

（Soundbite of advertisement）

Unidentified man： Call 800-222-6638 now for your free reputation assessment.

Henn： Youve probably heard messages like these. Reputation. com is an underwriter for NPR. And the biggest reputation management companies spend millions on marketing each year. But Danny Sullivan， the editor Search Engine Land， finds these ads unconvincing.

Danny Sullivan： They usually make me kind of laugh because the promises tend to sound like， were going to sort all this stuff out for you， and the reality is that nobody can really guarantee to do that.

Henn： Sullivan says if theres bad information out there about you online， you usually cant simply erase it from the Internet. No one can. Instead， these services...

Sullivan： They all do work kind of the same way.

Henn： They try to flood the Internet with new， more positive stories and content about you， stories that link to each other and are written in ways that make them pop to the top of search results.

Sullivan： You try to get the good stuff to come into the top results which will push down the bad stuff.

Henn： Its called search engine 5）optimization， or SEO. And Pete Kistler says when he was in college he didnt have the cash to pay for it. But he did have a friend with some SEO experience： Patrick Ambron. And soon， they realized that maybe there was a business in this for them.

Patrick Ambron： So what we wanted to do was create a product that allowed anybody to do the same thing we were doing but do it themselves for free.

Henn： They launched a company called BrandYourself， landed some 6）venture 7）capital funding and opened an office in New York City. They now offer more affordable paid services， too， and a couple colleges including Johns Hopkins and Syracuse offer these services to their undergrads. But Ambron acknowledges they cant make bad stories just disappear.

Ambron： What you do is you push unwanted things down with more positive relevant stuff.

Henn： And this story of Pete Kistler the computer programmer being mistaken for Pete Kistler the drug dealer has become 8）ubiquitous. Newspapers picked it up. The story has appeared in USA Today， “The New York Post”， Forbes and on CBS and in the AP. BrandYourself even has a photo， a 9）mug shot actually， on its website of this supposed drug dealer， Pete Kistler. But the thing is， I cant find a record of this guy， this convicted drug dealer named Pete Kistler anywhere.

梅麗莎·布洛克：今年（2013年），將有超過170萬大學(xué)生畢業(yè)。他們中許多人例行數(shù)字時代的一項新興工作：清理他們的在線資料。正如NPR記者史蒂夫·亨的報道，整個行業(yè)如同雨后春筍般出現(xiàn)，（為需要清理在線資料的客戶）提供幫助。

史蒂夫·亨：我開始對這個清理在線聲譽的行業(yè)感興趣源于兩個人給我講的一個很棒的故事，是關(guān)于他們?nèi)绾蝿?chuàng)業(yè)的。這個創(chuàng)業(yè)故事很有啟發(fā)性，有點兒都市傳奇的味道。故事源于那時還在錫拉丘茲（美國城市）上大學(xué)的皮特·吉斯特勒。

皮特·吉斯特勒：那時我的平均績點是3.9，有過不少相關(guān)實習(xí)經(jīng)驗，我想求得一份軟件行業(yè)的工作。

亨：所以吉斯特勒開始申請一系列頂尖的計算機軟件公司，尋求一份暑期實習(xí)工作。

吉斯特勒：申請了一堆公司，我是說很多很多，但是沒有一個給我回復(fù)。

亨：吉斯特勒說他很迷惑，甚至沒人給他打過電話。之后……吉斯特勒：事實上我的一個好朋友聯(lián)系了我，他在我曾申請的其中一家公司工作，他說：“你不會相信這個的，但是他們不給你回復(fù)是因為他們谷歌搜索了你的名字，發(fā)現(xiàn)一個與你同名的孩子是個毒販，他們以為你就是他?！?/p>

亨：皮特·吉斯特勒告訴我這個故事時，他說他仍清楚地記得當(dāng)時他谷歌搜索自己名字的情形。

吉斯特勒：我記得很清楚。你知道，我的胃像被震掉了一樣，我想，噢，天啊，每個谷歌搜索我名字的人都可能會認為我就是這個孩子，我就是這個毒販。還有谷歌圖片上有所有這些撞車事故和酒后駕車的照片。

亨：這有點兒好笑，他說，直到他開始嘗試清理爛攤子。

吉斯特勒：那時，我真的不知道該怎么做，因為我不知道如何修復(fù)自己在谷歌上的搜索結(jié)果。

亨：有聲譽管理公司能助吉斯特勒一臂之力。

（廣告片段聲）

匿名男聲：Reputation.com擊破負面材料。

亨：但這項服務(wù)花費昂貴。邁克·菲爾提克致力發(fā)展這一行業(yè)，現(xiàn)在運營著Reputation.com。

邁克·菲爾提克：我們的另一個產(chǎn)品每年需要花費最低1千美元起，好吧，簡單說，這叫做聲譽衛(wèi)士，它會幫你監(jiān)視在線聲譽。

吉斯特勒：當(dāng)然，我還有學(xué)生貸款要還，不可能支付得起這筆費用。亨：你和父母談過這事嗎？

吉斯特勒：是的，談過，他們也沒有錢。

亨：這些公司的廣告鋪天蓋地。

（廣告片段聲）

匿名男聲：現(xiàn)在撥打電話8002226638，進行免費聲譽評估。亨：你可能聽過這樣的廣告。Reputation.com是NPR的承銷商。最大的幾家聲譽管理公司每年花幾百萬美元在市場推廣上。而網(wǎng)站搜索引擎天地的編輯丹尼·沙利文說，這些廣告都不具說服力。

丹尼·沙利文：他們時常讓我忍俊不禁，因為這些承諾聽起來就像是：我們將為您解決這些事，但是事實上沒人能做到。

亨：沙利文說如果網(wǎng)上有關(guān)于你的不好信息，通常是不能簡單地從互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上擦掉的。沒人可以做到。而這些“服務(wù)”……

沙利文：他們工作的方式基本一致。

亨：他們試著將關(guān)于你的新的、更正面的故事和內(nèi)容注入互聯(lián)網(wǎng)中，故事相互鏈接，使他們能迅速登上搜索結(jié)果靠前的位置。

沙利文：你試著將好的方面放到搜索結(jié)果靠前位置，將不好的方面擠到后面。

亨：這叫做搜索引擎優(yōu)化，或者簡稱SEO。皮特·吉斯特勒說他上大學(xué)前沒錢支付這項服務(wù)的費用。但是他的朋友帕特里克·安布朗做過SEO相關(guān)的工作。不久之后，他們意識到那可能成為他們自己的事業(yè)。

帕特里克·安布朗：所以我們要做的就是創(chuàng)造一個產(chǎn)品，這個產(chǎn)品能讓任何人自己就能做我們做著的事，并且是免費的。

亨：他們創(chuàng)立了一家叫做BrandYourself的公司，依靠風(fēng)險投資基金，在紐約市有一間辦公室。如今他們也提供更多的付費服務(wù)，包括約翰斯·霍普金斯以及錫拉丘茲的一些大學(xué)對他們的學(xué)生提供這些服務(wù)。但是安布朗承認他們并不能使壞的故事完全消失不見。

安布朗：你所能做的就是用更積極的相關(guān)信息將不想看到的信息擠到靠后的位置。亨：計算機程序師皮特·吉斯特勒誤成為毒販子皮特·吉斯特勒的故事很普遍。報紙撿到了這個素材。如今，這樣的故事發(fā)生在美國。在《紐約郵報》、福布斯雜志上，在哥倫比亞廣播公司還有美聯(lián)社都有報道。BrandYourself甚至在自己的網(wǎng)站上有一張照片，實際上是這位所謂的“毒販子”皮特·吉斯特勒的面部特寫照。但是問題是，我無法找到關(guān)于這個人——記錄在案的毒販子皮特·吉斯特勒的記錄了。