Online Identity Management: Components and Objectives

        Online Identity Management (OIM) is a set of methods for generating a distinguished presence of a person on the Internet. That presence could be reflected in any kind of content that refers to the person, including news, participation in blogs and forums, personal web sites, social media presence, pictures, video, et cetera.

        One aspect of the Online Identity Management process has to do with improving the quantity and quality of traffic to sites that have content related to a person. In that aspect, OIM is a part of another discipline called Search Engine Optimization with the difference that the only keyword is the person’s name, and the optimization object is not necessary a single web site; it can consider a set of completely different sites that contain positive online references. The objective in this case is to get high rankings for as many sites as possible when someone search for a person’s name.

There are four components of a person’s online presence:

1. Popularity: who does the person know and the extent of his/her online network.

2. Impact: how much people listen to what the person says online.

3. Activity: what does the person do online e.g. shop, chat, blog.

4. Individuality: how easy is the person to find online according to his/her name, age etc.

The objective of the Online Identity Management process is to:

1. Maximize the appearances of positive references, targeting not only to people that actively searches for a specific name on any Search Engine, but also those that eventually can reach a person’s reference while browsing the web.

2. Build an online identity in case the person’s web presence is minimal or nonexistent.

3. Solve online reputation problems. In this case, the process can also be named online reputation management.

        Reputation management is essential to maintain a positive consumer outlook on your products and/or services. An online identity that has acquired an excellent reputation is valuable for two reasons: first, one or more persons invested a great deal of time and effort to build the identity’s reputation; and second, other users look to the identity’s reputation as they try to decide whether it is sufficiently trustworthy. Online reputation management services work to build a positive reputation for the clients. This service counteracts malicious information on the Internet such as; erroneous rumors, unfair opinions and other negative information posted online.