If you're feeling a bit self-absorbed, it can be fun to Google yourself to see what shows up in the search results. However this exercise is less fun if what shows up as the public record of your life is not only untrue but maliciously false.

If distrust of the pharmaceutical industry is not high enough, then fact sheets issued by the World Health Organisation warning of massive corruption throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain is certainly not going to inspire much confidence.

The media can be absolutely merciless at times and it does not take much for a medical practitioner's reputation to be dragged through the mud. Unfortunately with medical malpractice suits there will often be a push for publicity to garnish sympathy, particularly if it's a high profile case.

Plumbing emergencies don't wait until it's convenient for you. Neither does searing toothache at 3am. When you've locked yourself out of your home, it's always the middle of the night. As much as we'd like to have a handy list of emergency service people on speed-dial, the truth is, we often turn to the internet to get hold of someone in a hurry.

Banks and bankers are starting to see the value and understand just how important it is to maintain a good reputation.

Just like the adage "a picture is worth a thousand words", YOUR picture on search engines could be worth a great deal when it comes to your online reputation. If you want to do a quick check to find out what people are saying about you, or what has been written about you; you type your name into Google and the results are available in an instant.

Far too many people still think of the internet as a veil which they can hide behind and maintain an online persona that is private; the truth is somewhat more disturbing: The internet is a reflection of exactly who you are and if you're looking to impress, you'd better make sure that your reflection is a true and fair depiction of exactly who you are.

Quality content reigns supreme for anyone managing their reputation online. Whether you're protecting your brand and image or promoting it, without distributing new content on a regular basis, you can quickly be misrepresented on search engines.