In today's business world, computers, the internet, and social media dominate. It is the way companies and their workers advertise, market, communicate, and collaborate. Much of the business that executives, sales personnel, and other employees conduct is with people they will never actually meet face-to-face. Nevertheless, you always want to project your best self and to be trusted and respected. Reputation is everything, whether you are sitting in a room with someone, emailing them, or messaging them online.
Reputation Defender knows that online reputation is every bit as important as it is in real life. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to protect and enhance your image. These 5 top tips from ReputationDefender can help.
1. Always Be At Your Best
"Put your best foot forward" is a cliché, but it is also good advice. It is the first step in online reputation management (ORM). It is common for people interacting on social media to be rude, insulting, and conduct themselves poorly. The anonymity of being online is seen as a shield. However, this is a bad practice, as the way you behave online is attached to who you are as a person.
Be respectful and polite in your dealings with others online. One way to accomplish this is to ask yourself if your post or communication meets these parameters: is it helpful, kind, necessary, and true? If not, don't hit send on your email or message.
2. Go Through Your Online Profiles
It is a good idea to periodically go through your online profiles and look for posts that could damage your reputation. These don't have to be radical political statements or offensive jokes. Any of these things could hurt your reputation:
• Profanity
• Grammar and spelling mistakes
• Excessive personal information
• Inappropriate photos
• Articles that have not been vetted or fact checked
• Complaining about colleagues or bosses
• Pictures or other evidence of excessive use of alcohol or drugs
Your reputation needs constant attention and nurturing. Don't ruin it. It only takes one negative element.
3. Don't Argue Online
It can be tempting to engage in online arguments, especially with people who are misinformed and provoke anger. Don't do it. Whether you think you won or lost the fight is irrelevant.
Just engaging in a dispute can hurt your reputation. Avoid arguments, and it is also a good idea not to post content on any topic that can be provocative or polarizing.
Think about most top celebrities and influencers on social media. They don't even bother to respond to criticism and argumentative users because it is not worth their time or the risk to their rep. Develop that same mindset.
4. Establish Your Brand
The people you end up doing business with often find you on your social media profiles. This is an excellent opportunity to establish your brand and build your reputation. Be consistent across all platforms with colors, logos, and fonts. It will make you instantly recognizable.
Make sure you are displaying your strengths and what sets you apart from your competition. Also, target your profile and content toward the demographic you are trying to reach.
5. Manage Negative Content
After cleaning up your profiles, you want them to stay positive. Unfortunately, there are always people who may post something negative about you. This kind of content often generates more attention and gets more clicks. You can ask the person responsible to remove the negative content, but they may not comply.
This is where solid reputation management techniques come into play. The idea is to create new and positive content and posts. You want to create content that will rank high in Google search results. This will push the negative content off the first page of search results and out of sight of most searchers. When looking for your name or company, they will find the new positive content, and this will enhance your reputation.
Reputation Optimization
Your business reputation is vital to your success. ORM needs to be optimized at all times.
Just as you would treat any client, customer, or colleague well when interacting in person, you need to be just as careful online. Follow these tips from Reputation Defender to maintain a positive reputation.
