Tips to take care of your online reputation
Originally published by: Find your digital self | FySelf Blog
You are a brand. Yes, you. What are you still a student? Don’t you consider yourself a famous person? Aren’t you particularly communicative? Nothing changes what I just told you.
Each person leaves a mark on their passage through life. It means that his actions inspire thoughts and opinions in those around him. What in offline reality can be an ephemeral impression, on the Internet are imperishable data.
Facebook, Google and other services, are so far the true owners of your information. So, everything you share, say and comment in their spaces belongs to them, so … why don’t we often think carefully about what part of us to give them?
In addition, obviously, we must take care of the online reputation: that is, the image we generate in other users about ourselves. Remember that if you are young today and you don’t care to much, maybe tomorrow you will looking for work and it is not convenient for certain photos of you to be recovered. Everything matters.
There are two types of online reputation: a company’s and an individual’s.
I will start by sharing tips to take care of the first one.
Do you want a good personal brand? Here are some tips for your online reputation.
Always think of the people who read what you publish.
Content that is harmless to you can be a bad joke for another person, or inappropriate in the context for a third party.
The opinion of others also affects your image on the network.
Take a test: google “idiot”, look in the images section and you will see that it comes out… Donald Trump, president of the United States.
The joke began in a huge Reddit forum in which thousands of users voted an image of Donald Trump labeled in metadata with the word “idiot”, which latter acquired a relevance to Google’s positioning algorithm. Moral? If you project a very controversial image on the Internet, user responses can be diverse and affect your personal brand.
Do valuable networking … let it be seen on the Web.
Your contacts are a valuable asset. Treasure them. Use networks like LinkedIn to generate around you a group of people who may not be of your social interest, but are professional. “Birds of a feather flock together” that’s a life law on the internet too.
Protect your information
Your data is an important part of you, and more yet in this information era: do not give it to anyone. A medical report or a compromising photograph in the wrong hands can define a career. Be aware of each of the digital tools to which you decide to entrust pieces of your “digital being” and regularly review the privacy settings for each of your profiles on them.
Answer to your followers, even the ones who question you
Always take care of the way you deal with other people, especially if they are against what you think. Take into consideration that a heated discussion on Twitter can become a weapon against you as people add up and arguments tend to be misunderstood.
How to take care of your business reputation on the Internet?
All the advice I have given to take care of people’s online reputation is also valid for companies. In marketing, the term Online Reputation Management (ORM) already refers to the set of practices that are implemented to monitor the image of a brand on the Internet.
Here are some essential rules. However, this other post contains more specific tips in order to maintain a good online reputation for your company.
Be transparent
Guarantee that all information about your business is available and easily recoverable. Leave little room for speculation about who you are and what your goals are as a company.
Respond to user questions and complaints as soon as possible
Unfortunately, customers often interact with a company with a negative approach rather than a positive one. Complaints about your product or service will most likely arrive online, where not only you or one of your employees will see them, but … all the world. Provide quick, polite and personalized responses to each user, whatever motivated them to mention your brand.
Create a Google alert about your brand
Gmail allows you to create a content alert: you essentially write a group of words and it returns every information that is published on the subject on the Internet. Do that with the name of your business (and even, with your own name) and keep abreast of what is published about you.
A routine exercise can be to check daily the first page of Google results with your brand: the ideal scenario is that they are occupied by articles with good reviews or by your own spaces on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc …
Allow your employees to talk about your product publicly
People don’t always believe in marketing messages on behalf of the company (do you really think they are going to say something bad about themselves?). Allow your employees to talk on social media about the product and its role in your company. That creates more credibility and transparency than trusting that all your messages are hidden behind a logo.
And you, do you think your image on the Internet is well maintained? Share your experiences and other tips about keeping your digital reputation clean.
