The Internet is able to connect us with billions of people worldwide. What you say and do online can hurt your personal or company’s online brand identity.
Our identities are important to us in the offline world. We tell a story about ourselves by the clothing we wear, the media we consume, and the beverages we consume.
We carry similar identities online through personal websites, blogs, and social media. I believe our online identities are much harder to control because we have a sense of less boundaries. Think about personal situations where you wouldn’t share particular information in person but you did online.
That’s why managing our online reputation is important.
Be careful what you post. Pause before you click publish or post a comment. Just because you delete a comment off Facebook or a blog doesn’t mean it’s not still lurking out there. Most of the stuff we do online is archived on servers. My rule of thumb is if you wouldn’t tell a young child what you’re about to post – it probably doesn’t belong out there.
Set the rules. Many websites have rules and regulations or terms of service information that tells visitors and members what is accepted on the website. Do not be afraid to set boundaries on your personal profiles and websites on what type of content you will accept. The less ambiguous the rules are, the less confusion later.
Tip: Be careful when moderating comments for your blogs and websites. If you moderate comments before they are posted to your blog or website you approve the content of the message - when that may not be the case.
Search your name or company’s name. Get an idea of what’s out there. If someone like a potential employer were to search your name what would they find? While many companies have tools to work around privacy settings – what can the general public see? Take note on the websites that show up on the first page – how do they represent you?
