subject: 4 Simple Ways To Protect Your Reputation Online [print this page] Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway and Panama, and half the mobile internet traffic in the UK is for Facebook. Over 50% of the worlds population is under 30 years old and email is considered old technology by a significant number of them.
We are connecting, communicating and revealing personal and professional details about ourselves more openly than ever before. In the time it takes to read this article around 50 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube, the world's second largest search engine.
We tap out information about ourselves at the stroke of a key and yet rarely think about the damage that can be caused to our reputation, both online and off, by posting careless remarks and images.
Social media and social networking sites can help others find you and your products and services quickly and easily. Used well, they can help you engage with a whole new audience of people interested in what you have to say or provide. Word of Mouth has been supplemented by Word Of Mouse and news travels very far, very fast, on the internet.
So how can you create a positive online presence on social networking sites whilst minimising the risks of online reputation damage, now and in the future?
Choose your site(s) wisely
Sites themselves have reputations check them out and decide whether you want to be associated with them. MySpace has fallen in popularity whereas Facebook and LinkedIn have surged. Twitter now attracts 180 million unique visitors each month and over 600 million search queries each day.
Choose your online identity wisely
Hiding behind nicknames that could raise eyebrows wont do you any favours. If using the sites for professional purposes, use your own personal or business name, or one close to it. If using sites for personal purposes, make sure you go through every privacy setting and make information available to invited friends only if you dont want the information you post to be seen by anyone connected to the web.
Choose your online friends and associates wisely
Quality, rather than quantity, should be the driving force for making and accepting online connections and links. The more friends youre connected with, the more chance there is of being associated with something they say or do that youd rather not be associated with. Reputation by association is a powerful driver and people will make judgement calls about you based on who you are associated with.
Choose your content wisely
Countless companies and individuals have found out the hard way that once online, photos, videos and comments written in haste can cause significant damage to a reputation. Before uploading anything, ask yourself the question am I happy for this to be associated with me and be viewable by anyone, anywhere, at any time - forever? If the answers no dont post it.
What we see and read about people on the internet massively influences whether we would engage with them ourselves, recommend them to someone we know and trust or choose to be associated with them, online and off. What does your online reputation say about you?
by: Hannah Samuel
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