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UPDATE: Paull Young and Jeremy Pepper have both contributed to this meme, all of us independently of each other but scarily (or as Paull would say, as another example of Twitternicity) all at the same time. Paull: Top 3 Reputation Tips |
My good friend Allan Jenkins has long maintained that your reputation is increasingly dependent upon what comes up when someone Google’s you.
One of the biggest ’shock horror’ moments that has come out of the workshops I’ve been running recently — in cahoots with Alex and Justine, two of the fine folk from Melcrum — has been when I have emphasised that business communicators have a responsibility to not only manage the online reputation of their employers, but also themselves.
It comes as a shock to folks when they google themselves and either nothing comes up, or something about them that they didn’t write themselves.
Hey everyone: wake up! Your future employers, your future business partners, your future romantic partners… ALL of them are googling you! If YOU don’t manage what shows up then you are at the mercy of what others say about you.
So, then what is the best way of managing your reputation?
Simple: start a blog.
Show your thought leadership, your intelligence, your humanity, your humour, your insights, your wisdom, your passion, your enthusiasm, your personality, your creativity, your energy, your self via your blog. Because in a few months’ time your next employer, partner, etc., WILL google you. Trust me on this.
If nothing of importance or intelligence comes up then any future employer, partner, etc., will conclude that you have nothing to say, that you are a ‘vanilla’ communicator (i.e. little or no flavour other than the basic flavour that everyone has). But if you let them see that you DO have insight, wisdom, intelligence, et al., then your prospects are immediately better than others who may be in competition with you for that role, partner, business opportunity…
The ball is in your court. What you do next is up to you. But if you want a hand, just call me. Or direct tweet me. Or Facebook me. Or LinkedIn me.
Oh, and speaking of my mate Allan, imagine my surprise when
I skimmed read one of my uni email inboxes and saw this:
Emeritus Professor, eh? Blimey, no wonder he’s been quiet these last few months!!
Currently listening to: Led Zeppelin - Remasters [UK] Disc 2 - Achilles Last Stand
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Jeremy Pepper 10.25.07 at 4:45 am
Yah - it’s amazing. There are so many cases of how people are being affected by Google results, and how corporations are looking at those results, that there needs to be a way to defend your reputation as a person, and as a corporation.
Heck, got into it the other day with a young blogger that just doesn’t seem to get it.
Paull Young 10.25.07 at 8:56 am
I’m completely on board with the sentiment on this page.
It’s important to get out there - it’s the first step in online reputation management imo.
Get out there, just do it smart.
Lee Hopkins 10.27.07 at 10:07 am
Gentlemen: a young blogger that doesn’t get it — isn’t that an oxymoron? Or is the blogger just thick?
And as for do it smart, I love this bit of wisdom: don’t post something your boss or your mother wouldn’t want to read.
BTW, I always thought it would be great to get my favourite social mediarists around a table in, say, Florence or Venice, and wax lyrical for a few hours over a long lunch. Now I realise the impossibility of that dream: no table would be large enough to seat all of the mediarists who are dear to me! You two would of course be at the table, naturellement!