Your Reputation Precedes You (Part 2)

In part one of this post, I discussed some steps everyone should take to find out what kind of online reputation they have. Now that you have found yourself online and thought about your presence, I will discuss what actions to take to maximize your online brand.

While all this new technology is unquestionably exciting, educational and awe inspiring, it lacks something we humans need and crave and that’s other real sentient beings to talk to, to touch, to share experiences with, to feel and make an emotional connection. And when we do, those connections are the deepest, the most meaningful and the longest lasting.

So if you’re just starting out in business you may have a great idea but you need other people to help you build it, finance it, promote it, sell and service it, ship it and yes, sometimes, take it back because it failed to meet your customers’ expectations.

When building and promoting your reputation make sure that you are not creating some emotionless, superficial avatar designed to fool or mislead people to obtain some momentary objective. Instead pay particular attention to ensure that you are constructing a real persona, one that has feelings and emotions, imperfections and scars, habits you’d like to overcome or skills you may wish to develop and places you wish to go. If not, you’re highly unlikely to make true connections with real people and when those people you are trying so hard to impress actually meet you, they will be greatly disappointed when you don’t measure up to the idealized version you created online.

Unless you’re a professional magician, most people don’t want to be fooled. They seek honesty not perfection, in the relationships they choose to cultivate.

Be honest with yourself. If you consciously or unconsciously delude yourself you will undoubtedly never understand why others haven’t bought into your BS… “better self.”

So if you want to attract those people, entice them to become part of your business or social network you’re going to have to reach out and touch them emotionally. You’re going to have to convince them you have vision, ability and determination. They have to believe you are a leader, that you are trustworthy, flexible, and caring both to your employees and your customers.  And while they may admire your commitment to your ideas they also have to believe that you are equally open to theirs as well.

To accomplish that, you have to have a “reputation” where people feel you are the best person for them to be associated with.  These associations may last for just one transaction or become an integral part of your life forever. It all depends on how you are perceived in relationship with what the other person is seeking at a specific point in time. The question is. “Are you going to shape that perception or are you going to let others? Because like it or not, you do have a reputation. We all do. It’s just that some of us don’t have the reputation we want or have the people we care about know who we truly are.

You are responsible for your destiny. You can’t control it perfectly but you can take specific actions that will ensure you present your best possible image to the people you care about most at the exact time you need them to take a specific action. It all starts (and ends) with you.

So take a deep breath, google yourself and face the unvarnished truth of who you are to others… and it you don’t like what you just read, immediately develop a plan to do something about it.

This blog was originally published at www.franklinwolfson.net.

Your Reputation Precedes You (Part 1)

When you're the CEO of a fortune 500 company, the odds say that you are concerned with your company's online reputation. Going a step further, you are also probably concerned with your own reputation. What many people fail to realize is it's not just the CEO who has to monitor their reputation. Millions of people let their online reputations fall by the wayside until it comes into question. By taking a few steps, you'll be able to discover what other's think about you online and begin building your personal brand.

Obviously, if you’re a doctor, attorney, financial advisor, architect or do any kind of custom or personal work, like a building contractor or artist, your business reputation and your personal reputation are closely aligned.

But what if you’re just starting out? Your company has no reputation and, for the most part neither do you… except for those embarrassing photos you posted online that are now coming back to haunt you. And if you’re an entrepreneur and are going to meet with prospective employees, suppliers, investors or clients, your personal reputation or at least what people can find out about you online is probably a lot more important than you ever imagined. So what are you doing to create it, shape it, enhance it and promote it?

If you’re like most people, you’re doing absolutely nothing. You treat your reputation like the weather, you know it’s important when something extreme happens like a hurricane or snowstorm and you dress appropriately or adjust your travel plans but for most days, you don’t pay any attention to it whatsoever… and that’s a huge mistake.

Start by doing a Google search of your name. Now you see what strangers see. Since they don’t know you, their opinion is going to be 100% based on what they just found… whether it’s accurate or not or flattering or demeaning.

What do you think of yourself? Write a short summary of who you are… not who you really are but who people think you are based on what you just found.

Did you find someone who is smart, dependable, innovative, honest, charismatic, hardworking, trustworthy and inspiring? Is the online you a leader or a follower? A future success story or a disaster about to happen? A winner or a loser? Someone who inspires confidence or a confidence man?

If you don’t like what you just found, you better get to work on improving your online persona until it is in sync with the real you or at the very least, the “you” you hope to project because until then, your chances of raising money, getting people to work for you, follow your advice or even buy from you are slim.

Yes, we live in a technological society. We all carry a little computer in our pockets or on our belts. We use it to get directions, research products before we buy them, see what and where our friends are, make telephone calls, send texts, check e-mails and yes, even check on the weather. In short, we’re now connected to just about everything and everyone 24/7 and despite all those connection, we’ve become more isolated than ever. We have hundreds of friends on Facebook that we check on multiple times a day but our very best friend we haven’t had dinner with in weeks. We attend webinars several times a week, we take and post an untold number of “selfies,” we take visual tours of an apartment we plan to rent or a home we’d like to buy but we’re too busy to spend time with relatives or visit a museum or enjoy a concert… and now we’re anxiously anticipating the day when we can get even further away from reality in anticipation of Oculus Rift’s Virtual Reality, Google’s Augmented Reality and the latest soon to be escape… Magic Leap’s “Mixed Reality.”

This blog was originally posted at www.franklinwolfson.net.