The Presence Builder Project - managing your reputation - who are your friends

Reputation management
I’m keeping these words in bold letters because managing your reputation is so important. Especially online! Remember. In cyberspace your information hangs around for ever.

Of course the real world is just as sensitive when it comes to reputation. Have you ever wondered what the family members think when their mom/aunt/sister is naked on the cover of a magazine or is the centrefold in an edition of Playboy?

If there are kids, how do they discuss this at school? My mom is on the cover of XYZ magazine and she doesn’t have any clothes on at all… One consolation is that at least the magazine has a shorter shelf life. The internet keeps that information for ever. A quick bad news flash is that magazine covers are now published online. There’s no escaping.

It’s not only what information you upload, whether images, video, voice or text, that makes a difference to your reputation. It’s also who you hang out with that’s important.

Maybe you had a mother like I did who constantly told you that you would be identified by the friends you socialised with. Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are?

Surely that’s not true. Regrettably it is. If your friends wear black clothes, die their hair the colours of the rainbow, decorate their bodies with tattoos and dangle umpteen rings off their nostrils, you will be lumped in with this particular group.

The same applies if you are constantly seen with people who do drugs or who are known by the police to be petty thieves. You will not be able to sniff without the police taking note.

It’s the same in the online world. What and who you associate yourself with in the online community will contribute to your reputation.

Do you talk on Twitter to people who are well respected within an industry? Do you leave comments on blogs that other readers value highly and do you participate in forums that add value to the online community? What articles do you vote for?

That doesn’t mean you can’t have an opinion. It just means you voice that opinion where the right people are. That is the right people for what you want to achieve.

If you want to be the best Porn Actor/Actress you would hang out on the relevant sites such as Boobs-R-Us (OMG there’s a site by that name…). If you want to be a well respected business person you would identify your suitable sites, blogs and forums that enhance that.

In the more extreme instances people on the internet make a fair amount of money because they have jealously built their reputation to a significant level. This means that social media experts such as Chris Brogan get paid to attach their reputations to a product or service.

Seth Godin says read this post and the blog owner has 15 000 new e-mail subscribers within a 24 hr period. Seth wrote two short sentences. Huge result for the recipient of that endorsement.

Sometimes having no online reputation is just as bad. If you are the head of an advertising agency as I recently saw one and there is no visible online profile on you then that’s bad. You’re not moving with the times. I wouldn’t want to entrust my digital marketing to your agency.

Does that mean you should only guard your reputation jealously if you want to make money out of your vote? Not only.

There are many reasons for managing your reputation according to your long-term vision of where in the world you want to make your mark. Making sure your grandchildren can only read good stuff about you could be important to you. Career prospects may be involved as well. Future online business efforts could benefit. That’s just to mention a few.

At the end of the day, the most important point to remember is that who you show yourself to be online is as hugely important as how you package yourself in the real world. In fact even more important. Why? Because the online world doesn’t forget.

And it’s not just that it doesn’t forget - it’s all linked and the search engines exist to find you and your connections. Now there’s a thought.

If you sign up to my RSS your reputation won’t suffer, in fact it might even be enhanced! Do it. It’ll be good for you. Would also love you to join the Facebook Group.