Social media plays a huge role in online reputation management. With so many platforms available from Twitter to Instagram, facebook to Linkedin, their popularity in search results, and how quickly and easily they can spread information make them a powerful tool in your reputation management armoury.
With their popularity also come the consequences. It’s crucial to have a strong strategy in place for what types of content you’ll post, when you’ll be active, and how you will respond and interact with followers. It has a powerful effect on your reputation management because your actions can have an impact instantly. Press releases and traditional management tactics may take days or weeks to make a difference, what you say or do online can go viral in a matter of hours.
3 hidden pitfalls to watch out for;
1: Image does matter
Images are an integral part of a social media profile, many of us agonise over the perfect profile picture for our LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter pages, other social sites such as Instagram and Pinterest display nothing but images. It is now essential to scrutinise the images that represent you , as the old saying goes “ A picture is worth a 1,000 words”. You have to ensure your photo array matches your general outlook, what is your message? What brand are you trying to create? How would you want people to perceive you?
2: Opinions do count
When it comes to your online reputation sharing smart and thought provoking content for blogs or a high quality feed of Instagram images is vitally important.
Original content is the key here you want to focus your efforts on the subjects you want to be associated with. Today everyone wants to be a thought leader but to achieve this you do in fact need thoughts, sharing duplicate content simply will not cut the mustard. Cover issues you are comfortable with, my expertise lies in reputation and creating original content around this subject matter supports my personal brand. Pieces such as this blog demonstrates my passion and understanding of the market and by sharing it in a strategic way I remain relevant in my field.
3: Everyone is getting reviewed
It’s not just your favourite restaurant or bar that’s being reviewed online, we as individuals are too. Of course we are not being designated an aggregated score or star rating, (although a certain review site caused somewhat of a stir in the press recently.) http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/oct/01/peeple-review-people-the-user-review-app-you-didnt-dare-ask-for. Indirectly people are reviewing us on the basis of how many followers/friends/connection we have, what are images look like, through shared sentiment such as recommendations on LinkedIn.
Having a proactive and positive approach to your social media activity will pay dividend here. Next time you enjoy a successful working relationship use LinkedIn to share an endorsement, when you next read a piece of content on Facebook that stimulates you share it, retweet the next interesting tweet you read. As well as expanding your network this kind of activity stimulates the reciprocants to do like for like and you will undoubtedly see an increase in endorsements, recommendations, shares and connections.
Everything you say and do on social media, has the power to build a new reputation, adapt an existing image, and solidify your current profile. Topics you ‘like’, what you ‘share’ and any comments you make, the content you create and the causes you support all affect how followers perceive you, rightly or wrongly.