Online Reputation Management – Protecting Yourself
Much has been written about reputation management and how to protect your business. If your prepared you can at least go on the counter attack and defend your business or its products. What about your own reputation? Much has been said lately of individuals, particularly those still in their school years, who have found their own reputations damaged by their online activities.
For those of us engaged in online activities, whether it is through forums, social bookmarking sites, or social sites such as Facebook or Myspace, can become embroiled in discussions or arguements that get out of control. I wonder how many times you have thought – “I shouldn’t have said that” – or similar?
The problem with online socializing is not the effect it has now. It is the longer term effect. Many employers are now using the internet to search for any records on a person before employing them.
Search engines are now complex enough to return pages where your name appears. These could be Facebook or Myspace pages, forums, or even websites. Of course, one way around this is to stick to pseudonym. However, most sites still require your personal information when you create an account. Some of this information is still available to the search engines.
How do you protect yourself? There are two ways to look at the issue of protection. Either you want to be anonymous or you want to be public. If you need a public presence then the only way to protect yourself is by being aware that every word you write could come back to haunt you in the future. In simple terms – take care.
If you do not need a public presence then having a user name that doesn’t readily identify you is one tactic to employ. However, there is no guarantee that you will remain anonymous so I still urge caution. The bottom line is – whatever you print to the web has the potential to be permanent and with that comes the potential for future harm. When your online – don’t just protect your businesses reputation, think about your own as well. This is particularly true if your an employee.
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