Online Reputation

Fish face, duck face, selfies and the like; every post is a reflection of how you want others to perceive you and/or your business. Presenting yourself in the best possible way online, both personally and professionally, is the easiest approach to managing your online reputation.

People use social platforms for various reasons such as entertainment, keeping up to date with friends, trends and family. Your posts, your photos and your comments are what creates your online reputation. It is also the first impression that people see when they search for you or land on your page.

There are some things you may feel you don’t have control over when it comes to your online reputation, but this is untrue. You actually have control over a lot of things. The majority of social media platforms are full of tips and tools that help enhance your online experience, of which we will talk about later on.

Perceptions

We all have that friend who is constantly posting about negative things that are going on in their life. At first, they may pull at our heart strings with their woes, but after a while we may find their posts to be annoying or even unwanted. This is a good example of how their online reputation could be tainted by their actions and behavior. How do we avoid their mistakes? There are several types of behaviors that individuals demonstrate when posting to social media that can come across as unattractive to their friends and followers. Our list below isn’t definitive, but it does highlight some of the more common negative posting traits. The most important thing to remember before you click “enter” on your well-meaning post is to take into consideration how people may perceive it.

The vague post
Negative Nancy
Oversharing/TMI
The daily journal
Negative Nancy
The ultimate selfie taker
The only opinion that matters
Negative Nancy
The Whiner
Argumentative
Passive aggressive
Hiding behind the fake profile photo- The Troll
And of course, the duck face.

We’re not saying you should never post about experiencing a bad day or being ill, but if you frequently post negative content about your life, you can expect to get negative feedback. Whether it is commented on or not, the truth is, people are thinking it.

Is it Serious?

Social media is often used as a platform to legitimately seek out attention, a true call for help. This is vastly different from the aforementioned and we address it here because of its high level of importance. Facebook also takes this very seriously and has posted the following information in their Help section.

If someone you know is in danger, please contact local emergency services for help immediately. After you've called emergency services, connect with your friend or call someone who can. Showing that you care matters. Make sure they know that you're there for them, and that they aren't alone.
If the threat of physical danger isn't immediate, there are things you can do to help:

Provide support to this person or contact a family member, friend, counselor or teacher, who may be able to provide support.
Find a local helpline in your country and share resources and contact information that this person may find helpful.
Report the content to us so we can reach out to this person with information that may be helpful to them.
Each post you see in your Facebook timeline has 3 dots in the top right-hand corner. When you see a worrisome post, you can click those dots and a drop-down box will appear. From there you can choose how to “report” the post. One option is “Suicide or Self Injury”.

The Impression You Create...

There are other things to take into consideration when it comes to your online reputation. Does your cover photo reflect who you are and how you want to be seen? Your cover and profile photos automatically default to public and anyone can see it. On Facebook, you can’t make your current cover photo private or set to friends only, but you can edit your current profile photo to be viewed by friends only. You can also change your past cover and profile photos by editing their individual privacy settings so only your friends can see them. For businesses, how your photos look to others is how they will view your business. Always put your best photos forward.

Many people add their present and previous employers on their personal social media profiles. Business owners often include that information on their personal social media profiles as well. This is where online reputation management become crucial. When personal social media friends are also followers of a person's business, they are privy to both your personal posts as well as your business posts. This means that how you conduct your personal social media can have a huge impact on your business’s online reputation too.

Another factor to consider is when using social media for business be consistent with your branding. The images and content you choose to represent your company's personality, no matter how big or small, should produce the impression you want to leave prospective customers and clients.

Sooo...

Now you have a better awareness of the importance of managing your online reputation. Post, comment and use photos that are a positive reflection and representation of you. Use features such as Facebook’s 30-day mute option to silent the people who you find to be irritating, or simply unfollow or unfriend them. Twitter also offers a mute feature, however on Instagram and LinkedIn, you can only unfollow them. There are many valuable tools on social media platforms. When you receive a notification or an email saying one of your social media platforms has made changes, read it. You will most likely learn something you didn’t know and you may be one of the first of your friends to learn about some new tools and tricks.

Remember that it is always best for you to use a computer in order to access all of the tools for each social media platform. Cell phones and tablets may not display all of the features available.

All articles are written by Green Strategy Online Reputation Management team members.

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