Is Your Online Reputation Keeping You From Success?

Social Marketing/Online Branding

what is keeping you from success?
Reputation management is like keeping a window clean so it doesn’t hinder the view. I don’t know about you, but the windows at my house don’t get cleaned until I realize they are obstructing my ability to see outside. Ideally, those windows should be kept clean on a schedule so it never gets that bad. Holding off on doing anything about accumulating dirt isn’t really a good idea with windows or with reputation management.

Scheduled Maintenance Keeps Little Issues Small

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your online reputation by regularly doing some searches on all variations of your name. Remember to log out of any Google accounts so your search results aren’t skewed. Set up alerts for your name so you see when something comes up. You may not be doing anything at all, but a real threat is that a hacker could do some damage before you realize it is happening.
If you are looking at your online persona regularly, you can catch an issue and deal with it before it becomes a big problem.

Proactive Measures Prevent Problems 

Ideally, you have two email addresses: One for business and one for personal use.
Social media can make it hard to keep business and personal identities separate, but privacy settings and separate accounts help. The problem is that it is easy to figure out who people are if you have any search skills at all, and employers are very good at researching candidates.
When you are regularly adding positive content to your online presence, there’s a growing momentum of good stuff to find. Reputation management and your career might feel like all you do is wash the windows, but clean windows let people see who you are. The more clearly you are able to show your professional and positive contributions, the better your reputation online.
In short, reputation management is about keeping the view clear so the world can see what you actually have to offer.

Fix These Communication Mistakes Now

Career & Workplace

fix these communication mistakes now
The Muse is a good site for workplace advice and recently gave us 8 Communication Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making. It’s a compilation of suggestions from various sources and, really, it’s common sense. Here’s the quick list of these common mistakes:

  • Keeping an old subject line for a new topic — start a new subject line if you change the topic in an email chain.
  • Emailing when the issue is urgent — call, text, or talk directly to someone you need an immediate response from.
  • Using big hand gestures when speaking — makes you seem less powerful.
  • Using buzzwords & phrases — just say it in plain language.
  • Only speaking to a group one way — use a variety of styles to get the point across.
  • Asking questions that get a short answer — get past “yes” and “no” to the real stuff.
  • Apologizing when it’s not your fault — express sympathy without taking the blame.
  • Finishing other people’s sentences — it’s rude.

These mistakes are easy to make when you are busy or thinking about a project instead of the people around you. But if there are too many instances where you make these types of mistakes, you may be creating a reputation you don’t want. Reputation management and your career are intertwined. he way others in the workplace view your ability to communicate will affect everything from being on the next team project to getting a promotion. It also affects the references you are given.
It isn’t difficult to make mistakes in communication, but it also is easy to fix them. All it takes is being mindful of the ways you express yourself and aware of the way your communication efforts are being received. If you suddenly realized you do something on the list, start working to change that and see what happens in your workplace dynamics. Good things happen when communication is good.