We've read many articles about people losing their jobs, losing their marriage, and even getting arrested for things they've done while on any number of different social media sites. Let's explore some of the ways you can sabotage your personal online brand and ways to prevent this from happening.
Microsoft reports that 64% of HR managers look at online profiles of candidates and 41% have rejected people after doing so. One's online presence may consist of content you provide (in your LinkedIn profile for example), as well as what's written about you by people you may or may not know. This information is now being used as part of the recruitment process. It's also being used by current clients, prospects and potential referral sources.
Don't Ignore Brand Mentions
58% of Americans don't Google themselves, but employers, potential employers, current clients, potential referral sources and potential clients/customers will. We think it's safe to say people are already talking about you both online and offline. We also think it's safe to say most of you are not part of that conversation or even aware it's taking place.
As you create your personal online brand on your company website and various social media sites, your name will start appearing in search engine results and on any number of social media platforms. This can be a good thing if handled properly and controlled by you. This can be incredibly harmful, if not. Either way, you should be listening to what people are saying about you, while keeping in mind how fast a message can spread across the Internet.
Negative mentions about you will spread fast unless you keep a close ear on the web. You could set up a Google Alert for your name, your company's name, competitors, partners, and any number of other relevant things. There are other tools that can help monitor your brand. For example, you could try “Social Mention” for a solution to brand mentions on social media platforms.
Don't Take On More Than You Can Handle
There are a lot of social media sites and the volume of messages we receive each day is growing. If you try to be active on every site, you will spread yourself too thin, which will do nothing but hurt you. There is no way you can keep up. There is no way to update all of your social media profiles and keep track of photos, profile information, groups and messages. Stick to the largest social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Don't Always Self-Promote
Self-promotion is an important part of building your personal brand. If no one knows what you do, who you do it for and how good at it you are, they won't know they should be doing business with you. Self-promotion, however, only works in moderation. If you are constantly self-promoting, people will stop following you, block you from their networks, or just stop paying attention to your posts all together. Spend 80% (even 90%) of your time adding value to people's lives and they will be much more willing to read your self-promoting posts.
Be Consistent
It is very important to be consistent if you want to build your personal brand. Use the same headshot across all the social media platforms in which you participate. Use the same profile, or pieces of the same profile too. Being consistent will allow you to build recognition with your followers. When they see the same colors, fonts and photos, they will know the message is coming from you. This is how a personal brand is built.
Believe it or not, you already have a personal brand. It's not too late to take control of it and become certain you know what it is people are seeing and hearing about you. You can differentiate yourself from others by managing your brand. Pay attention to what people are saying about you online. Don't spread yourself across every social media site out there and lose control over your message. Know who you're talking to and add value to their life instead of self-promoting 100% of the time. Be consistent across all the different sites you participate on. Making efforts to do all this will go a long way to making your online experience a successful one.