MilliOnAir Magazine April 2018 | Page 128

MilliOnAir

Managing your digital personal brand

and dealing with an online reputation crisis!

By Lesley Everett

YOUR reputation is built over a period of time. I often use the analogy of a pearl in an oyster – it grows organically over a period of time as layers get added to it. Your brand reputation is the same. Every email you send, every meeting, presentation, interview, text message, blog post – they all contribute.

So it’s fair to say every social media post adds to your brand reputation, and that because you’re perhaps not focussed on your brand, you never know if it’s adding to or weakening your reputation and what you want to be well-known for.

It can be difficult for others to break away from the perception they have of your brand online, therefore it makes sense to ensure that every post, as well as every other interaction of course, is in line with your authentic personal brand and how you want to be perceived.

Don’t create a false or inflated persona that can and will easily be uncovered at some point. If this happens online then you are immediately branded as insincere, lacking in integrity and untrustworthy. People start to question who you really are and a negative impression can be difficult to shake off. If it’s one occurrence from one person then you might get away with it, it’ll be considered a blip. However, more than one occurrence and it will start to stick.