Managing your Online Reputation - Comm460

Contrary to popular belief, the way you are perceived by others based on your online "persona" does make a major difference to your career future. As the American business magnate, Warren Buffet, once said, "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." I think it wise to take this into account in all aspects of our lives. As tacky as it may be, the commonly known phrase, "check yourself before you wreck yourself" is an important message to keep in mind before posting anything online. Like I have mentioned before, anything you post or say becomes your digital footprint and it doesn't go away, so if you're in a bad mood or feeling the need to rant it is better to cool off and collect your thoughts before letting those thoughts go public. Because once something has been said, it can only be forgiven, but never forgotten. There are plenty of things we can do to manage our online reputation but I think the most important to keep in mind is to think before you post. Other steps we can take is to Google yourself. See what is out there on you and if you see something you don't like, get rid of it, delete it if you can. Try to keep things positive and uplifting, negative posts or comments will make you seem like a negative person; which is not what employers are looking for, and also you shouldn't want to be a negative person anyway. Keep all of your profiles up to date and current. Make sure to post weekly, don't just leave your followers wondering if something happened to you; after they don't see your name in their feeds for a while, they'll begin to forget about you. And lastly, keep it fun! Social media is meant to be fun and entertaining, as well as informative, so the best thing you can do is come off as intelligent, inspirational, and humorous and your golden!

This Virtual Friends visual I found on Pinterest is the prefect way to understand your online reputation! Think of different social media platforms as friends with different personalities!

Via Pinterest