WHY YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION MATTERS AND WHAT CAN YOU DO ABOUT IT? Reputation Matters: As a leader in your industry, your online reputation is extremely important. Plus, with the ever increasing popularity of social media, it has become increasingly easier for a strong reputation to be tarnished. When this happens, it becomes important to understand the steps that you should take in order to save your reputation and to keep your image intact. WHO SHOULD WORRY ABOUT THEIR ONLINE REPUTATION AND WHY DOES YOUR REPUTATION MATTER? While most people may think that managing an online reputation would only be important to large businesses or companies, there are actually many types of people who should consider how they appear over the internet. Most everyone has an online presence of some sort and we all should be cognizant of how our online image will affect our everyday lives. For example, consider for a moment that you are a business owner or a hiring manager at a company. If you are comparing a handful of people for a new job or a promotion, do you think you are more likely to choose the one with a positive online reputation or a negative one? Reputation matters as most companies will choose the former.
Currently there are very few limitations regarding potential employers and reviewing social media sites when looking to hire a new employee. In fact, many employees have even been terminated based on things that their employers have found on their social media sites. With this in mind, you should be aware that reputation matters and what you are posting online is important and be diligent to keep your online reputation intact. WHAT TO DO IF YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION BECOME TARNISHED If you do find that your online reputation has become damaged, reputation management becomes necessary. Tools and companies are now available that help companies and individuals manage the things that are being said about them online. The most important step that you can take to manage your online reputation is to make sure that you understand what others are saying about you. There are a number of tools online that will deliver this information to you or you can perform general search engine searches as well. After you know what is being said, it will be up to you how you respond to the criticism. However, you will also need to be careful in your response as well because you will need to refrain from making the