Managing Your Reputation Online

I found a great article online about using online social networking to manage your reputation by Denise O’Berry, small business expert writing for Open Forum. As any consultant knows, their reputation precedes them, and in this day and age it is very easy for a perspective client to research you and your consulting company just by hopping online and doing a quick Google search.

If we can now consider this the norm in the many steps it takes to turn a perspective client into a paying client, why not take advantage of the tools available to you on the web?  At minimum, check out and set up the the following if you haven’t already:

1. Set up a Google Profile
2. Set up a Facebook profile
3. Set up a LinkedIn profile
4. Set up a Google Alert with your name and the name of your company
5. Get your domain name (www.yourname.com)

The article provides details and rationale for each tool. While it may seem we are giving up too much of our security, guarding and keeping separate our personal and private lives, remember that we are moving into an era where business (and our lives for that matter) is becoming more and more transparent. Therefore, we have to be willing to share more of who we are in order to build trust with those we wish to business with. The web and these tools is that platform to enable this.

Further Reading

Remember, it is ultimately up to you to control how you are portrayed online. To take advantage of the many free social media tools available on the web, visit our three part series on Consultants Leveraging Social Media:

• Consultants Leveraging Social Media – Part 1: Facebook
• Consultants Leveraging Social Media – Part 2: LinkedIn
• Consultants Leveraging Social Media – Part 3: Twitter