Personal Branding: Reputation management is YOUR responsibility

The current debate on privacy here in the UK is an interesting one. A well-known footballer has been caught with his pants down. Literally. And so, in order to protect his reputation he paid in excess of £200k to lawyers for a super-injunction to keep this mess out of the press. Unfortunately, this didn’t keep it off the social networks and now it’s public knowledge. So, now not only has his misdemeanour come out, but it’s a hot topic on all media. Surely not what he had in mind when he coughed up his £200k.

This situation is quite complex so rather than get distracted in the privacy part of this debate I’d like to focus on the reputation angle.

If you are going to do something that damages your reputation, then you need to be mindful of the consequences. The transparency of social media has forced many of us to be more mindful of our behaviour. Whether it’s flirting around the boundaries of a relationship or showing a side of us that only alcohol reveals, we are all only too aware of the chaos that can ensue once it appears on Facebook.

So, to use the argument that a super-injunction is required to protect his reputation is a very weak one. The responsibility for reputation damage only lies with him! If he hadn’t acted like an idiot in the first place then he wouldn’t have anything to hide. And that is a lesson to us all.

If you do happen to act in a way that betrays your reputation, then surely on a personal level you need to learn from this. One of the first lessons of crisis management is to own up. Once you admit that you have made a mistake and that you are sorry, you are showing a human side. And that alone may gain you respect, merely for your honesty despite what you may have done. But trying to hide it, suggests that you are ashamed of your behaviour and that you know it was wrong. That is fuel for gossip and will only make things worse.

If we act is a way that is in line with our view of ourselves and reinforces what we want people to think about us, then there is no story.

So, has the transparency of social media affected how you behave? Are you more mindful of what you’re doing BECAUSE others have a window in on your life? Leave a comment below.

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Has the digital world dented your personal brand?

Have you done anything that you later came to regret? We all have, right? We squirm a bit when we think back, but after enough sweeping under the carpet, eventually we forget and hope that everyone else has too. But what about doing something online? Have you shared or posted anything that you later thought “ooops! not sure I should have done that”. Like this….

When you lose control for a tiny moment in the real world, the only people who witness it are those in your immediate vicinity. But when it happens online, not only do you have a potential audience of thousands (unless you’re a celeb), but your faux pas stays there forever. Spare a thought for this poor guy…

“…He used to be a solicitor; back in 1994 he was suspended for six months at a tribunal following accounting irregularities.

Following his return to work he became fully rehabilitated by the Law Society, and the escapade became but an embarrassing memory, an unfortunate slip in an otherwise distinguished career. But recently, a legal periodical digitised all its back issues and placed them on its website; useful for the legal profession, but for the solicitor in question it was, understandably, a shock.

The report of his tribunal was now on the first page of results when you searched Google for his name. An indiscretion, 15 years ago, for which he’d paid the penalty, but which was now distressingly visible because of the online popularity of the periodical in question….”

Yikes! Not good. In situations like this, the best advice is to start creating new positive content. Things you might consider include buying your name web domain, setting up your own website or blog and posting comments on blogs and forums. But what if you can’t be bothered with all that. I have great news! You don’t need to. Yes really! My solution? Buy a new service called “Delete me”. Delete me is a new service launched by Abine where you pay between $10 to $100 to remove photos, blog posts, videos, and search results, delete old accounts, and stop companies from selling private data to advertisers.

Thank you thank you!!! I know, I’ve just saved you a heap of time in bothering with all this personal branding – digital presence malarkey!!

I think these guys are going to make a tonne of money!

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