10 Steps to Building and Managing your Personal Reputation

Social media have developed new matrix for building and managing our reputations. As students, entrepreneurs, and teachers, it is important that we fix ourselves rightly for better reputation. Fact finding by security companies and HR companies is diminishing. This is because with the click of the buttons, our information-the good and the bad are gotten. Your information online today will serve as a determinant for taking action and judging individuals.

The following ten steps will help you in building and managing your personal information:

1. Check the major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) to find your name

Find out what is being said about you and what information comes up first in searches for your name. I personally do this on a regular basis. If you don’t have a blog or your companies seldom have their workers bio/profile on their website. Make use of LinkedIn, and your Facebook or Twitter profile should be professional and represent your person.

2. Clean up your web presence

Erase some of yourself from the internet by using a tool such as www.justdelete.me. This website ranks the process of erasing yourself from easy to impossible. This is very necessary because many of us at some point had been carried away by the crispness and exuberance of social media. Many a people had posted incessant pictures and blackmailing posts and updates. Example: Twitter=easy interest=impossible.

3. Create your online reputation with free tools

Create your own personal websites that lists all your social networks with free tools like about.me or brandyourself.com.

4. Claim your social media profiles and your personalized URL on LinkedIn

Protect yourself from cyber-squatters on your social media profiles. Secure your personalized URL  on LinkedIn. Share content on LinkedIn and Twitter.

5. Buy your own domain name (even if you’re not using it yet)

With the way things are going, this is going to be very important in the nearest future. Own the URL of your name. Example: elvis.com

6. Set up an ongoing  monitoring alert system

Set up Google Alerts (tutorials on this in future post).

7. Launch a blog to publish content and show your perspectives

A blog helps you demonstrates your expertise on several topics and shows that you can write and communicate.

8. Get to know yourself and share helpful content on a regular basis

Personal growth articles, leadership articles, industry articles, professional examination information most likely. If you can’t blog…share. Prior to my blog, I used to be an active member in a UNILAG admission thread in Nairaland.

9. Create your elevation pitch and key messages

Hone your elevator pitch in your LinkedIn summary section or your blog’s bio page like mine. That paragraph or two should sum up your personal brand in a concise and compelling way.

10. Develop a feedback loop with those you trust and evolve your personal brand

Your personal brand is constantly evolving. Build a feedback loop with friends, family and colleagues. Make them to endorsed you and references for you-original ones!