reputation management Archives

November 8, 2015 By Fiona Lucas

Are your social media strategies damaging your reputation?

Many businesses and individuals don’t actually have any strategy when posting online, others have a basic strategy but it is not not aligned to their goals and values. It is important to consider what you are trying to achieve by what you post and whether or not the content you post may in fact damage your brand and reputation.

Some branding experts will tell you to post content over and over (particularly in twitter) so that it gets seen often, but in our experience, it is really important to break up the content so that the same post doesn’t appear again and again in a row. As twitter has such a fast moving newsfeed, it can be really valuable to post content again, but it needs to be quality content and you need to have build up a reasonable following.

[ctt title=”It is even more important that what you post is adding value and not just self promotion” tweet=”It is even more important that what you post is adding value and not just self promotion” coverup=”i7aYb”]. Damaging to your reputation, and possibly leading people to mark you as a spammer or limit your content in their newsfeed is when the same content appears everywhere at the same time – your personal profiles, Linkedin, Facebook Pages, your website and blog, Instagram, twitter etc.

Are you involved in the development of your strategy or are you outsourcing to the lowest bidder? Generic posting schedules do little for engagement and can be a waste of money.

A good strategy will start with an analysis of your business and examination of the user profiles and behaviours, your customer avatars.

Personal Brand

[ctt title=”Your content is the voice of your business” tweet=”Your content is the voice of your business” coverup=”5o11D”] Often the first experience of a business by a customer is online, either via a website or through a social media platform. Think about what you are providing. Too many businesses still see social media as an advertising, one way push platform. It is not. Social media is two way, and the key word is SOCIAL.

Wanting to position yourself as an thought leader? Then make sure that you provide blog posts and comments that are from YOU! It is not a credible representation of your expertise when someone else writes for you. By all means engage a writer to improve the readability if you are not good with words, but provide the meat of the article yourself.

Take care when employing someone to blog for you and check out examples of their writing, including the engagement obtained from the posts, to ensure it is well researched and that the information within is correct and doesn’t breach copyright. We have seen businesses with blog content that has been stripped from the web. This could lead to nasty lawsuits if you did not have permission to use the content and then portray it as your own.

Be aware that everything that is posted online under your brand represents your brand, and reflects the values and ethics of the businesses (or individual if you are your brand). This includes the way that your staff engage online and the way customer complaints or enquiries made online are handled.

Integrity

The move to using automation and affiliate links to generate passive income has seen some businesses post content that has little value in the hopes of earning additional income or that involves the use of annoying pop ups on every page. Think about the user experience, less can be more :-). The first step before worrying about affiliate links is to make sure you understand (or you employ someone who does) your analytics. If you are not getting any traffic to your site, if there is no engagement on your social media platforms and your emails have a very low open rate, then the focus should be on improving that before worrying about affiliate links. Having too many links can also clutter a website up and distract visitors to your site away from your product or service to theirs. Would you rather get a new client, or earn $20 from a link? You have worked too hard in and on your business to let your focus be turned. If you are using affiliate links you must also let people know that they are links. You can have a generic statement on your website, but if you promote a product for which you have an affiliate, it is important that you let your prospects know.

Of course if you have used a product and really love it (because anything on your affiliate is really an endorsement of that product) and you are offered an affiliate link, that is fine, just make sure you stay focussed on your own business outcomes first.

All that said, we do not mean the automation of posting such as scheduling is not a good thing. Quite the contrary. To create a managable inhouse strategy and content plan, such tools are important. [ctt title=”The key is to make sure that responses are coming from your organisation, rather than a robot” tweet=”The key is to make sure that responses are coming from your organisation, rather than a robot” coverup=”ogdFm”]. There is nothing worse that receiving automated twitter responses which often are not aligned to the content. The same goes to automated responses that ask people to go and buy something. It just doesn’t cut it. If you do choose to use outsourced social media management, either provide the content yourself, or ensure that the content plan is aligned to a strategy. This helps you measure the ROI.

Ethics

Being honest and upfront is important in business to build trust. If you are a new business and still learning, then price yourself according to your expertise and experience, but don’t make claims which you can’t justify. Too often we see people start a new business from scratch, making claims to be the best, or the only specialist etc and they haven’t actually tested their own theories yet. We all have to start somewhere, but when it comes to social media, they should be experimenting with their own before they lay claim to yours.

We get quite distressed when we see businesses pouring out content and posting madly in various platforms or boosting facebook posts because some “guru” has told them they should do that, without having any developed a formal strategy (apart of perhaps a generic content plan) or obtained indepth knowledge of the business. Beware of only seeking free advice as you just can’t get the depth of a professional consultation over a cup of coffee. By all means have a cup of coffee as a means to see whether you are a good fit for a potential working engagement, but don’t try and put together a strategy for yourself based only on someone telling you of some amazing stat. What works for one business may not work for yours.

The other option is to do a lot of research yourself and be prepared to spend a lot of your time testing and reviewing what works. A good social media specialist is constantly learning and attending professional development to stay on top of the game. Let them spend the thousands to save you the time. We have seen some small business owners spending up to 4 or more hours of their day on social media, in attempts to follow some kind of “strategy” which in actual fact is a content plan that was perhaps was not well thought out in the beginning and not aligned to any outcomes.

TOP TIPS

Your content is the voice and tone of your business – make sure it reflects that

Avoid overposting the same content across platforms

Check any autoposting schedules you have set up and make sure you are not duplicating content into the same platform

Don’t just sell or self promote. Add value with your posts

Where possible keep your social media inhouse and invest in training for your staff. This ensures you maintain the voice and culture of your organisation.

To explore some more of the issues of ethics and integrity, you might like to read our article on reviews and testimonials

If you are interested in having a formal social media strategy and content plan prepared for your business please contact us at mail@irespectonline.com

iRespectOnline
We are your social media mirror

December 22, 2014 By Fiona Lucas

Reputation management matters

Branding vs Reputation

Someone said to me recently, “reputation doesn’t matter, it’s all about how you brand”.

Wow I thought, that takes the personality out of it, although of course I could understand what they meant. Certainly in business, or for individuals (particularly celebrities), if you create a lot of hype and gloss about something you can get traction even if its not quality information that you are promoting. There are plenty of snake oil salespeople out there but I for one don’t intend to add to them.

“All you have to do is been seen” they said. Yes, true for some people that seems to work, but I certainly do not think it builds any kind of longevity. What you do catches up on you at some point. Just what is it that they are seeing?

There is an audience for those who create hype and gloss, often vulnerable people who are seeking quick answers or desperate for change. That is why there are so many “get rich quick” schemes.

Smoke and mirrors

Puffery abounds in all forms of advertising and never as much as online when often consumer laws are pushed right to the edge in order to make claims about being the “best”, the “top”, make six figures in xx minutes”. For me it’s all about ethical marketing practices, promoting and highlighting the truth of what you do. We all know (or we should) that it takes work to get results. If you pay for a course it won’t guarantee you results unless you take action (unless of course the content is not there and you paid virtually for air, and sadly that happens). You might might six figures in xx minutes if you have a great product, but you wont if there is a mismatch between what you say and what you offer.

When it comes to the online world and social media the only results you can really guarantee is that if you continually stuff up your reputation will get damaged. People talk. People share.

Reputation management is imperative in today’s world and should be part of every business (and every personal) strategy.

There is a famous quote by Warren Buffet “it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that you will do things differently”. It’s worth starting to think about it if you haven’t already.

If you are a school leaver or job seeker, what is it that will be discovered about you first in a search online? If you are trying to make a name for yourself in any industry, what kind of name do you want associated with your own

Authentic experience

This is how I see it, it’s my version of something I read at some point and it really hit home with me.

The most damage to reputations comes from a mismatch or misinterpretation of what is said about your business (or you)
and the reality of others experience of you.

So you can do all that hype, puffery and smoke and mirrors stuff, but at some point, the experience people are having of you and your business will be the defining point. You may get away with it for a while, but do you really want to end up on something like “sixty minutes” as the latest scam?

If you have a great business or product, or you yourself are the product (such as celebrity, actor, job seeker, entrepreneur) then reputation management matters!

A quote from Seth Godin comes to mind also “the key to getting a reputation for being brilliant is actually being brilliant, not just acting like you are“.
That says it all really. Be authentic.

What is it that you say you do? When someone works with you is that what they find?

At iRespectonline we get down to the nitty gritty, we explore the experience others are having of you and we help you to bring the best to the fore, and to take action on any negatives.
We don’t work with just anyone either, we look for synergies within your values and your mindset. Whether it’s producing a blueprint for your image online or our social media workshops and training to bring congruence to the whole team, it’s all about reputation.

So have you been caught up with the “bright and shiny” objects? Have you had an experience where there was a mismatch between what was offered and what was delivered?

We would love to hear your stories. Please share with us your experiences (no name and shaming please, lets keep it to respectful discussion).

Fiona Lucas.

If you would like to stay up to date, please sign up to our newsletter mailing list here. We are revamping our newsletter so you can be the first inline in 2015. We don’t spam, our reputation depends on it 🙂

If you would like to work with us, please drop us a line here.

February 17, 2014 By Fiona Lucas

LETIQUETTE – LINKEDIN ETIQUETTE

LETIQUETTE – LINKEDIN ETIQUETTE

In recent times there has been a bit of a change filtering into LinkedIn and in my opinion it’s not all been for the better. From my observations it’s change being driven by users, due to a poor understanding of what LinkedIn is for and how to use it well. As a Social Media professional educator, I constantly come across clients and associates who create profiles on every different platform because they believe that is a good strategy. Sometimes it is, provided there is a strategy and plan behind it.

Where it goes pear-shaped is when we start taking rules and behaviours from one platform to another and there is a mismatch between audience and purpose.

Professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn have rules for a reason. The rules are not there to restrict – it’s about targeting. When I’m discussing LinkedIn with clients and associates, I keep hearing so many stories about “spammy” emails and requests to connect from very disconnected sources, so it inspired me to do the following post, to help you get more out of LinkedIn and leverage it’s power for your profile and business.

LinkedIn’s own mission statement is: “…to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful”

I hope this post helps you to understand how to use and engage with your connections to help make your experience a positive and successful one.

1. NO PROFILE PIC (who are you?)
Think of your presence on LinkedIn just as you would when attending a physical professional networking event. You don’t walk into a room with a bag over your head do you? For best results, have a clear professional and current headshot on your profile. Ensure that your eyes are showing because we connect far more readily with people when we can look into their eyes. Your photograph (or lack thereof) is one of the first things people will look at.

2. NO SPAM PLEASE
Just because someone has connected with you on LinkedIn this is not an invitation to be placed on your mailing list. Nothing can be worse for your reputation than being known as a spammer. Anti spamming rules apply and if you wish to add someone to your newsletter, then email them asking them and make sure there is an opt out option. This is important for you to understand because if enough people mark your emails as “spam” then LinkedIn just might shut your profile down.

BEWARE THE THIRD PARTY APP: There are several products on the market which purport to build your networks and help your to build your brand and be found online. Unfortunately many of these programs make it very easy for you to send out invites and requests to your entire list. Some of these are referral key Etagged.me Erated.me Make sure you do your research before accepting such invitations – they may do more damage than good.

3. SENDING A BLANK INVITATION

If you only request connections using the standard connect form and don’t complete it, you are sending a blank invitation. LinkedIn provides an option to add a message with a request to connect. Please USE it. LinkedIn is about QUALITY over quantity. If you wish to build relevant relationships, which can help you to leverage opportunities, then it is worth taking the time to customize the message.This is even more important when reaching out to someone you have actually never met or engaged with. Let them know why you would like to connect. Tell them you enjoyed their article or the talk they gave. Remind them that you were at the conference or that you share similar interests or thoughts on a subject they are passionate about.If you actually don’t know the person, have no connections or their email address, then ask a mutual connection for an introduction. Some try and get around this by linking to a business the connection is part of. This does nothing for your reputation and could be just AWKWARD! Connecting with someone by saying you have worked with him or her at your business, or their business and you never have just to make the connection is a poor strategy! Come on – imagine being at a physical network event and someone says to you “oh I just met Bill over there, he says you used to work for him”, and you’ve never met the guy? If you wouldn’t do it in real life, don’t do it online. Worst still if you run into this person in the future your reputation will already be damaged!By the way..

4. IT’S NOT A DATING SERVICE
Linked in is NOT a dating service! It is inappropriate to use it as such. There are plenty of websites and platforms designed for that service. If you do happen to connect with someone and at some point it leads to a relationship that is lovely, but don’t send inappropriate connection messages – it doesn’t build your reputation and you just might get marked as spam and end up without a profile.

5. NO SELFIES OR CUPCAKES
LinkedIn is NOT Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or any of the other social networks. Whilst Facebook is primarily a social network, one which also has fantastic opportunities for businesses to connect and develop customer/client relationships (B2C, C2C and B2B), LinkedIn really works best as a professional networking platform. Here you can build and develop your profile, seek new connections and new opportunities, build or change your career and find partners and joint venture opportunities.It’s been said that “you wouldn’t wear flipflops to a job interview so don’t kick your shoes off on LinkedIn” and I think that is a great analogy. LinkedIn’s roots were in the recruitment industry – linking people and jobs, but over time they recognized the potential to help business to grow and to find connections way beyond the capabilities of a job board. LinkedIn has deliberately been created in a more formal and professional way and many professionals who would shy away from the other social networks will happily add opinion and share information within the constraints of the LinkedIn environment.
That said, the power of visual marketing means you can share powerful content, just ensure it is relevant. Using great images in your blogs is still a great strategy. Cupcakes are fine if that’s your business, but not if it’s your afternoon tea!

6. BE TRUTHFUL
This is the most important one of all. There is no benefit to lying or exaggerating on your profile. Your online profile is a snapshot of your resume and subject to scrutiny. Don’t risk your reputation.Highlight your achievements, your contributions to the world, but be transparent. Don’t take personal credit for a team effort and don’t reinvent your titles. Just be honest. This is especially true for those just starting their careers, it can be tempting to “gloss it up”. Please don’t. You can still be creative, especially if that suits your industry, but just keep it real. For example if you managed a business, use your title; don’t say you were the CEO (unless you were of course!). If you contributed to an article or book, say you were a contributing author, not the “author”. A little honesty goes a long long way.

I hope you have enjoyed this post, please pop over and join our LinkedIn company page so that you can keep up to date with our posts and let us know what you think. We would love to hear about your LinkedIn experiences.

Fiona.

LinkedIn, the LinkedIn logo, the IN logo and InMail are registered trademarks or trademarks of LinkedIn Corporation and its affiliates in the United States and/or other countries.
This post has been written to provide information and education about using LinkedIn and the use of the name is within branding guidelines. We are not an affiliate.

www.fionalucas.com.au

July 8, 2013 By Fiona Lucas

What will facebook’s graph search expose?

Facebook started trialling graphsearch in January 2013 with a limited beta rollout. With the help of the feedback from those testing the program, it is now ready to hit the millions of facebook users in facebook land.

First cab off the rank will be those in the USA and with English US language settings, but the rest of the world will not be far behind.

In many ways, graphsearch is really exciting. It will allow you to find services and business close by and help you find long lost friends, lets you search for locations and people in them, depending on the original privacy settings of the posts and profiles. Search is faster, it makes suggestions and links to BING to improve results when you can’t find them on facebook.

This makes is a good opportunity for you to have a really good search of your information and make changes to settings on albums, location check ins and the like before the roll out. Certainly continue to monitor your content after the roll out if you run out of time!

What graph search can do:

Lets you search for people and friends with similar interests (for example people who like a particular artist, musician, film, tv show)
Search for friends in particular locations (useful when travelling)
Search for photographs, for example if you enter “photographs of dogs” you will find photos your friends have posted as well as any public ones.
Search for themes such as films watched by dentists (if occupation is provided on a profile)
SEARCH RESULTS WILL BE DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE – depending on their privacy settings and the privacy settings of their friends.
Combine any of the above (for example photos of people in New York with dogs)

What it can’t (yet):

Access individual status updates (this one will have some big consequences for some people)
Doesn’t work on mobile apps
It can’t leverage from third party applications such as instagram.

What you should do:

Everyone: Start reviewing your content and “spring clean” your pages. Get some friends together and sort out your facebook privacy. It really helps to have a friend there to check what comes up on a search. You could even make a bit of a party out of it. Have a last laugh before you remove content and tags!

Don’t be afraid to ask someone to untag you or remove photographs. Please ask politely.

Use your activity log (you will find access to your activity log on the right side of your timeline cover pic) to review information.

Parents : You MUST sit down with your children who use facebook and go through this post and the settings together. Have a conversation about just where things might end up. Issues can arise when teens for example have tagged a photo of someone (whether will ill intent or in teen “fun”) with a word like “dog” or “pig” and suddenly a search for pigs or dogs brings up photos of people. On one hand, at least you find them and can take action, on the other hand, there may be serious consequences particularly is inappropriate language or degrogatry terms have been used against a person.

Schools: Review what is being said about the school. In many ways this search is a bonus as it will expose those sites which are not officially run by the school and enable the school a chance to “clean up” and if you don’t already have an official page, then it’s time to “own” the space. iRespectOnline can assist schools in these matters. Please contact us at mail@irespectonline.com .

Businesses: Make sure you and your staff are only posting relevant material to your pages and review for spam. If you haven’t developed an engagement policy for your business, it’s time to! It’s a great time to consider your online reputation and make sure your brand is being portrayed accurately online. If you would like our help, email us at mail@irespectonline.com with your requirements.

Facebook have put together comprehensive instructions and information on graph search, so head over to their page here and start checking out your settings now! Please drop back to let us know your opinion and any concerns you may have with facebook graph search. The background story behind graph search is also pretty interesting, so if you like to know how it came about, this post from The Next Web is informative.
Fiona Lucas

Author Futureproof Your Kids

June 28, 2013 By Fiona Lucas

What parents REALLY need to know about social media

There is so much information online for parents these days it is hard to know where to turn, it can be pretty confusing, and time consuming trying to cover it all. So many ebooks and articles and blogs on safety and apps and etiquette (we here at iRespectOnline have written many of them!).

Last year (2012), after seeing the career aspirations of one young teen smashed due to inappropriate photographs being posted online and found by a prospective employer, I knew I had to write a book to really EMPOWER parents with knowledge and to help them to understand the importance of guiding their children from the earliest ages possible. It took me just over a year to write as my father had a stroke just before I was due to finish it, but I am so pleased that it is now available and is being very well received.

Futureproof your Kids© encompasses my passion for not only educating parents in understanding the online world but of empowering our children to be the SUPERKIDS of the future online. Children who grow up respecting integrity and high values.

I never set out to write “another” guide book on privacy settings and the like as social media platforms change so often. Through collaborative efforts, I already have wonderful series of helpful tip sheets produced with my lovely colleague Mel Rom at Social Ediquette™ in Perth, WA. (We update these often to keep them on track with the latest changes).

Instead I have a produced a book from the heart, designed to help readers to really think and consider what our online interactions mean for ourselves and others, both now and in the future. The book is designed to assist parents with the issues they are really struggling with – where to begin, how to help their children, and to understand the benefits as well as be aware of safety and issues such as cyberbullying. Beyond that, this book introduces my 4 Step Reputation Framework© which I am so excited about.

This framework encompasses a set of ethics and values which our children can use throughout their lives. Introducing the values via 4 cute characters (created by my amazing illustrator Deb Parker) we meet Ruby Respect, Robert Responsibility, Rosie Resilience and Ronnie Research. These characters form an integral part of the content of my education workshops for parents and schools.

Further “superkid” superhero characters are introduced as we progress through the workshops. The values are valuable for adults to embrace also, as it is from parents and other adults that our children tend to model their early behaviours on. We need to keep checking our own “reflection” in the social media mirror!

IT IS NEVER TOO EARLY OR TOO LATE TO START LEARNING ABOUT THE ONLINE ENVIRONMENT. Whether your child is under 2 or 16 we should not allow a digital divide to develop between our children and ourselves when it comes to understanding the online environment. You need to be there, to help guide your children through the social media “playground” . Grandparents, Aunty’s, Uncle’s and neighbours too, should all understand the environment so you can work together to create a consistent approach to the use of social media where your children are concerned.

It’s not just parents and children who can benefit from my framework, I also have a “grown up” workshop version of the 4R’s Reputation Framework© for businesses who wish to embrace a more ethical, transparent and connected approach to the way they engage online with their clients, customers and prospects.

I look forward to sharing future posts with you that explore the contents of the book and perhaps engaging with you at a workshop at your school or community group soon!

Respectfully

Fiona Lucas

Author

Futureproof your kids© is currently available to Australian parents in paperback form from our website and at www.futureproofyourkids.com. Kindle/electronic formats of the book are currently under development and will be available globally in the near future. We encourage purchasing the hard copy so it can be shared around your family and always nearby for reference :-).

Enquiries for international and/or bulk orders should be made directly to the author via the contact form:

[contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Enquiry Type’ type=’radio’ options=’international enquiry,bulk order,school enquiry,workshop enquiry,keynote speaking enquiry,Other’/][contact-field label=’Comment’ type=’textarea’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

iRespectOnline®

Your social media mirror. Have you checked your reflection lately?