Smart Ideas To Help You Develop And Manage Your Online Identity And Reputation

We are all a combination of traits, likes and dislikes. This is only natural in the real world; however, it can be very confusing in the virtual world. If you are presenting your business or a cause, too much self disclosure or drama can detract from the important information you want to convey.

When you communicate with others online, it is important to be consistent. Though you may feel that it is dishonest to be less than completely forthcoming, the fact is your online persona will have far more success when presented as a character made up of the best parts of yourself. If you are communicating with others online as part of a business or other type of venture, it is important to present a consistent image.

People who are involved in compassionate work must always take care to exhibit compassion in online interactions, especially those related to that work. If you set up a website to minister to people and you invite people to join you, it is important that you make them feel welcome and show an interest in them when they do. In the real world, you may be lovingly known as crusty and hard to please by your circle of actual friends. This kind of thing is a lot easier to pull off in person than virtually.

If you are offering an interesting message and a high quality experience, your online community will attract lots of different kinds of people who will interact with you. Remember that they will not have the benefit of seeing the expression on your face, hearing the tone of your voice or observing your work with others in order to form an opinion of you. They will only be able to form an opinion based upon their interactions with you and your responses to them (or lack thereof). For this reason, it is very important that you establish a way of greeting and welcoming newcomers and showing interest and concern. Here are a few ideas.

Establish A Standard Greeting Practice

When someone new joins your group, specifically welcome that person and ask them to share a few words about out themselves. Ask questions! Find out why the person was attracted to your group and what the person hopes to gain by joining. Ask how the person makes a living, what books he or she has read, where the person lives and so on.

Are you seeing a theme here? When someone shows and interest in you and your cause, turn to the 5Ws - who, what, where, when, why and how - to get to know that person and let him or her know that you are interested and welcoming. If doing this would be a challenge to you, select a welcoming committee to do it for you. Remember that people who join online communities are seeking community.

Show That You Care

Build a relationship with your followers. Don't just drop the ball after a person has joined your group. When a person takes the time to make comments about and share your posts, respond to and thank that person. Understand that the fact that the person has sought you out and connected with you means that the person likes what you are doing and wants to support you. Show some appreciation.

If you have a naturally defensive nature, give it a rest. Finding fault in your followers’ posts and taking offense easily will not help you keep a healthy following. Always focus on the positive in comments and posts from followers and always thank your followers for their ongoing interest in you.

You personally may very well be a new age, healthy living spiritual counselor who also shops the malls and is not really concerned about the ills and social inequalities created by globalization. That's OK. People often possess internal contradictions; however, if you are promoting your new age, healthy living, spiritual counseling business on your social media page, do not also promote your affiliation with companies that are bound to offend your potential clientèle.

It is perfectly understandable that you might be struggling for money and needing to shop at establishments with less than stellar social consciousness reputations. You might also join these companies' affiliate programs, but if you do, keep your two enterprises separate. Many people who join affiliate networks promote their affiliations with online content. If you have personal affiliations that are not in agreement with your professional, online image, create a pen name and use that to promote your affiliations on separate social media pages and/or different websites.

Develop Your Online Personal Characteristics In A Focused Manner

Being multifaceted is a natural part of being human, but it doesn't play well online. For this reason, compartmentalization is actually a positive trait in the virtual world. While those who know you personally may have no trouble reconciling your real life contradictions, those who know you virtually will only be confused and disappointed by them.

This state of affairs can backfire on you by gaining you enemies, harming your cause or business and getting you labeled as a hypocrite. When you set up a website to promote your cause or business, be sure to establish a mission statement (either onsite or in your mind) and adhere to it. In this way, you establish guidelines that will help you keep your information and your image consistent so that you and your followers can enjoy a better and more successful online experience.

Copyright:SuzanneBennett:January 8, 2014

Focusing your attention on your best characteristics and presenting them consistently does not in any way mean that you should not be yourself! Present your best self while conveying your true thoughts and remember your followers are there because they like you and want to interact with you about your business or cause. Keep your posts upbeat, friendly and relevant and share your best true self!