If your considering taking the first bold step into the world of entrepreneurism, be it online or brick and mortar, something you must consider at some point is your reputation. Now you may ask, ”What reputation? I haven't even started yet!”
After that perfectly natural query give yourself a moment to consider what would come across to someone considering hiring you if you showed them some of those pictures from your “younger days”. Then give yourself time to think about all those posts on Facebook where you simply clicked the “Like” button and they were, shall we say, “less than complimentary” comments about someone else. Now consider this, in our digital age anything that’s put out on the web stays on the web. Even if you deleted it, it is still out there in the aether we fondly call the internet. Gives a whole meaning to the world wide web doesn’t it?
This article is not meant to simply scare the bejeezus out of you, or maybe it is, but to give you pause and consider the consequences of your online actions be they past or future. We had the opportunity recently to hear a presentation by Lisa A. Sullivan, a digital media marketing strategist, on how to protect your online and professional reputation. She began with the question, “ Have you ever typed something to go on social media that you immediately considered deleting?”
A rather provocative question indeed but as she next stated, “No other opportunity like the internet has EVER occurred where you can be permanently labeled.” She explained how everything we put on the internet is indexed and could be found if someone wants to put enough time and effort into it. You could potentially be connected to someone else’s possible offensive behavior, even indirectly, by that innocent enough “Like” you put on someone else’s joke..
Because indexing does occur the damage can happen when a comment you intended for your buddies who “get your humor” is somehow connected, directly or indirectly, to those that actually mean to do harm. There are countless stories of people’s reputation being savaged online and Lisa shared some with us. One thing that was made clear is, the internet is a horrible judge when it comes to measuring sarcasm and tone and, it cares not what your intention may be.
Now it’s hard to imagine a potential employer or investor judging you too harshly for that awkward college picture of you doing a keg stand that may be out there tagged deep on a sorority sister’s Facebook page. However, If there appears to be a pattern to your online behavior like a ridiculous amount of compromising selfies or less than tasteful jokes between friends then, you get the idea. Your image could become that of someone who could possibly be a liability for a business who is thinking about hitching their wagon to you.
It’s sad but true, we live in an age where you can get sued for anything and first impressions can easily be your last ones on the internet. Why do you think HR departments have become so important in the corporate world? At least half of what they do are take measures to prevent against possible damage from employees’ foolish behavior. PR departments almost always feel like they devote too much time to damage control and not enough to promotion.
While we can’t change our past we can make a difference in how we go forward. We’ll take a look at steps we can take to repair any damage that’s been done in another post but for now it’s best to always keep in the front of our minds the old axiom, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
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