The ONLINE REPUTATION GUIDE
brought to you by Dean McNamara of MagneticNetwork.com
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BEWARE YOUR REPUTATION
How many celebrities have had their careers destroyed by one foolish action?
How many businesses have been destroyed because of one faulty product, or one bad
staff member?
The power of your reputation should not be under-estimated.
“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad
one to lose it” ~ Benjamin Franklin
Businesses know that one dissatisfied customer will do more damage than the good
10 or more satisfied customers. We are more likely to tell others about an
unsatisfactory product than we are to promote a good one. Which is why they give
great consideration to what potential staff members bring to the company.
Employers – found employees bragging on Facebook about how they were using sick
days to party, or uploading videos of themselves doing crazy things at work, even just
wasting company time posting on social sites. The result – they were fired.
Example one
Eample two
Example three
Future Employers are now running the names of potential employees through search
engines to see what kind of online presence people have. If you conduct yourself in
an unbecoming manner in the public arena online, you will be a liability to a
companies good name once in their employment.
We live in an ever increasingly small world. Everything you do is becoming more
and more visible to the rest of the world. It is a phenomenon that has previously only
been experienced by celebrities, but soon we will all live in the same fish-bowl.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ONLINE
Consider this very carefully before you do anything online.
Every mark you make online is there for a potential eternity, and it is accessible to
anyone with an Internet connection. Every comment you make, every picture you
post, every site you join, all leave a trail and connected together will enable people to
build a profile of who you are.
Your reputation is not only online, it is on-the-line at all times. If I see you are
connected to a scam, a dodgy product, or have a list of unhappy people that have
dealt with you in the past, I am not likely to do business with you in the future.
Each day sees more people using the Internet to research people, products, and
companies before making a purchase. Reviews, testimonials, and scam warnings are
some of the most popular product related searches on the Internet.
What would I find if I put your name into the search engines?
Have you tried it?
But even more than that. Every site you visit leaves a foot print that is traceable back
to you. It is not as simple as cleaning all the traces off your computer (which is much
harder than you might think). Your Internet provider has records of all your online
activity. Each site you visit collects varying amounts of data about you and your
activities while at their site.
An example of this documented on this blog post This is a somewhat tongue-in-
cheek post about how someone from Microsoft ended up on Ben's website. He
shows you how he deduced that the person was from Microsoft HQ and what the
person searched for to find his site. The point is that we all leave little clues like this
as we traverse the world wide web.
HOW THIS AFFECTS YOU
Reputations are fragile. Once damaged they can years to rebuild – if indeed it is
possible to restore them at all. It is important to maintain your reputation in the “real
world” if you hope to achieve a high rank in society, or in the work-place.
If your intention is build an online business your reputation is even more valuable
because of the global nature of the Internet. Once you have tarnished your online
reputation there is nowhere to hide. Even an elaborate system of fake identities is
like building a house of cards. At any moment someone could connect the dots and
your empire will come crashing down.
THE SOLUTION
Always conduct yourself with integrity.
Do not buy a $5 e-book (or a $5000 e-course for that matter) that promises you easy
money online. Any product that suggests you can easily make millions online while
you sleep is a con. Yes, millions can be made online, but it will require diligent
effort on your part. Or you will have to pay other people to put in diligent effort.
Period.
The Internet is constantly maturing and as it does the fly-by-night con-men will find
it harder and harder to make a quick buck. Of course there will always be new ways
to exploit people being developed the deviants – just as any industry faces this
problem. But even these systems require effort and research (often times more effort
than creating a legitimate business).
If living in fear of “Google slaps,” FTC officials, and other authorities is not your
idea of making a living, then you need to build your brand from the ground up with
honesty and reputable practices.
BUILDING YOUR BRAND
My friend Adam Taha suggests that:
“Branding is...what the people say about us when we leave the room.”
~ Adam Taha
Branding is not what you or your marketing team say about you, it is what other
people say about you. Branding yourself is conducting your life and business in a
manner that results in people saying things about you that you want to hear.
If you are unsure of what people are currently saying about you perhaps you should
go to a friend or family member and ask them to give you a brutally honest
description of yourself.
• What do they think are your most positive attributes?
• What do they think are your most prominent faults?
• How would they describe you to someone else in one sentence?
Of course it is much easier to find out what people are saying about you online – you
just have to search your name!
Now take a moment to create a sentence that you would like people to use when
describing you or you business. What would you most like to hear?
Write that sentence down and post it somewhere prominent. This is your brand.
Before you post anything, recommend a product, or start an online project stop and
ask yourself “will this build my brand?” In other words, will people talk about me
using the words I want to hear after I do this?
WHY A STRONG BRAND IS GOING TO BE EVEN MORE
IMPORTANT IN THE FUTURE
Search engines are constantly evolving and looking to provide the most relevant
results they can to searches made using their service. They do this because they want
their customers to have the best possible experience. If you use a search engine that
gives irrelevant results, or sends you to websites that are scams or have a bad user
experience, then you will stop using that search engine (and they will stop generating
income from your patronage).
In order to give people a good search experience, search engines use complicated
algorithms to rank websites. Their goal is to position the most relevant and quality
sites at the top of the search results.
Ben Tremblay suggests that a “People Rank” is likely to be a reality of the near future
in this blog post
Not only will businesses, but also individuals, be ranked by their credibility and
quality. Building a strong brand and solid reputation is the only way you will be
found amongst the millions and soon billions of potential results that will show up for
a given search term.
Susan Coils gave away a valuable tip when she said we should not be focusing on
building a down-line or a “list” as so many of the e-books that litter the Internet
suggest. Instead, Susan advises us to focus on building a reputation. Big lists and
thousands of connections on social media sites mean nothing unless you have
established credibility with these lists.
THE CASH CONTORVERSY
You will see many arguments online between people who suggest that everything we
do needs to be about the bottom line (that any business has only one function, and
that is to make money); verses those who say that it is not all about money (we
should focus on helping others).
The reality is that these are not mutually exclusive ideas.
We can help other people get what they want, which is the secret to getting
everything in life you want according to Zig Ziglar, and make money at the same
time. There are many ways to generate money. One way is charging people for
helping them, and is the most common strategy used in the business world.
If for some reason you find that offensive, or want to help people without charging
them (whatever your reason), then you need to look at generating your money in
other ways. After all, you don't have a business unless you are making money – you
have a charity.
Making money without charging people directly may take the form of recommending
products to people that will help them achieve the results they desire. When they
purchase said products via your “shop” or other affiliate channel, then you make a
commission. This is another successful and common business model that generally
goes under the name of affiliate marketing. Some people find it less offensive than
charging directly for services, and it can be equally lucrative if done correctly.
The problem is that if you are wanting to help people without them spending money
neither of these options will work. Fortunately, if that is your desire, there are other
methods you can use. One such method is to seek sponsorship from business.
Businesses in similar or related fields to the help you are offering may pay to have
banners, links, or other forms of advertising at your seminar or on your website and
other promotional materials. This is the same model of business that magazines and
newspapers operate.
The key to any of these models is your reputation.
“The most important thing for a young man is to establish credit - a
reputation and character.” ~ John D. Rockefeller
BUILING YOUR ONLINE REPTUTATION
A question frequently asked in forums is “How do I build a reputation as an expert
when I am just starting out online?”
The answer is easy; doing it is hard. Hard work that is, lots of hard work.
“You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.” ~ Henry Ford
If you wanted be perceived as an expert, or an authority in a given field online you
have to be seen everywhere. When a person makes a search your website should be
on the front page, if not the number one result. When searching articles they should
see your name as one of the most common authors. When in forums they should see
your name giving helpful advise.
You have to invest lots of time in creating content (or lots of money paying other
people to create content). It has to be quality content, and it has to be everywhere.
Just as James Stein recommends in this post.
To boost your reputation when you are starting out you can leverage other people's
reputation. You want to find other experts in your field – especially ones that are well
known – and you want to interview them, or host them at live events online. You
want your name associated with them in the minds of your potential customers.
Once again, your own reputation is essential as no one wants to associate with
someone with a poor reputation.
If you would like to build yourself an online reputation but don't know where to start,
or if you would like to raise your online profile, make a booking for a complimentary
consult with Dean at NZMarketingSystems
If you are looking for website hosting and help with creating an
Internet presence you might consider the Magnetic Network
Membership Site for the best deals online.
“My success is only measured by your success” ~ Dean McNamara