#63: Digital reputations, part 2: credibilities and how to establish them
...through content strategy and more
Hi friends,
Received some really good feedback from my previous post, #62: Building and growing a digital presence, so I’ve decided to write a sequel to it. Enjoy!
Part of building your digital presence intentionally is rethinking how you are perceived online. This is really important, NOT because you want to please people. Quite the opposite. You want to please yourself by taking pride in shaping who you are both privately and publicly. You want to control the narrative of your story, especially when it comes to your digital reputation. Otherwise, someone else will do it for you. (No, you don’t want that.)
People who generally feel good about themselves are a magnet for opportunities and good karma. Their energy is infectious and they attract what they internalize. From my experience, I know this to be true. I also know that no matter what you want to achieve in life, feeling good about who you are, what you do & why you do it is universal. It’s essential to, not just attaining personal goals, but to creating some form of change to the world we’re living in. Who wouldn’t want all of this?
What they don’t tell you is that it takes work. A lot of work to build this much endurance and longevity in the business of doing business on the internet. Perhaps, that is the point of reputations. The ROI to an excellent one is a future that opens doors, gives you desirable options and privileges and so on. But the price to pay is a pretty steep one. They1 make you earn it and even if you have, it takes as much work (if not, more) to keep it. The worst part of it all is that it only takes a second to lose it.
Being on the optimist side, I try to see things from the perspective of fun and growth. I can’t do this if I think it is pointless and lame and boring. This, to me, is a good heuristic and an instant unfair advantage. What may seem like work to many is play to me. I’m getting a lot of satisfaction building my career with the internet as the foundation.
Writing this playbook is obviously fun for me but what’s even better is that I don’t just write things - I live by them. The tactical lessons today are based on my real-life experience on this subject. Establishing credibility doesn’t have to be too daunting especially for anyone who has not done it. It, also, does not have to be extremely stiff and sales-y. There’s far too many of that out there already.
I think of this as no different to building avatars on a role-playing game (RPG), only better. This is real life being imported digitally. And unlike real life, you have a hell of a lot more control over your story and the way you tell it. So, let’s get started.
Start with a platform that aligns closely with your professional goals (and style)
There’s a reason why you want to do this aside from personal values/preferences - it is so hard to maintain multiple platforms. It’s a lot of grunt work. When it comes to social media, quality over quantity, anytime. It’s also less risky. You don’t have as many things to delete the minute you feel unsafe or manipulated or threatened.
Be selective with where you build your profiles—go where your audience will be
Think of these public platforms as your mini-storefronts, your business cards. They speak on behalf of you so make sure you are well-represented. Go to where your audience is. Remember that you probably only have a few seconds to make an impression, use that constraint as an advantage. Don’t put anything that would put you at a bad light to the people you care most about.
Constantly question what it’s like to meet you—digitally— for the first time through these platforms. And design those profile/s to meet those ideal expectations.
In my book, this means:
Making your first impression count by having a decent profile picture, with your actual face on it. This promotes trust and improves connectivity with the people viewing your profile.
Having a short but punchy bio. Keep revising this until you get it right. Please read my previous post about this on why I think this is critical to anyone’s success.
Relentlessly improving your writing and voice. You can tell a lot about a person just by the way they write online. This is an obvious signal. Writing matters because it’s a direct reflection of your thinking. If you can get one thing right, this would be it. It is hard to pull off a good and memorable digital presence without the upfront investment to a good and clear writing.
Keeping your headline titles consistent. From your personal site to your LinkedIn profile or any other public account, having a consistent headline will make it easier for people to identify, verify and remember you.
Additionally, with any evergreen copy on your profile page, go for clarity rather than cleverness. Recruiters won’t have time to decipher who you are and what you are selling if your copywriting is unclear. Unless you are a comedian, stick to the basics. You can always experiment with this later on.
Promoting integrity by sticking to this general rule: NEVER LIE. This is a deal-breaker, especially for your credentials. Fact-check everything. It is not worth the damage to your reputation if you mess around with this.
Clean up your digital presence (you’ll want the good things to stand out, not the ugly nor the dull)
Do a quick google search of your name. What comes out at the top? Is it a link to your personal Facebook account where a lot of your personal photos are likely displayed and posted? Change that to private. You don’t want your future colleagues / clients / bosses to see that.
If, for whatever reason, you are unable to do that (i.e lost password, email account used is disabled), don’t sweat it. That’s the past. What you do forward is what counts, starting from learning from it. Thinking twice about what you choose to post online and in public.
Personally, I ask myself a few questions to guide me with this process:
Is what I’m going to post truthful?
Will I regret saying what I’m about to say? If unsure but I’m willing to risk, how can I shape this so it can be in a state where I can regret it less?
If someone whom I respect would see this, would I be embarrassed? or proud? How can I tip it further to the latter?
Am I respecting the privacy of others by putting this out there?
For words-driven content — I’m ready to ship. Now how can I cut this down further?
Show—not just tell—through content creation
For your public profiles, write and post content as if important people are reading your content. Because, in the digital world, content scales. You don’t ever want your bad ones to surface should you get into other people’s radars.
I spent countless hours reading and going through different types of content online. I think I’ve developed a pretty good sense for what what makes a content good and worthy, if you are looking for an ideal intellectual diet. Some of my past writings about this :
Good content—no matter the topic—has the following principles:
Good content is insightful: At least for your public profiles, limit posts about your personal life, or if you absolutely have to, make it work for you by adding insights to how these stories may be relevant to your professional growth. Save the rest for your private accounts.
Good content is applied storytelling with data: Stories can be a powerful hook, especially if they are supplemented with Data. However, data is not enough. It has to be used well and with ethics in mind. It has integrity. It’s created with critical thinking in mind and not malice.
Good content is a priceless education: As a user, what can I take away from your content? If it is free, what am I exchanging my time for? How is my brain any healthier after consuming your content? What secret did I had the pleasure of knowing? What can I know now in the shortest amount of time possible that can blow the minds of people from centuries ago?
Good content is generally useful: 1. It solves a problem 2. It motivates people and brings in good morale 3. It brings awareness for certain causes 4. It celebrates ingenuity, heroism and everything that makes up creativity 5. It saves/improves/empowers lives
Good content is perspective-driven: With the internet being a melting pot of thousands and thousands of cultures (and sub-cultures), it’s ripe for good content, if diversity is your priority. When used correctly, good content opens up conversations, brings in inclusivity and invites different worlds into people’s lives further enriching it. Good content represents the best of humanity.
A well-designed content strategy for your professional social media presence sends a distinct signal: You are a person of substance worth taking seriously in whatever field you choose to be in. You know what you are talking about. People can find value in your individual contributions, if they choose to give you their attention and time. You are worth2 it and you can actually prove it.
This is an effective way to showcase credibility… using the assets you already have that no one can take: your experiences and the skills to sell them. Be generous in your own terms. The internet has a way of rewarding this, somehow.
Position yourself and your digital reputation as that of a company. You are the product. You have something to offer that someone out there needs. Find your customers (clients, employers, colleagues) by showing them what you can do. There’s no better way to do that through the internet, today and into the future.
Build yourself to greatness, one piece of original work at a time. The world is virtually watching.
Thank you for reading working title,
Nikki
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The free market / industries / the collective group who believes in the idea of capitalism, in general
In the context of quantifiable achievements, most certainly not self-worth