Young PR

Online Reputation Management for Digital Natives - Podcamp Boston Wrap Up

I’m very slow on posting this wrap up of my session at Podcamp Boston and especially express a huge thank you to all of you who contributed through comments at my blog and elsewhere.

We didn’t try to come to our session with all the answers. Instead, we took the Do’s and Don’ts that you submitted earlier, pulled them into categories and presented our data to the group. Then, we talked through the concepts with the smart people in the room at Podcamp to see what fresh insights we could draw.

Christi’s done a great wrap up already, so without further ado here are our 6 wide guidelines for online reputation management - as told by you and collated by Christi:

1. 1. R-E-S-P-E-C-T — Yep. That’s the first one. You had to know it would be in there after all of the discussion about respect online preceding Podcamp. But it’s not just about young people, and it’s not just about writing inflammatory posts. This category encompasses…well, basically everything your mamma told you about respect — Be honest, transparent, ethical; don’t think you know it all; be open to new things, new points of view; disagree in a civil, constructive way.
   2. Personality — Now this is my favorite category, as it provides the biggest opportunity for success or failure. (This was also a fun one to talk about with our audience.) Be original — don’t copy someone else; get your own authentic personal brand; represent your complex self online (this includes personal and professional); to quote Lee Hopkins (he pretty well sums it up): “Show your thought leadership, your intelligence, your humanity, your humor, your insights, your wisdom, your passion, your enthusiasm, your personality, your creativity, your energy, your self…”
   3. Conversations Friendships — “Conversation” really has become a buzz word lately (it’s even the slogan on the back of our Converseon business cards) and for good reason. Conversation and discussion have made the blogosphere the vibrant space that is. Conversation is great, don’t get me wrong. But it can’t replace friendship. The key point to take away from this category: don’t let Facebook photo horror stories and talk of Google tattoos scare you away from participating in this welcoming, friendly space. The benefits far far outweigh the costs. I’ve interacted with some of the smartest people all over the world, and am doing my best to form friendships — not just networking opportunities or business connections — with as many of them as possible. Yes, do all of these other things, but (perhaps most importantly) don’t forget to be a friend and make friends.
   4. Learning — This one is pretty obvious. No matter who you are, you don’t know everything; go into the space with an open mind and an eagerness to learn from your peers; take advantage of the collaborative nature of the blogosphere; be active, not ani-social — seek out knowledge by reading and commenting; make valuable contributions to the community; make mistakes and LEARN from them.
   5. Awareness — This one is about audience, the first thing any good communicator should consider, whether online or off. Keep your most unintended audience in mind (for me, this means not posting something my parents couldn’t forgive me for); pause to think, listen and understand, sometimes your first reaction to something isn’t the best one; edit yourself — while allowing people to see your complex personality is a great thing, you can share too much; consider how others will perceive you based on what’s online — is that you?; keep an eye on what others are saying about you; Google yourself, for goodness sake!
   6. Consciousness — Although technically a synonym for ‘awareness,’ we thought it deserved its own category, as it encompasses slightly different principles. While awareness focuses more on audience, consciousness focuses more on self. Think about how you are presenting yourself online; don’t turn off your “brain-to-finger/mouth filter;” don’t be rash; realize that what you publish could be a part of your reputation forever.

Again, thank you to everyone who commented or blogged some Do’s and Don’ts for Online Reputation Management. The presentation was much more yours than it was ours - all we did was pull together all your knowledge and bounce it off the crowd.

I owe you a beer