WhatsTheBuzzAbout.com

Safeguarding Your Reputation

As you know reputations can be created or destroyed through social media. Perceptions about you can be changed in an instant by those who observe what you post and what is posted about you or about others and entities to whom and to which you are associated. Some people will paint negative pictures with a broad brush when they learn of illegal business practices of a company and will shy away from anyone associated with that company, whether that individual was guilty of those practices or not.

Over the course of a few years, we have seen reputations tarnished by illegal corporate dealings, assumed greed, assumed guilt, inaccurate facts outlined by politicians or the media, irresponsible actions by those in power or who have had a certain degree of prestige and respect afforded to them before the actions, statements which had to be recanted or “clarified,” and the list goes on. The power of the written word memorializes these circumstances. You may read a “bad report” and assume it is factual unless you do further research and discover that it was retracted.

You may assume that that negative reporting will never affect you. Do you know the actions of everyone who shares your name? Even those who share your name can affect you depending upon their actions, etc.  Have  you searched your name thoroughly looking for bad news? Have you ever sent an email and regretted its content or wish you could have tweaked it? Have you ever sent an email to one person in error when it should not have gone to him or her but to an entirely different person? Have you ever posted something and received a call that someone was offended by what you posted–perhaps you posted a restaurant review that wasn’t stellar, or an experience on a particular trip, etc. ? 

Everything you post is public, every group you join is public (whether the group claims confidentiality or not–the members of the group know you are a member), most every email you send or receive can be made public if law enforcement becomes involved, your movements on the internet are tracked by cookies and if you are on racy sites or violent sites that you would not want a child to be on, you could be tracked again by law enforcement.

If you want to safeguard your positive reputation, you can take a number of steps on a consistent basis to accomplish that goal.

1. Keep your word and your commitments.
2. Associate with those individuals and sites which have high ethical standards.
3. Follow the requirements of the social media sites.
4. Temper your postings with respect and well-intentions.
5. Do not evil-speak. That is, unless you have a legally binding obligation to do so, do not speak negatively about others and keep your negative thoughts unspoken.
6. Forgive people who have offended you or for whom you hold a grudge. You will be surprised how a simple act of forgiveness will lighten your load and permit you to treat everyone with respect and kindness.
7. Accept recommendations if a quid pro quo is not expected.  Provide one when you truly believe it is warranted.
8. Go the extra step to help someone who needs that help.
9. Walk in love.
10. Conduct yourself as you would want others to conduct themselves.

You will find that you will attract good people to you and that you will rarely have to apologize for your words or your actions.  Best of all, you will be aware of how your words and actions may be perceived and you will check yourself in the beginning. Your reputation should be a strong and accurate reflection of you!

What is your buzz about?

Make Time to Learn

Have you purchased hardware or software and do not know how to fully use the capabilities offered? Have you joined social networks and do not know how to move around in them? Have you downloaded shortcuts and do not know what they offer in total? Perhaps you purchased accounting software for your business and never set it up. Perhaps you traded in a cell phone and never used its features other than to receive and make calls. You may admire someone who is moving around a mobile device with ease and full use, knowing that you may not even have programmed in the telephone numbers you use all the time. Can you list what social networks you joined or what software and hardware you own without referring to a list or other documents?  Do you jump on the latest technology just because it is new?

Most of us do not take the time to fully use what is available to us to use. We learn what we need to learn in order to use those features which are the most important to us. We choose to take shortcuts in how we use technology and social media for our purposes.  We make a decision to not take time to explore certain things in depth. We take care of business at the moment, and have a cursory knowledge of all the technology with which we interface and then manipulate.

However, with the beginning of the Gregorian calendar year it seems an appropriate time to reflect on how we do things, how we prioritize things, and what is significant to us. It is a good time to remember that our power may be limited by our knowledge. We do not know that which we do not know.  It is an opportune time to  make learning a priority.

It might be an interesting exercise this year just to pick one thing a week and explore it, learn what it has to offer, take advantage of any new features you identify that might be an asset to you, and enjoy the thrill of mastering another product or network. If we begin to explore and learn about capabilities, we may learn that there are features that would help us streamline our work, ease our use, and enable us to spend less time at a task.

You will be surprised if you take the time to learn. There will always be at least one little nugget to take away from this exercise. If nothing else, you will not have any questions about whether you are taking full advantage of your ownership or membership, and you will have a sense of accomplishment. You will be able to be a repository of first-hand knowledge for others and continue to have a strong base from which to build.

Take time to learn. Take time to explore.  The rewards are great!

What is your buzz about?

Maintaining Privacy

You may be impressed with the social networks which permit you to select privacy settings, and particularly impressed with those which seem to permit you to be selective regarding various pieces of information. You may also appreciate those sites which attempt to authenticate their subscribers and verify information through email confirmation or other methods.  All of those special features are important and do make a difference.

Even though sites will permit certain restrictions, you should still be extremely careful  about establishing your privacy settings. Some sites will not enable your membership information to be accessed thus restricting your private information to just that site. Clear examples of that would be alumni groups from some of the top strategic consulting firms. Others will permit just member information to be available and nothing else.  Clear examples of that would be members of certain blogging sites.  Other sites permit a variety of controls over certain parts of your data and complete lack of control over other parts.  Clear examples of that include some of the more commonly-used social networks where you are shown as having an account but can control who can access more detailed information, such as date of birth, employer, etc.

You may find that you want to participate in a certain site and you will have to forgo protecting what you may consider confidential information to join that network. You may want to be more selective about what you choose to share on an item-by-item basis and find that such distinctions are not possible. For example, you may want to share an employer name but not the full dates of your employment or only the day and month of your birth and not the year (particularly helpful for younger children). 

Sometimes cancelling membership wipes out the retention of data by that social network and sometimes it does not. As long as the data remains,  it is subject to release, either inadvertently or proactively. Regardless, once the data is picked up by a search engine, it is extremely difficult to retract.

Releasing private information to friends and colleagues through email is also risky. Data once captured electronically via any medium has the potential to have a long life span and an ability to be retrieved years from then. This data includes photos, emails, text messages, voice mails, postings, video, searches you have conducted, video camera tapes, etc.

Each keystroke is important and has implications. If you are not comfortable with having the information public, don’t write it, don’t email it, don’t leave a voice mail, don’t text it, don’t speak it, and do conduct yourself with dignity in public gatherings where video cameras and cell phone cameras are a way of life.

Privacy was a very sacred tenet, highly guarded, As technology moves forward, our privacy rights have retreated. We are subject to surveillance in actions and speech and writing.  It doesn’t matter if you are a stellar citizen and human being–all “men” are created equal when it comes to this concept.  Parents need to instill in their children an understanding of privacy in order that children are not “embarrassed” later by their actions.

Think of your actions as always being public and it will help you make decisions regarding your privacy settings on sites and your conduct on and off-line.

What is your buzz about?

The Art of the Invitation

It seems that sending invitations to connect one-to-one on a social network or to join a network, forum, or group is a relatively simple, logistical process. However, sometimes individuals do not send invitations with care or respect. Sometimes  you may receive invitations from individuals whom you do not know and who do not make the effort to explain to you why they want to connect with you.

You may receive duplicate invitations from some individuals regardless of whether you respond to his or her initial or subsequent invitations. You may receive invitations from individuals who disguise themselves in emails, by using nicknames, initials, etc. You may receive invitations which have missing links or which contain viruses, worms, Trojan horses, or blended threats.  You may receive invitations simply because some individuals collect contacts or even are driven to compete to be number one in whatever venue with respect to the number of connections.

You may find individuals who send an invitation  and who already apologize for sending it to you if you have already accepted a previous invitation from him or her. You may receive invitations to connect with the same person on ten or more social networks, and question whether there really is a reason to connect with that individual on so many networks. Shortly, you may find that particular connection might result in viral invitations from others whom that same individual has invited to connect on multiple networks.

Invitations, once accepted may result in connections who were once welcome and then become unwelcome as those connections continue to proliferate your inbox with more invitations, blogs, newsletters, promotional information, requests, and “just thought you might be interested” emails. Disconnecting/unfriending is an arduous task and brings up another whole set of etiquette issues.

Establishing Your Own Invitation Style

Perhaps in the rush of your business and personal life you have never taken the time to think about how to frame your invitations or to whom should be the recipient or how those invitations might be perceived.

The numbers game — If you are a “contact collector” whose only goal is to enlarge your number of connections, then the only thing you need to be concerned about is the rate of return. You are an individual who does the electronic version of direct mail and only the response rate matters. Your invitations are framed, not for the purpose of making substantive strategic alliances or friendships, but rather to increase the number of connections for some future purpose. Take a look at the response that you receive from different networks if you are using standard invitations to determine if certain language might result in a higher response rate.

The selective connecter — If you issue only selected invitations in order to increase your network for some definitive business or social purpose, you might want to consider tailoring your invitations to include some information about yourself or your business in order to spur interest in connecting.

The reciprocal connector – If you generally limit your invitations to those who have invited you to connect on a particular group, etc. and you want to continue that connection in another venue, you should have a high response rate. If you do not, then you need to include the fact that you are already connected on another venue and want to perpetuate that connection on this additional group, etc.

The sporadic or casual connector – If you periodically or generally choose to connect with individuals for a variety of reasons your invitations may not be tailored to them.  By including a brief reason for the connection request, other than a simple “I would like to connect,” you will increase the likelihood that  the recipient will accept the invitation.

How you chose to  issue invitations reflects on your professionalism, your personality, and your purpose. As usual, the electronic word may be in perpetuity and, therefore, deserves consideration. Impressions can be made through electronic mediums just as well as in person, whether those impressions are first time or otherwise. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Proof your work, give due respect, and consider the value of the recipient’s time. You will be rewarded with strong, solid connections, and good will.

What is your buzz about?

Managing the Membership of Web Sites, Groups, and Forums

Managing the membership of individuals who wish to join or who are members of web sites, groups, and forums can be rewarding and stimulating. Depending upon your inclination, you can be very hands-on or hands-off, responsive or not, proactive or not, and detail-oriented or not.  If you are not an owner or manager of a social network web site, group, or forum, you will be able to see where you fit in the process and learn a few things to consider if you want to be a group manager in the future.

The stages of individuals in the “membership” process include: 1) the seeker, 2) the applicant, 3) the participant, and 4) the departing. Each stage places its own demands on the moderator and site owner. Without dealing with the information technology systems part of this process, let’s look at the expectations at each stage which might help moderators and owners plan for and respond to the individuals in these categories.

 The Seeker

This individual is usually hesitant. He or she may have been told to check out a group, etc. and has done some research. He or she may have read your description and is not willing to step out and risk becoming an applicant. Think of this person as someone who needs reassurance and more information than the average person. Generally, these individuals will get in touch with a group manager and ask for that additional information. They are the “consumer reports” type of social networker.  They may ask a lot of questions–from how long the group has been in existence to the number of members. You have to decide how to respond to his or her queries and what information you are willing to divulge. The inquirer could, in fact, not be a potential member, but have another purpose for the questions.

It is best to have your objectives and purpose clearly listed in the description in order to help ensure that the group remains focused and on-point. Having that information available to all up front, also helps to ensure that expectations are realistic, and that the rest of the group membership will rally around the purpose.

In general, you should respond to the seeker with clarity and accuracy. The individual will be comfortable in making the decision to join and actively participate in your group if you are open and receptive to receiving questions. You may find that these individuals will ultimately become your group’s strongest advocates.

The Applicant

This individual may or may not be someone whom you know. You need to determine whether you will permit everyone to join without prior approval or whether you want to moderate individuals. Allowing people to join without moderation is certainly easier to manage, but comes with some additional issues to consider. Even though it is impossible to ensure that you eliminate all the “spammers” or other “unwanted members” even with moderation, moderating your membership at least permits you the opportunity to catch some before they join. For example, do you want to permit individuals to register twice because they conduct business under two different names? One social network permits this practice of multiple accounts but does not encourage them. However, this means that one individual could join a single group more than once under the same or different names. Moderating your membership applicants permits you to address certain issues such as registering in a personal name versus that of a business or ensuring that the individuals meet the terms of participation. You can simply choose not to approve the membership of Hotel Manager until that individual uses a personal name. By doing something like the example, you simply help your members know with whom they are dealing—at least to the best of your knowledge. Acknowledging membership is also a great personal way to expand your contacts.

The Participant

Participants become successively easier to manage as the length of their participation increases. You will be able to manage the postings to ensure that they are in line with the requirements of the web site. You will receive questions about how to move around the site or group, which is just the normal participant learning curve. Having general use information available is a start, but keeping your responses also helps going forward.  Encouraging your group to share tips is helpful and encourages participation as well. You may receive also complaints about members or about the group itself. It is important to deal with the questions quickly and effectively. Remember to protect confidentiality and to keep your responses (verbal and written) professional.

The Departer

It may or may not be possible to determine who leaves your web site, group, or forum. If you do have that knowledge, you may or may not want to reach out to them, assuming that their departure was voluntary. Rarely, does someone decide to rejoin a group based on an outreach, but leaving may be a better experience if they do have contact with you.

Summary

Social networking is all about creating relationships. Recognizing individuals at all stages is meaningful to those individuals and encourages building those relationships. Deciding how individualistic/personal to make the process is a major decision. You can always change the process at any of the stages depending upon your objectives, your time, and your willingness to interact. Management is a responsibility and social networking is the art of perception–you want the perception to be accurate. Treat the management of your web site, group, or forum, with integrity and respect and you will find it rewarding and worthwhile.

What is your buzz about?

Using Ideas, Language, and Intellectual Property without Permission

It seems that many people believe that it is acceptable to use another’s ideas, etc., without even discussing it, much less getting approval.  Have you noticed photos used or quotations made without attribution? If so, you have observed just the surface of what is prevalent.  Let’s take a few examples.

Using Photos and Images

How many times have you seen photos used in postings on blogs or in other documents when you cannot find any source for the photos or the images? Often free photos are used, but many times they are not and there is no attribution for them.  Individuals may not have obtained authority to use certain photos or images but are not deterred by that—perhaps they do not even consider the ownership.

Sometimes, the photos and images may be familiar to you, but if you try to locate the source it is impossible. We have great search programs for words, but few search programs for images. If you want to use the same image, you are left with little help in finding the owner in order to obtain approval to use that image.  Have individuals used your images without approval?

Using Language

A certain web site manager used identical introduction, invitation, and thank you language for his group as the language used by another web site manager who had multiple sites and who had developed and used the language to standardize the approach. When the issue was raised to the first individual who had simply copied the language and replaced the name of the web site with his, he quickly changed his modus operandi.  He knew that what he was doing was not appropriate, and he simply waited to see if he would be caught. Imitation is not always the sincerest form of flattery. Had he contacted the other manager first, it might have proven beneficial to both to work out some sort of strategic alliance and coordination. Alas, he blew it by copying something that was already copyrighted and not coordinating.  Have you used language that someone else used and not checked with them to get his or her approval?

Using Ideas

Another individual developed a great introduction idea for a posting in a group. The group owner wanted to adopt it in other groups and wrote to the individual to get approval. He or she never received a reply and went ahead and used it in other groups and invited that individual to join those groups. The individual who came up with the initial idea was able to observe that it was used and expressed no objection.  The idea took off and has been very effective in helping individuals become connected.

However, in another case, a web site owner was speaking with a potential strategic alliance partner about some domains that he or she had. The potential partner agreed that it was worth moving forward on the concept of the domain names. The next thing that happened was that the potential partner registered a similar domain name and launched his own platform. Now, much later, he wants to consider a strategic alliance again. What do you think the web site owner should do?  It is one thing to forgive a dog that bites and quite another to go back into the same yard again where the dog spends his time. 

Summary

It is rarely in your best interest to use ideas, language, images, photos, or anything else which is the property of others and which is not authorized for you to use. Integrity is something for which there is no compromise. These examples present small ethical issues, but they give you an idea of the standards by which people operate. Either your work is original or parts of it are not and you should make it a point to give proper credit when required.

What is your buzz about?

Should You Brand Yourself Through Posting?

Have you noticed that some individuals post new information, others post opinions, and others simply post links to other people’s work, news articles, or web sites?  If you step back, you will see a trend for your postings. Are you contributing new information and insights to groups or are you a referral library sending people to other locations to retrieve information?

Posting New Information

If you provide new content, new information, and fresh ideas using your expertise, you are doing the group and yourself a great service. Others can benefit from your gifts without leaving the site and therefore, can remain focused on the group, the topic and the content that site provides. They are encouraged by your postings to follow suit thereby enriching the group as a whole. The value of the group, understanding of the dynamics of the group, and focused conversations will be increased.  You will also begin to be recognized for your contributions and your expertise.

Posting Opinions

If you post opinions, you are spurring conversations and communication. You may evoke controversy as a result and you need to be prepared to tolerate, ignore, or accept negative responses or judgment which you may or may not deserve. However, you are increasing others’ awareness of a topic or position and causing them to think about it. Posting opinions alone is not a problem. However, if all you post are opinions, your value to the group is limited by your self-imposed limitation. Think about stepping out and sharing information as well.

Posting Links

If you post links, you may be providing new information. However, you are inadvertently sending people away from the group. Posting links alone does not necessarily build your credibility as a person with knowledge, insight, or expertise. If you want to post a link and can do so in the space allotted, think about including information about the link and what is significant in your mind which makes that link valuable. Posting links which are referenced in an article or posting that you wrote is of value and necessary. However, often individuals simply post a link with no commentary and no reference as to the significance of the link. You will see postings that simply say something along the line of “check this out” and then the link.

Branding Yourself

What you post will determine whether you are establishing or cementing your own brand. Think about the content of your postings and whether they will add to or detract from your mission, your goals, and the purpose of the group. If you want to ensure you are continuing to brand yourself according to plan, make certain that whatever you post is clearly attributable to you and is of value to the readers.  

What is your buzz about?

Are You Too Scattered in Your Online Presence?

Have you developed a plan for your social media presence, or are you responding to the latest invitation and/or latest trend?

Most people begin their social media foray as a result of someone recommending a particular social network or purportedly time-saving web site. They may discover a group on that network which peaks their interest and they join. People see them on the site and know that they share the commonality of the site, and they offer to connect. What follows is the cycle of connection and invitation requests.  Next thing our newbies realize is that they are on many different social networks and have many connections.

If you have been active for a while, you may be on certain social networks and groups because you need a presence for your business or other reasons. You may have joined because you have an interest in the topic or someone significant in your life has recommended that you do so, and you do not want to offend them. All of those are valid reasons.

A good exercise to do annually is to take your own participation quiz without benefit of notes or online information. Attempt to list all the social media web sites and networks to which you are a “member” and then list all the groups and subgroups to which you are a member.  In general, most people would not be able to create an accurate listing without referring to online information or their personal data base.  However, you will quickly determine those groups and networks which are of significant value to you through this exercise.

You do not have to be active in every site to which you belong to consider yourself a valued member or the site of value. You do not have to post to provide value. You can provide value to a group or a site though letting others know about the site or about the topics discussed. Just increasing your knowledge through reading postings is of value.

You may want to narrow your participation, however, if you have little interest or reason to have a presence. If you find that you are receiving “spam” as a result of your membership on a site, let the owners know before you simply disconnect. Give them the opportunity to remove the offender from the group. As you move along in your social networking journey, be selective in where you invest your energy and time.

Time is not retrievable, and just as you are selective in your in person relationships, you should be comfortable in your online relationships. It is acceptable to decline invitations and to disconnect from individuals and leave groups. It is acceptable not to visit every group and every site every day. It is acceptable to do those things which are meaningful to you and not necessarily what others think should be meaningful to you. Again, the choice remains yours.

What is your buzz about?

How Much Do You Reveal About Yourself?

You may believe that you are being very circumspect in what and where you post and what networks, groups, and forums you join.  You may find it very enlightening and you may be surprised how many others are “watching you” or “checking you out” on the internet.

You may find yourself in a meeting and the individual with whom you are meeting has done his or her internet due diligence on you. The individual will tell you facts about you that will be surprising to you that they were so easily discovered. You may find that it takes minimal effort  to discover what causes you support, whether you made any political donations, what membership organizations and networks you joined, what your core beliefs and values are, your birthday, whether you graduated from a postsecondary educational institution and the year of your graduation, with whom you are connected, etc. The list continues with photos, residence, telephone, work, directory information, criminal history, and many other criteria.  

Without even asking you one question, people will know a lot about you and will form opinions. You are simply data on the internet—a compilation of facts and postings. You can be perceived as a person of ill-repute or good rapport simply by what you post. You can be tracked for suspicious activities by authorities, tracked by a potential employer conducting due diligence, spammed through capture of your email address, contacted and watched by potential suitors, stalked by criminals, monitored by parent(s), “followed” by friends and colleagues, managed by search engines to optimize your stay on sites, as well as categorized by shopping sites and teased to buy other things based on your purchase or page review history. Your passwords can be retained by your system if you choose and used to automatically log you on the next time you wish to visit a site, which incidentally you can choose to bookmark or permit to pop up in a URL drop down list.

It is another world on the internet. If you believe that you are protecting your privacy – think again. You are on public display when you are on the internet, whether you are trying to be circumspect or not. Some individuals believe that parents should protect their children while children are on the internet, regardless how they protest. There is no sure fire way to protect them. All we can do is minimize their vulnerability.

It is a wise lesson for us all. Our “business” is out there. Take an internet photo of yourself-capture what is already public information and you will get a picture of who you are. You are a singular unique individual who is of great importance to friends and family. Protect yourself as you would protect a child. Treat yourself as though you were a King or Queen. You are significant and you deserve respect. Let your postings and affiliations speak for you. Do not be afraid to be authentic with dignity and let your public persona shine. Your information is out there; therefore, let it reflect the real you.

What is your buzz about?

Have You Mastered Being Succinct?

Have you noticed that over the course of the last few years, communication via the internet seems to be expecting us to express more using fewer words? It has become commonplace to see yellow smiley faces to represent happiness and other moods, acronyms such as roflol to represent that we are laughing (rolling on the floor laughing out loud) and tweets in 140 words or less.

On web sites we are asked to summarize ourselves using no more than 25 key words, or to give a quick synopsis of our expertise in a profile, or lists our “needs” and “wants” in less than 50 words for each category.  We are told that in order to be understood, we should write for an 8^th grade student or below (using the United States educational system as an example).  We are encouraged to think in outline form using bullets or numbers to help clarify our statements for readers. We are expected to be “politically correct” in the United States and “culturally correct” and sensitive when using the written words without the benefit of body language or facial expressions to help connote the meaning and the respect.

With all the expectation, we are learning how to be succinct. We use shorter sentences. We adopt the headline news approach in our emails in order to avoid the undesired “spam” filter.  We use smaller words – words that will not send someone to the dictionary to determine the meaning.  Our hiring officials generally take less than a minute to review a resume, and may discard for errors in punctuation or grammar on first review.

In short, the demands on us are now to adapt to the quick bite. We must communicate our information and questions rapidly. The pace of life and work seems quickened by this need to get the “point across” in short order.  Should our children be taught in school to be succinct? Is brevity the goal? If it is, we may lose some of the beauty of words, thoughts, ideas, creativity, and expressiveness along the way.

Have you mastered the art of being succinct without losing your authenticity?

What is your buzz about?