What are your social media rules?
What do you do online to manage your reputation?
Your digital footprint follows you everywhere. I regularly Google people, look them up on Twitter, and always see if I can find someone on LinkedIn before I meet them, so people must be doing the same to me. Reputation is extremely important, particularly when you’re in the business of giving advice, as we are here at Clear Thought.
Here are a few rules that I follow in my online networking:
#1 Facebook is for friends. I only hook up with people on Facebook who meet one or more of the following criteria, I would be comfortable for them to see me drunk and emotional or we’re related. And, even then I restrict who sees which photos, etc.
#2 LinkedIn is my professional network. Every single person on my LinkedIn I have either worked with or met in a professional capacity. There’s a real link, and I may well do, or probably have done, real paying work with them.
#3 Twitter, for me, is the equivalent of a professional networking event. Anyone can follow, hey I don’t know exactly who visits my website everyday, if they’re interested, that’s fine. But, for me it is a conversation with like-minded business people. I only say on Twitter the kinds of things I would say at a professional event… which occasionally includes chatting about what I’m up to at the weekend or my thoughts on Strictly, but broadly speaking it is about marketing, and specifically ways to make marketing pay.
These are the three social networking sites I use most often… the same principles apply to similar other sites, I’m sure you get the point.
What are your social media rules?
By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | @bryonythomas | www.clear-thought.co.uk
You might also be interested in:
- Blog: B2B Social Media; Be There, Be Relevant, Be Proven »
- Webcast: Bryony’s 30 minute webcast on generating online word of mouth on SlideShare »
- Case study: an integrated campaign including social media »
Clear Thought Consulting works with small businesses, equipping them with the marketing strategies, suppliers, skills and set-up that they need to become bigger businesses. We do this by planning and delivering 12-month marketing transformation programmes – supporting a small business through a step-by-step process to making marketing pay. We firmly believe that when you can’t out-spend your competition, you have to out-think them.
Published on 20 November 2009
