Most people’s idea of building their reputation is to post a couple things on social media and all of a sudden — POOF — everyone either knows you or about you and you are done! But allow me to ask a simple question: Before you head out to work, do you brush your teeth, comb your hair and look in the mirror to check yourself out? Of course you do.
Well, we need to do the same thing digitally: search for yourself and what do you find? Are you buried on page 3 of your Google search? Even page 2 can be disastrous.
Reputation
Your reputation needs to be managed and freshened up all the time. Some people think that if they post enough on Facebook, it is good enough — well, it ain’t!
But reputations are built one day, one post, one transaction at a time!
Before you can ‘build a reputation’ you have to become aware of the one that you have, and it is either working for you or against you. But it is working!
In the book Lead the Room by Shane Hadden, he writes that reputation speaks before you do. Whether you realize it or not, you are already speaking long before you stand up in a room. It is a fact; you can’t change it because back when the Internet was born (for me it was 1992), global connectivity became a reality. This is because we live in a globally connected world where people can look you up ‘in a click.’
“A valuable element in positioning or branding or reputation is understanding what people are already saying about you. It’s knowing what kind of reputation you have in the minds of your audience. There are certain moments I have found valuable to leverage,” Hadden writes.
“As a leader you need to think about your network, because your network is how you influence a conversation you’re not part of. You leverage the power of your reputation whenever you tap into the power of your network and that includes advocates,” Hadden states.
A reputation is simply the choir of advocates singing the same message and the same song whenever they get together.
“Advocates are those people who will speak well of you when you’re not present,” Hadden explains.
Search
And because we live in a search economy, whenever anyone thinks about you or hiring you, they search you! And what they discover about you they use to build a picture of you and what you’re about.
So, the question is when someone searches for you, what are they coming up with and what are they finding?
Take, for instance, your LinkedIn bio: what would people learn about who you are and what you value? As a leader or a business person, you need to think about your visibility and what that visibility is saying about you! How you show up in the places people are looking for you.
If you have any questions about this information or title insurance, please contact Ralph Aponte: 732.914.1400.
Counsellors Title Agency, www.counsellorstitle.net, founded in 1996, is one of New Jersey’s most respected title agencies, serving all 21 New Jersey counties with title insurance, clearing title, escrow, tidelands searches, and closing and settlement services for commercial or industrial properties, waterfront properties and marinas, condominiums, townhouses or residential single-family homes. Counsellors Title also features its own Attorney Settlement Assistance Program™ [ASAP], which is an individual resource customized to fit the needs specifically of real estate attorneys, including, Documentation, Preparation, Disbursement of Funds, Attendance at Closing, HUD Preparation or Post-Closing Matters.
Connect with Ralph on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralphaponte/