Remaining Anonymous Doesn’t Breed Credibility or Authority!

Years ago the average website owner was in the norm if they had their contact details and personal information hidden. Those days are long gone, and should be! After watching the TED video about “The Sixth Sense” I got to thinking about how this all plays a role in how credible we see others, as well as being able to stay safe & keep private information private.

Perfect example of this is Tiger Woods right now. I don’t have much to say, since I don’t know the truth, but, if the rumors are true, it will diminish how I felt about him….although not completely. But, take his situation, and put yourself in the middle of a firestorm, or take Sue Scheff, a woman who was fighting for the lives and safety of children as well as their rights, and what it got her was a woman who was so upset at her that she took it too far and began bullying her online and making false accusations about her. Sue’s livelihood and business depended on her reputation, and having false accusations lodged against her all over the web was ruining her business as well as her credibility.

One of the comments on the “TED-Sixth Sense” post (James I believe) mentioned the Google Cloud, and that was one of the things that had originally caught my eye. I like the idea of having the information ready and available at my fingertips when shopping or taking a picture to upload to my blog, but the Google cloud or tag cloud is not something I am too keen on, which is why it caught my attention. (Let me clarify, I am not against James or technology, I just think some things should be private, and a tag cloud such as this one, makes me wonder where privacy issues com into play. You can read more about that on my own blog, the TPA Journal.)

We lose a lot of our transparency when we choose to do business online. What I don’t want people to think is that they should all of a sudden revert back to the days of no contact info either, because that does just the same thing as having bad press. We all need to be careful about what is said online about us, as well as what we say online. Often times though, its what others say about us that may come back to haunt us. I wrote about this subject on my own blog because I personally feel like many of us have no idea what exactly is being said about us nor do we stop to think about what we are saying that may be misconstrued or for that matter actually be exactly what we said and meant.

On Tuesday, the owner of one of if not the only (I don’t know of any other) reputation management companies was on BlogTalkRadio on the CHWRadio show, and he discussed several aspects of management or defending your reputation and also shared a few stories about how bad or misinformation can end up online, as well as anything we actually really do that can hurt our reputations. Its about an hour, but well worth listening to.

All this comes down to being aware of what is said about us online and defending our reputation. Better yet, why defend it if you can put measures in place to protect it. Keep contact information online, be forthright, honest, and careful. Be careful to not give out all your personal information. It’s a good idea to have business contact info available that way you don’t have to give out personally identifiable information. Defend Your Reputation, don’t let others destroy what you have worked so hard to develop. Everyone has an online reputation, whether they realize it or not.

I would love to hear more about your thoughts on transparency and reputation management.

Tagged as: authority, bad press, good press, pr, privacy, Publicity, reputation management