The individual entrepreneurs bible to managing his or her personal reputation…
Since owning a business is the dream of many, all startup owners must know how to manage his or her personal reputation as is pertinent to his or her business! Personal reputation management knowledge is crucial because customers increasingly only do business with those companies having a good reputation, and whose owners have a good personal reputation as well.
As of 2017, only 64% of Internet search engine users believed the results, and 59% of these users blindly trusted the Internet search engine results. Since all of these users are customers, and since customers also Google the owners of the companies they want to buy from, these owners must use personal reputation management to safeguard their personal reputations! This is easily accomplished by following these simple steps:
Have an active social media presence while being professional :
All business owners are advised to have corporate accounts for all social media platforms in existence and post on them at least occasionally to ensure that their accounts are not hacked into, or to ensure that rogue people don’t create fake accounts in their corporation’s names and post content that can damage the owner’s personal reputations. While the content posted on social media must be flowery, it also must be relevant and truthful for this strategy to work well!
Create Google alerts to learn more about mentions about them and their companies
All business owners should set up Google alerts to give them notifications regarding the latest stories mentioning them and their companies. This is vital in terms of reputation management since it is easier to restore one’s personal reputation when the damage has recently been done!
Transparency and admitting past mistakes is crucial :
Any business owner will make bad mistakes with negative consequences and results. Once this is done, the business owner must admit his or her mistake and be transparent about it. A good example of this can be if the owner personally appears on television and sends out personal apology letters in response to a faulty computer software package whose virus has affected the computers of its customers. The owner can then offer a product replacement free of charge, and cash back for the defective product.
Remain calm when faced with negative comments :
Because business owners are passionate about their businesses, they have a tendency to take negative comments, whether directed through email, social media, and/or the corporate website personally. This can color their response with anger, thereby further damaging their reputations. It is in these instances that business owners remain calm, act professionally, and provide responses that are both professional and polite. This will let those in their target audience know that they are genuine and serious about doing business. The end result is more website traffic and conversions.
While there is no one ‘magic bullet’ a business owner can take to manage his or her personal reputation, he or she can follow the steps mentioned above for effective personal reputation management.
