http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

So the real question is – who are you? How do people perceive you and how do you want people to perceive you? Moreso,  how can you affect one’s perception of you?

Connections. Connections rule the web. Whether you are a business wanting to be connected to other businesses or a person wishing to connect with like minded people – the whole web runs off the principle that everything connects. Google even helps promote sites on their search engine results pages based on the connections or links they have with other sites. Linkedin and Facebook have created business models out of people connecting.

Connections forms the first part of your reputation. Who does this person know and who are they associated with? What information is shared with the world just because you are connected. I can be connected with people in my industry from a professional stand point allowing people to see my field of work. I can be connected with businesses and online shops where my profile of purchases is retained in a database. I can be connected with old and new friends on social media sites allowing people to see who I mix with and in a lot of cases – what I do when I mix with those people. Do I play sport and if so, what sport. Do I socialise in bars and where. Do I play board games, play music or even dress up in medieval dress – your interests and interactions are now more than ever out in the public domain.

The second building block in your reputation is what your connections say about you. Do they recommend you on linked in, do people tag you in photos on facebook and write comments on your wall, does amazon recommend books to you based on your purchase history and connections with their sellers.

The third building block is what you say about your connections. Do you tag your friends or write comments on their wall? Do you recommend people on linked in or write book reviews on amazon? Do you write hotel reviews, publish blogs about your views, participate in online forums.

Although a lot of the sites that house your connections are disparate – it is becoming increasingly easier to find that information about anybody and for people to form opinions based on their preception of who you are.

I believe social media and web 3.0 is going to increase the web’s openess making it easier for everyone to view your connections. Even now there are packages like seesmic where you can aggregate your twitter and facebook accounts to control the flow of information from you or about you.

Remember – the 3 keys to Online Reputation Management are:

1. Monitor where information about you is found
2. Analyse what people are saying or how people are perceiving your comments
3. Influence – write, write, write. The more you write and get your ideas out there, the more influence you will have on people’s perception of you.

]]> http://richardcbray.com/2009/12/06/who-am-i/feed/ 0 zebray person http://richardcbray.com/2009/12/06/what-is-a-reputation/ http://richardcbray.com/2009/12/06/what-is-a-reputation/#comments Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:01:51 +0000 Richard Bray http://richardcbray.com/?p=18 ]]> A Reputation is a believed, social, meta-evaluation; it is built upon three distinct but interrelated objects:

(1) a cognitive representation, or more precisely a believed evaluation – this could be somebody’s image, but is enough that this consist of a communicated evaluation;

(2) a population object, i.e., a propagating believed evaluation; and

(3) an objective emergent property at the agent level, i.e., what the agent is believed to be.

In fact, reputation is a highly dynamic phenomenon in two distinct senses: it is subject to change, especially as an effect of corruption, errors, deception, etc.; and it emerges as an effect of a multi-level bidirectional process. Reputation is also how others know and perceive you as an individual. (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reputation)

Simply put – Reputation is a perception based evaluation of someone which can be affected by a a vast number of factors.

With increasing time being spent on social networks people are at the same time growing their online trail. The trail defines who you are, who your connected to (friends on facebook) and what your interests are. Being “googled” is a common term nowadays – if you do, what will people find? How do you control or influence what they find and what is the importance of doing so.

Who you are and what information is available on the internet about you may or may not clearly articulate who you are in the offline world. Without context, viewers can then form perceptions which may or may not be accurate. Online personnas can be constructed, can influence viewers, can allow you to express who you are. The internet is now an integral part of everyone’s lives and therefore people should now think not only about their reputation in the offline world and how people perceive you, they should think about what information on the internet can be accessed about you and how they perceive it and form opinions of you. How then does that affect the way they interact with you whether it’s in an online or offline format.

Most people have 3 themes to their lives. People can choose to promote or attempt to restrict what others can see online.

Social Theme – The most readily avaialble as people use Facebook, twitter and blogs to voice their opinions, expressions and who their “friends” are. It is also the theme most restricted as people attempt to contain their profile to people they choose to let in. The question most has is who to let into your community or tribe and what access level do you give them. Do you allow old school friends to be friends even though you have not spoken to them in years. Do you allow work colleagues and even bosses to be friends given they can see you tagged in photos that may not be of  professional nature!

Professional Theme - Linked In, Twitter, Industry Communities are all examples of how people exert their experience or knoelwdge in the hope of gaining repute for their chosen field. The nature of this blog allows me to publish and promote my views from a professional point of view. Very different to my Sport blog.

Hobby or Interest Theme – Blogs, Facebook groups, Online Forums where you can connect and discuss our views in line with your interests. Again – this person can be very different to the social personna where people see you converse on a friend level and in photos in restaurants or bars or the professional personna where people see you exert your views in the interest of gaining respect of your knowledge.  A case in point is my sport blog http://zebrayontherun.blogspot.com/ which is very different to the content on this blog. I’m the same person but in a lot of cases, people don’t realise how different you can be.

This Blog will be my forum for discussing the need to develop and manage your online reputation. I will evaluate tools on how to do so and seek opinions from people who’s lives have been affected by not taking control of their reputation. I believe this is an area that will become increasingly more important over the next year as people use the internet more for seeking views on businesses, products and people before they form opinions and decisions.