Dougie Under Glass, originally uploaded by Ryan Brenizer.
The New Transparency. Does Google know your name? Are you transparent? The perspective of this blog is not focused on telling you to become transparent, but to heighten your awareness that actively participating online makes you naked, exposed, and searchable. Let’s start by defining the subject of this blog:
o Transparency is defined as the state or quality of being transparent.
o Transparent is defined as characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. (One of the definitions)
I am sure you are being told you need to be transparent. Have you heard the quote, “Clear is the new black.”? I hope not because I thought I created it, but you understand my point. Transparency is less of a decision and more a by-product of being online and being active in social networks and in the blogosphere.
The Birth of the Online Personal Brand
Social networks in the beginning were simply way to communicate with friends and share content and have evolved into a platform to brand products and people. Being online has become a full-time job, listed below are some of the task:
o Securing eBrand Assets: Domain Names and Social Network URLs.
o Avatar Managements: Uploading consistent avatars across all your social networks.
o Online Reputation Management: Monitoring your online presence.
o And the list goes on . . .
My Rant about: Private v. public
Is there a public versus private Internet? I was a part of a discussion last week at dinner with Oz Sultan and some other friends and this term was tossed around. Needless to say there isn’t a private Internet, everything goes into the public domain. As a personal brand your life is lived in stream. There is no compartmentalizing who you are, you can’t live one way online and another offline. Your digital footprint is in Google and can be traced. In fact if you don’t have a presence online you are not relevant and employers and other decision makers probably aren’t interested in getting to know you. YOU don’t exist.
A person doesn’t need to ever talk with (email, DM, IM, or face-to-face) you to understand how your think, what you like, or what things are important to you. Listed below are some of the ways people can read who you are.
o Tweets
o Facebook Messages
o Friends/Contacts/Connections
o Tag Cloud
o Comments
o Blog Post
o Photos
My Random Thoughts on Transparency:
o Don’t be a Social Media Bully: Don’t say anything online that you wouldn’t say in person.
o Be Constant: Constancy is one of the hallmarks of a successful brand be the same online and offline.
o Character is Important: Be true to yourself. Reputation is managed but character is lived.
How transparent are you?
Nice post. I agree with you that folks need to have some sort of online footprint. Those that don’t are looked at like they have three heads and are trying to hide something. You’re dead on about sharing what you want people to know about you. Folks get nervous about “facebooking” because they don’t want everyone in the world to know that you’re eating cold pizza at 1am in the morning after a bender with your buddies. People just need to be smart and use common sense. It’s not brain surgery. I tell people to think about it like a dimmer on a light. You can control how much light you shine into the room. Social media is the same way when it comes to your personal brand.
Don MartelliApril 15th, 2009 at 4:54 am
After taking your class and reading some of your posts I was curious you’d ever contacted the Scientific and Technical Communications department at Michigan Tech, to teach a class. I think opening up the students and professors there to the more modern forms of image and communication would be helpful. Erin Smith would be a good first contact.
Michael SenkowApril 17th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Thanks for the advice. This definitely amplifies some aspects that i’ve learned in your class.
Gabriel AgborucheApril 19th, 2009 at 3:39 am
I like this post. It motivates me to put to use what I’ve learned in Personal Branding Class.
Rhen HoehnHow do you create a Tag Cloud? That is the one thing on your list that I am really unfamiliar with.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:18 pm
[…] input: Time stamped input. Allows you to input time sensitive responses. (Maximizing the Moment) 3. Transparency: People get to follow your thoughts 4. Brevity: Helps you hone your sales pitch ability. Create […]
Hajj E. Flemings- The Brand YU Life (Personal Branding) » Ten Reasons Every Personal Brand Should Love TwitterApril 22nd, 2009 at 7:34 am
I am still curious as to how someone with a more generic name can make as large of an online footprint. What would you suggest?
Brendon O'ConnellMay 1st, 2009 at 11:42 am
I agree with you on personal branding. I think too many times people don’t think about how they are perceived by other people. They act like they are twelve not knowing the effects they have on their personal brand.
I am a firm believer on how you present yourself online is what is going to get you to your next level professionally since all the technology is there and you just need to do what it takes to brand yourself.
You don’t have to be involved in the tech industry to realize their are ways to cross pollinate and realize you are something employers are going to want no matter what the economy.
A change in my ways of thinking. In the late 90s to about this year I was always favshortie2 or favshortie519 and I had that mind set. It took lots of reading of blogs and other things to change my name to jfavreau and I use this now. Funny how things change in a web 2.0 world.
Jamie FavreauMay 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm