This article will discuss what is a digital reputation and why it matters? By finding ways to understand it and improving it, you will improve the relationship between you and your clients.
Your digital reputation is the total of your work history, brand messaging, online actions, and the list goes on. It is the things you do and how you do it.
These things create the perception of you.
You can have the greatest product, the best website, the best messaging, or the greatest delivery team, but if your clients believe your work isn’t up to par, you won’t get paid.
A digital reputation is your reputation. Your reputation is your reputation.
There are two different types of digital reputation: personal and professional.
Your reputation on the Internet is just as important as a lawyer's reputation offline.
Your personal reputation on the Internet is the total sum of everything you have ever done online. Every decision you make and every move you make online affects the overall impression that others form when they encounter your content, articles, tweets, comments, social media accounts, and so on.
An example of your personal reputation can be your tweets.
If you say something offensive, false, obscene, sexist, racist, or otherwise questionable online, this will come up in searches and leave a negative impression on people as they go about their digital lives.
Of course, your reputation on the Internet is different from your reputation with your customers. With your clients, you can address mistakes, address criticism, communicate effectively, invest in digital infrastructure, and communicate your message.
Your personal reputation is difficult to regulate. There’s no one-size-fits-all on the Internet.
If you want to change your reputation online, you must change your personal actions. This isn't easy and requires a great deal of effort and investment.
Your personal reputation needs to be an intentional effort. If you want to improve it, you must change your actions.
If you want to lose it, you must lose your actions. If you want to create it, you must create content.
Personal digital reputation is more amorphous and can be changed easier. A lot of people try to improve their personal reputation online through “good actions.”
For example, if you’re constantly finding time to help out someone in your personal life and post this in your Twitter feed, this will look great on your social media platforms and improve your digital reputation. However, if your day job is low pay and your family is unsupportive, this same action can come across as superficial and insincere.
So, while it is relatively easy to improve a person’s personal digital reputation, improving a person’s reputation as a lawyer requires an increased effort.
Another way to improve your personal digital reputation is to consider what impact your digital actions have on other people. Are you in any way actively degrading another person’s reputation on the Internet?
For example, think about your life-long internet habits.
Do you have a history of tweeting out offensive content? How do you respond to negativity or challenges in the comments of your articles?
If you do, then you’re definitely not taking action to improve your reputation.
Practically, there are two ways to improve your personal digital reputation:
Realize that everyone is using different digital tools. New tools and platforms change the world as we know it.
You might like Twitter. You might hate it.
You might hate Twitter for good reasons. But is that really that relevant?
Your history as a Twitter user is just that — history. People change their personal online experiences in subtle ways.
Your digital reputation is a small part of your overall life, history, and actions.
Think about your life-long online habits. Do you have a history of tweeting out offensive content?
How do you respond to negativity or challenges in the comments of your articles? If you do, then you’re definitely not taking action to improve your reputation.
The best way to improve your personal digital reputation is to reflect on how you can improve the entire profession's reputation. Think about the ways you’re affecting other people.
Being a lawyer is inherently interesting to many people. If you want to improve the profession you’re in, you have to be honest about the good and bad ways you’re impacting the community around you.
By treating your career as your job and your personal reputation as your career, you’re opening yourself up to positive changes in your personal digital reputation that can affect other people. By being genuine, you are much more likely to be genuinely liked.
As a lawyer, you can be a great mentor, a good attorney, and a good friend. You can be a good mother, partner, or friend.
You can be a good friend and partner and a great mother. These are all qualities that people look for in friends and partners.
Put your career first. Put your reputation second.
Your reputation and future are much more important to your reputation and future than any of your online footprints.
