blogging

Managing Your Reputation

Posted on January 9, 2013 by aurorameyer

Those unflattering middle school pictures on Facebook, teen shaming ecards and college Instagram party pics aren’t just ruining your potential romantic relationships, they’re harming your ability to get a job, even a part-time one.

Once upon a time (think 1990’s and early 2000’s) restauranteurs and the Limited didn’t care if you were a weekend partier or took awful photos, now they not only care, but you’ll get screened out before human eyes ever see your resume. The liability is too big. If you’re willing to live your life online, what’s to stop you from making a video like this Domino’s one, or exposing what really happens behind Target’s closed doors?

As this article and infographic from Undercover Recruiter points out, “You don’t have to be squeaky clean – it’s as important to be interesting and relevant – but an awful lot of damage can be done in a very brief period of time by behaving in an inappropriate manner. Before you know what’s happened, your reputation is in tatters and the fallout is irrecoverable.”

This infographic from KBSD, posted on Undercover Recruiter has good suggestions for managing your online reputation.

how you can manage your online reputation Image from: theundercoverrecruiter.com

It’s ok to be quiet in a tragedy

Posted on December 14, 2012December 14, 2012 by aurorameyer

I’d like to clarify in more than 140 characters a Tweet I sent earlier today. The Tweet was: “Every business social account does not need to share “thoughts and prayers are with #Newtown.” If you can’t add to the conversation, don’t.”

The context came from both my Facebook newsfeed and my Twitter feed. In both, businesses and organizations were simply posting some variation of: “We’re deeply saddened by the news of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy. We send our thoughts and prayers to all affected.”

It was overwhelming and distracting. Those kinds of statements don’t add to the conversation. Coffee places, non-profits, businesses and the like, didn’t need to say anything. At best it comes across as trite, at worst, like this Tweet from KMart, which Matt LaCasse posted to Facebook after seeing it elsewhere, comes across as very insensitive.

In a 24/7 news world, it is crucial for brands and business to follow news and revamp on the fly.

As digital marketer, Lauren Fernandez, (cubanalaf) points out, there are times when it is appropriate to say something. She replied to my tweet with, “We did so when canceling our contest today, and felt it was appropriate. I still do.”

Fernandez also adds, “It’s appropriate for brands to do so if product, company values or brand location ties into it.”

I agree with her on both points. Her first comment is the right way to acknowledge that plans changed and events and people take prescience over promotion.

Do you manage a social account for a brand or business and agree or disagree?

Managing email

Posted on August 3, 2012August 3, 2012 by aurorameyer

For the millennial generation (full disclosure, I’m a millennial), email is too slow and no one uses the telephone. Texts are much faster, but the truth is the rest of the world still relies on email as a way to communicate.

That means if you don’t already, someday you will have multiple accounts to manage multiple accounts. A personal account with your name or a professional variation before the @ sign and an appropriate signature line, a work account with the same, a junk mail account (the account you use to sign up for coupons and other mailings you don’t want in your regular account) and a another one (volunteer, club, etc.). According to this Mashable article, citing this report, the average person receives mores than 100 emails a day. Eventually, you will have to find a system to manage all that email.

Finding one that works for you can be a lot of trial and error. Luckily, the above mentioned Mashable article has created a few short cuts for you.

Set a time limit
One that works for you and takes into consideration your office culture. If it’s 15 minutes as the article suggests, great! If it’s an ongoing hourly thing, also great! Just make sure it works for you.
Know Your Etiquette
“The average time it takes to respond to an email is greater than the time it took to create it,” the author writes. “So every hour you spend writing emails is double for your recipients.” Let that sink in for a minute. This doesn’t mean the stop and start email that took an hour because the phone rang, you got thirsty and your talkative coworker stopped by. It means the total time it took to write the email. Further, if you are writing an email for more than 10 minutes and it isn’t a letter to a long-lost friend, what are you writing about any way?
Prioritize
Use flags, use stars, use bigger fonts for your boss do something to break it all up. Determine what will always need your focused and immediate attention and work down from there. Avoid using email as a to-do list.
Don’t Signup for Junk
Or use that junk email address you already have, you know the one that doesn’t have your first name and last name before the @? Opt out of as many updates as you can. Take this piece of advice to heart: “Unsubscribing is only as reliable as the sender’s integrity. You may also be exposing yourself as a real person to a spammer, who will sell your address to someone else.”
Don’t Open Mail Twice
If you are still using your inbox as a to-do list, this won’t help you. If you’re archiving messages for future reference, this option probably isn’t for you. The five options: delete/archive, delegate, respond (if you can do it in under two minutes), defer, or do are a way to think about the rest of your inbox and should be at least considered.

If only some of these solutions worked for the regular junk mail in the actual mail box.

How do you manage the constant stream of email?

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