‘I don’t agree with that’

If you’re going to be visible online, every single thing you post will influence how people perceive you.  You can’t decide who sees what; every word may have an impact.

It doesn’t matter if you’re posting on your business accounts or personally, particularly as a solopreneur or small business owner, you’re going to be judged.  And it all affects your reputation.

Does this mean that you need to be vanilla in all things?  No.  But it does mean that you need to engage brain, before fingers!

It’s all about values

Your business reflects your values.  People buy people, not organisations.  If a customer chooses your business as a supplier, it will be because of a personal experience either they or someone they trust has had with you or one of your team.

Good service is expected, but how it’s delivered makes a big difference.

Online it’s harder to portray your values consistently, we all have our off days and have to deal with people who have rubbed us up the wrong way.  But post when you’re not in the right headspace and those emotions can manifest in your words.

Unfortunately, regardless of your privacy settings, if someone wants to see what you’ve posted – they’ll find a way.  Most platforms these days are public and, other than Facebook, it’s difficult to post content without it being available to everyone.  Even on Facebook with an ‘only friends’ setting, you’d be surprised at who can see what you’ve posted.

Think first, post later

We all have opinions – and nobody expects that everyone will agree with ours, just because we think we’re right.  However, there are ways of presenting your opinions that will encourage reasonable debate, rather than vituperative rants.

And, when you see something that someone has posted and your first response is ‘you need your head examined, that’s a load of rubbish’.  STOP!

Even if you have evidence and can make a case, think about the impact a triggered response might have on people’s opinion about you. 

A good rule of thumb is to write your initial response – NOT on the platform, just in case you accidentally hit ‘post’.  Instead, write it in a text document, save it and do something else for an hour or two.  If you still feel strongly, re-read your response, considering how people who don’t know you might interpret it.  You may decide to make some edits, or that it’s not important enough to post about.  Or you may go ahead, but at least you know your post isn’t an emotional knee-jerk reaction – it’s been thought through.

You have a right to disagree with people, it is a free country.  But, put your case rationally and reasonably and you won’t muddy your reputation.  Also remember that sarcasm is just as bad as a rant!

Don’t let the idiots get to you!

There are some people whose main reason for posting online is to trigger a reaction.  Some of them are evangelical about their cause or issue, but there are some that post just to see what happens.

Yes, you can delete posts, but you can’t guarantee the someone hasn’t already taken a screenshot and shared it in their WhatsApp group!  Once it’s there, it’s almost impossible to get rid of it altogether.

‘But I posted that on my personal account’, is not an excuse for damaging your business reputation.