Mark Lee highlights the need for practices to be aware of what their web contributions say about them and talks to social media expert Nancy Williams about the importance of guarding your online reputation.
It is becoming more and more common to Google someone before meeting them for the first time, whether for a potential business meeting, to interview them or to be interviewed by them. If someone Googles you now or in the future what will be revealed?
Fear of revealing too much may be one of the reasons why accountants are not avid users of social networking sites. However, many of the same considerations apply regarding our contributions on all online forums that are open to the search engines.
This may explain why some people choose to use pseudonyms, as we see on AccountingWEB.co.uk. When you choose NOT to be directly associated with your online contributions you are (knowingly or unknowingly) managing your online reputation. Naturally, this is less of a issue if your name is John Smith than if it's more unusual.
Nancy Williams of Tiger Two specialises in online reputation management (ORM) training for brands and indviduals. She says: "In this world, you no longer have full control over either your message or your reputation. All you can do is put it out there. The rest is up to those people watching you."
She describes ORM as, "the process of managing what people are saying about you or your brand on the internet. This doesn’t mean you are deleting bad comments and only keeping the good. The internet by its very nature doesn’t allow this. What it means is you are putting the right messages out there, through excellent business practice, good, targeted social media marketing, and continuous delivery of value both online and off. And then you are continuously watching what is happening to that message."
Nancy's clients comprise a wide variety of individuals and businesses, including one that discovered that an ex-employee had been blogging about them on the internet, saying things that weren't exactly complimentary. On another occasion, it was a disgruntled client blogging about the client. This might leave you wondering, how can a business repair their reputation after setbacks like this?
Have you ever considered what would happen to you or your firm if your reputation was damaged in this way? You've gone to all the trouble of creating a website that promotes your message and values to anyone who wants to check you out online, and then it all starts going wrong as someone starts an online campaign against you or your firm. Alternatively, you might find that your onine contributions reveal that the real you is not quite as professional as you would want to portray.
Instant access
The simple fact we cannot ignore is that Google is recording history in real time. Everything we post online is there for the future and can be found by Google and the other search engines. This means that when someone Googles our name before meeting us, interviewing us, or being interviewed by us, they can find out:
- What we’ve said and written.
- What we like/dislike.
- What other people have said about us (good or bad).
- Who we’re associated with and what other people have said about them (good or bad).
- Where we’ve been and what we’ve done and who we were with.
This list goes on.
As Nancy says: "No matter what you do, not everyone will like you or be happy with you. There will always be a percentage of customers or prospects out there who will be unhappy. In the past, these people had some outlets to vent their frustration or issues, but none as public and as permanent as the internet. The larger you get, the more likely this is to happen, although it can affect anyone. The important thing is to manage this. Like a tax audit, it's not worrying about whether it will happen that's important; it’s what you will do when it does. Like a tax audit, as long as you have put everything in place to counterbalance the issue, it will be far easier and less damaging to your business to get through, which is why ORM is so vital".
Thomas Power, the founder of Ecademy explains that the online networking sites are just like online magazines. He says that our profiles on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Xing, Ning, Twitter etc are just like adverts in a magazine. We’d always be careful about the impression we gave in an advert, so we should be careful about the impression we give with our profiles. This presents an interesting challenge for accountants who are active online.
On the one hand, we want to control what Google finds when people look for us online. On the other hand, we want to secure new profitable referrals and work opportunities from our interactions on these sites.
Engaging with online communities
Thinking about online reputation management may discourage you from engaging with anyone publicly online, in which case there would be little point in experimenting with online networking sites. This is because there is little point in simply creating a professional profile on these sites, as your online advert. Doing this will be about as successful as waving your business card around in a dark room. No one will find your profile unless you shine a torch on it. You do that by interacting on the networking site, commenting on blogs, asking and answering questions, creating your own blogs, postings on the Facebook wall, joining and contributing to clubs and groups - generally being seen to be a valuable person online. And this takes time and care with regards to the online reputation you build.
Initially it’s best though to take it slowly: join, watch, and dip a toe in the water. Then you can start to explore, contribute, and help others. Do all of this before you ask for help yourself. Overt adverts in your postings can also be counter-productive. Do all of this whilst keeping in mind the need to manage your online reputation.
I'm on record as doubting that accountants in practice will take the time to explore online networking websites. Those who do so will quickly lose interest if they don't quickly secure work as a direct result of their online activity. Equally, there are others who seek to encourage more accountants to explore and find out for themselves. Each to their own, I say.
Mark Lee is Chairman of the Tax Advice Network and guest practice editor of AccountingWEB.co.uk.
Nancy Williams can be contacted via the Tiger Two team: [email protected].