One of the areas of research that I am interested in is how people manage their online reputations. At UT, I have done a couple of guest lectures on how to manage your reputation online to some of the undergraduate communication and public relations courses, becaues it is an issue that we all need to be aware of. The issue appears to be when people are perceived a certain way in real life, but they create these new identities online. In a recent article that appeared in Yahoo! News, it seems that various social networking and media sites like Facebook, MySpace, LiveJournal, and Yelp are dealing with the transparency issues on their various sites.
There seems to be a balance needed in terms of how people present themselves online – they have be to be transparent enough to show others who they are as a person, professional, or student for example. If you looked at it on a continuim scale – there seems to be people online that are “too closed” – where they are online on these various social networking sites but you really can’t see them for who they are as a person. On the other hand, some people want to be “too transparent” that they share everything about themselves online – including inappropriate pictures or other things that would make them look unprofesional and damage their reputation.
Even though some of these sites have been around for a couple of years now, it appears that the rules and online etiquette are still in its primary stages, and it will take some time to get it all situated. The best thing that people can do is to have a balance reputation – make sure that you are using the same rules online as you would do in real life – and be aware of what you post or write online is there to stay. Whether you are a PR student, graduate student, professor, practitioner, or working professional – we all have to be our own reputation manager and protect how we are perceived because it is our most valuable asset.
Hope you all are having a great day!
Best Wishes,
Karen
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