Your Social Media Reputation

As some­one who is active in the social media arena, I have found par­tic­i­pat­ing in the social net­works  to be ben­e­fi­cial to both my per­sonal life and my busi­ness. So much so that I have been espous­ing the ben­e­fits to sev­eral groups in San Anto­nio. Shar­ing the ben­e­fits of par­tic­i­pat­ing on sites like LinkedIn, Face­book and YouTube to name a few. Most folks have heard of these sites, but don’t real­ize the impor­tance of participation.

In the real world you develop a rep­u­ta­tion for your­self or your busi­ness by what you do and how you inter­act within the com­mu­nity. The online world is no dif­fer­ent. You develop a Social Media Rep­u­ta­tion or gain “Geek Cred” by how you inter­act within the com­mu­nity, what you do and don’t do.

I dis­cov­ered just how impor­tant this is when I met Byron Van Ars­dale at the San Anto­nio Pro­fes­sional Coaches Asso­ci­a­tion (SAPCA). He walked up to me and pro­ceeded to tell me the story of how he had come to be there. He had received a flier from SAPCA announc­ing my pre­sen­ta­tion and was excited about the topic until he saw the word “guru”. (Note: He was refer­ing to a story in the Express-News which had labeled me a “new media guru” for an arti­cle about Pod­camp San Anto­nio: Numero Dos) His opin­ion of me turned south based on that one word. He reached out to his local net­work to solicite opin­ions about this so-called “guru”.

What hap­pened next showed me just how impor­tant my net­work is even when I don’t know what is hap­pen­ing. Read his story to find out how it all turned out. Suf­fice it to say, the devel­op­ment of my “Geek Cred” and my net­work made all the difference.

Tags: byron van arsdale, sapca, social media, Social Networking