Mixing personal and professional life is a risk no one wants to take—especially business leaders whose public image carries significant responsibilities for the company—demonstrating a clear image speed up the process of establishing a business, closing deals, and inspiring workers, among others. However, after the boom of social networks, the rise of remote work and the evolution and transparency of search engines, separating these two aspects has become increasingly difficult.
As a precautionary measure, many entrepreneurs, leaders and business men have chosen to avoid creating an online presence to stay outside the frontiers of the online world. Nonetheless, living in a hyperconnected era, this omission could be ultimately counterproductive.
A good online presence is becoming more and more relevant when doing business. To put it into perspective, when conducting a risk analysis, it is a primary practice to check the background of the person who you plan on closing a deal with. If the investigation doesn't provide enough clarity, you'll probably close the deal with someone else. Risk analysis is also conducted on applications for a company's high-level hiring, where an agreement is signed with the candidate to carry out a background check.
What Is Digital Identity Management?
This practice take elements from developing a personal brand and digital marketing which comprises of the execution and monitoring of an acquired digital personality on selected online platforms. In other words, it occupies digital spaces with the frequency required in each of the platforms to maintain an enhanced online presence.
Before its management, it is essential to define the elements of the enhanced online identity, narrative tone, channels and the public expected to be exposed.
Are Online Reputation and Digital Identity Management the Same?
No, but they can act as the elements of a bigger picture. Let's take the case of one of a fictional person: an Italian banker accused falsely of tax evasion on several authoritative websites.
After analysing the case and the applicable laws, the lawyers rectified the situation before the media and got the news removed from most websites. For websites where information could not be removed, the lawyers contacted Google to remove the articles from the search results based on the Right to Be Forgotten that protects citizens and residents of the European Union. However, some defamatory articles continued to appear outside this jurisdiction and partially affected the Italian banker’s reputation.
On the other hand, the Italian banker had a remarkable professional career; nonetheless, he was vaguely visible online—he only had a LinkedIn profile and a Facebook account with photos of his children visible to everyone.
Even though his online reputation was duly serviced, his online identity wasn't notorious. Anyone searching his name on the internet would not experience the banker's actual expertise and enthusiastic personality. His online presence was not as vibrant as it was in the real world.
Like occurrences in film adaptations of books, we transferred the Italian banker's identity to the language of the web, based on his commercial and professional objectives. Consequently, we adjusted the privacy settings of all the accounts he had opened and recovered lost passwords of abandoned ones. On top of that, we developed his personal brand allowing us to create a website and put his social networks to build a professional community around him.
Gradually, the banker recognised before by a local circle and contacts only, noticed an increase of leads from different latitudes. Google searches with his name are now full of recorded webinars, articles, and news that positively impact his company sales. Doing business with his company was no longer perceived as a risk.
Our experience
Watch our recorded webinar: How to address inaccurate information about you in the media before it affects your KYC profile for more information.
This article is for information purposes only. It does not constitute professional advice or an opinion. Please contact us at info@lecocqassociate.com for any questions.
Read the Spanish version here.
Moisés Lárez Barrios
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