First Impressions.

So what creates your first impression? In the Old Normal it may have been your appearance. That is why we had expressions like “Dress for Success,” and we all spent lots of money on nice suits and ties or business suits for women.

Today in the New Normal your first impression is created by the results that surface when people search for you on Google.

Today we have ads for Reputation Management Firms offering to improve your online reputation.

A derogatory posting on Google is much more of a liability than poor word of mouth because it is accessible to everyone and no longer to only a few.

I have always believed that your online presence is much more important than your elevator speech as your chances of getting on an elevator with a decision maker are slim but the chances of people checking you out on Google are very high.

That is why I have been speaking on How to Rise Above the Crowd for years now.

So how do you rise above the crowd? Well being active on social media platforms like LinkedIn can certainly accomplish that.

Today, the base level of acceptable presence is owning all the postings on the first page of Google. All the postings.

The base level of acceptable is having 500 Linkedin connections.

But appearance is not everything in apparel or the internet.

Your online presence needs to be one of significance to create a favorable impression of who you are both in work and in life.

Having a definitive social media strategy can help you accomplish that. It is even stronger if that is the way you live your life because that can appear in your search results. For instance if you mentor and speak to school groups and they post your presentation on YouTube. When that comes up in a search it says something about you without you talking.

You see your online reputation is more than just your presence. It should also reflect your substance and your social media strategy should plan for how to achieve that. That way you can be sure that your first impression will count today as it did in the past.

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