Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/darthdowney/
In an article over on TechCrunch, Michael Arrington addresses some very common discussion points about social media. How much does your reputation online really matter? What are the repercussions of being in a picture littered with beer cans on Twitter or Facebook?
I’ll start by saying kudos to Michael Phelps. Shortly after winning a boat load of medals in the Olympics, he was tagged smoking out of a bong (featured in the TechCrunch article mentioned above) and it landed all over the internet and in the news. He was quick, up front, and honest in his response. What happened as a result? He was forgiven, and its very rare to even hear about it just a year later. Maybe Tiger Woods should have taken some notes on this one.
But what does that have to do with social media and your reputation? Well it shows that you can truly be transparent, and not have the world think all that much less of you. In an age where everyone grew up with social media, finding embarrassing photos and old rants is going to be less and less important. Everyone will have that laughable bit in their past and it’s not going to hurt you. Wouldn’t that be nice? Why should you be punished for being yourself and why should someone think less of you just because you weren’t worried about what people are going to find (obviously within reason). I don’t think that you should and in the digital age its going to matter a lot less than it did in years past.
So the answer to my opening question, how much does your reputation online matter? Right now, it probably can hurt you but in the next decade that is going to change. The next generation of CEO’s may have a few questionable situations or images shared online- maybe not all of them, but the good ones to work for will!
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