In the "golden oldie" days (circa 1991), first impressions were established with a firm handshake, direct eye contact, a sharp suit, polished shoes, and a resonate "good to meet you". Your physical first impression may have been preceded by a strong resume or a defined letter of introduction from a colleague.
Today, first impression are established by blogs (posts & comments), Google searches, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Slideshare, MySpace and a host of other social media outlets. Resumes come later, introductions occur quickly via email or IM. Face-to-face meeting may never occur, but if they do, you only have 30 seconds to establish yourself.
We have more opportunities to shape and manage our personal brand than ever before, but we also have more opportunities to be careless. From your elevator pitch to your blog to your YouTube videos, take great care to establish and nurture your new first impression.
That's a great point that I think gets too easily lost in the online world of social media.
I recently chose to remove someone from my Linked-In contacts for going too far in trying to prove a point on his blog.
It's all well and good to be "real" and "transparent" and, at times, appropriately passionate about an issue; but what gets lost so many times in all that, is the monitoring of the impression you're leaving.
Ranting and raving and carrying on is fine to some degree when you're surrounded by those with whom have already established a trust, credibility and understanding with. Those factors aren't always present when jumping around different sites.
Posted by: Mark | August 15, 2007 at 12:45 PM