Consistency is the most important of these two.
Inconsistency in small things might not be noticed offline.
People simply don't have exact recordings of everything you
say. Online that's not true. Almost every post, email, and
other communication can be (and probably is) archived
somewhere.
As you get better known, you'll find that there are people who
save everything. Many of them are folks who have no lives and
nothing better to do than to try and look smart by inventing
trouble. They will try and twist your words to show
inconsistencies even where they clearly don't exist.
If you take a stand on issues that are strongly emotional for
someone, this becomes even more likely. In fact, it becomes
almost certain if you take strong stands publicly.
If you're consistent, people notice. You build credibility that
allows you to be heard out when accused. Usually that's more
than enough.
If you're inconsistent, they'll assume you're playing both ends
against the middle, and you lose the instant you're accused.
Even if you never run into this, consistency is a huge thing.
If you always say the same thing in the same context, and you
practice what you preach, people will trust you. The value of
that is obvious.
What may not be so obvious is the extent to which that comes
into play. Hardly a day goes by when someone doesn't ask me
about another person's credentials. Most people who are visible
online experience the same thing.
If someone asks 10 people about you, and only one of them says
anything negative beyond comments on style, you lose. Maybe
unfairly, but you lose.
The key is to only take stands on issues that you understand
clearly and are willing to back up.
Easy, but all too often ignored.
The issue of competence is another matter, and a much simpler
one. You don't have to be an expert to be considered competent.
You simply have to know, and admit to, your limitations.
Don't make promises you can't keep.
"They're responsive on an individualised basis."
Two aspects of reputation that need to be considered here are
breadth and depth. Breadth has to do with raw numbers: How many
people see your comments and recognise your name? If you're
looking for a reputation that covers a lot of ground, you need
to look for those types of exposure.
Getting published in high visibility forums or publications is
the key to that. The number of exposures determines how many of
the readers of those forums will remember you. (Name
recognition)
The quality and usefulness of the information determines how
well they remember you. (That's reputation...)
Depth is another matter entirely. It has to do with
relationships.
That's where individualised responses come into play. If
someone emails you regarding a post or other public comment,
your reply has an enormous effect on your reputation with that
person, and their conduct toward you publicly.
The first part is most important from the human standpoint. The
second part is what affects reputation most strongly. How third
parties talk about you is far more important to most people
than what you personally have to say when it comes to building
a reputation.
There are many people who project a good image publicly, and
are nasty as rabid rodents in private email. Those folks don't
keep good reputations for long.
There are also people who appear crotchety and cranky publicly
but treat people so well in private communications that they
draw a lot of respect. Those people tend to develop great
reputations among smaller, very loyal, circles.
Of course, if you post pleasantly and helpfully and reply to
personal emails in the same way, you're going to build a good
reputation.
Add in a habit of responding regularly to as many reasonable
people as possible, and you speed up that process a lot.
"They leave an unforgettable impression."
Not everyone wants to do the work involved in this one, but it
can be a significant factor in developing both name recognition
and reputation.
You can do this by your sense of humor, the strength and
uniqueness of your comments, your outrageous style, or any
other approach that clearly distinguishes you from the average
online fare.
One caveat: When using humor, remember that what's funny in one
culture may be a serious insult in another. Be careful with
that one if you want to develop relationships with people in
cultures with which you're not familiar!
"They achieve persistent, targeted visibility."
Two elements there.
Persistence is a big one. You don't get a reputation that's
worth having by posting once a month. It's not necessary to
post every day, but it can't hurt. To really develop a
reputation fast, you should post whenever you have something
really useful to say.
A useful way to measure this is to keep a list of forums you
want to post to, and a log of each post you make. Review this
weekly. If you find that you're ignoring valuable forums, take
steps to correct the oversight.
As you start to see the growth in recognition you can taper
down to less frequent postings. (This is a judgement call.)
Targeted visibility is almost self-explanatory. It's not really
useful to be known all over the net as a "nice person". If
you're looking for business, you need to be known FOR
something. Preferably for your expertise in your field.
To do this, you need to choose your forums carefully. Pick
those which would be frequented by the people most likely to
need or want your services.
"They have real personalities."
Of course you have a real personality. But do the people who
read your writings see it?
Most people get the idea when writing for online reading that
they need to suppress their personalities. Perhaps they have
been told that, or perhaps they just aren't used to expressing
their personalities with words, preferring to use tone of voice
and facial expressions. Whatever the reason, most people come
across about as personably online as a calculator.
The opposite extreme is also possible. You've seen plenty of
these, I'm sure. The phony style adopted to create an image
rather than a personality. Consider whether you're impressed by
those people.
If you're not, do you think anyone else is?
Be yourself. It's not only a lot easier, it's sure to help you
attract the sort of people you want to do business with.
Keep that in mind. The type of reputation you develop will
seriously affect the types of business you attract. If you try
to be all things to all people, you're going to attract a type
of client that's equally generic. That's not a Good Thing.
Example: I tend to be very direct and no-nonsense about most
things. If someone strikes me as abusive, I simply quit
communicating with them. If they're persistent, I add them to
my email blocks and dismiss them - permanently. If I discover
that someone is a spammer, they don't get the first step. And
I'm not at all shy about telling them why.
These people often start in with the self-important claptrap:
"You shouldn't burn bridges. You never know who you'll need
later."
Right.
There are 100 million or so people online, and that number
grows every day. If I were to dismiss 99.5% of those people, it
would leave me with 500,000 possible prospects, all of whom
would be the types of people I want to deal with and who want
to deal with someone with my approach.
Instead of preferring that market, I'm supposed to suck up to
people for whom I have no respect, and who are established as
being the most likely to not pay?
Don't fall for it, folks.
You're known by the company you keep. Be choosy.
Make things easy for yourself. Make sure your reputation is
going to draw the types of people you want to deal with. The
way to do that is to simply be yourself.
You have a real personality. Let people see it.
