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The trouble is, that businesses are offering these social media background checks to anyone that wants one – and they’re thorough. A lot can be discovered from the things you tweet, post and say across several social networks. Images, video, audio –well, they just complete the profile search.

Here’s how to survive the onslaught!

Maintain Your Social Profile

The first thing a client, business or fan does is check your name in Google. Obviously, it’s a good idea to know what is being indexed under your name – whether it’s you or not. Even if you are 100% blameless, there might be a miscreant with the same name out there, fogging up your Google profile.

An easy way to remedy this, is to create some nice, friendly comments, posts and conversations with your name in them. Google will eventually pick up on the keyword, and hopefully there will be enough traffic on those sites – that the bad results in the rankings will soon disappear.

Be Censored Most of The Time

You can never tell what Google is going to site as important, and display to anyone willing to look – so it’s best to be fairly censored when interacting online. Aside from your Facebook account, Google has no trouble indexing tweets, forum posts, blog comments and social conversations for the world to see.

Be very careful about what you choose to say online. Once it’s in the cloud, it can’t be recalled. If you’re going to be graphic or uncensored, it’s best to do it far away from your real name. Monitor your friend’s accounts for unprofessional photos of yourself. If they are going to be displayed, then make sure your friend has the right privacy settings on their page. The same goes for any other media that surfaces about you.

Advanced Censoring

Sometimes the most innocent posts can lose you a client or business partnership. Never badmouth anyone online, especially past clients, employers and employees. You should also be aware of the times you log on to certain social sites. If you’re not a social media company, excessive use can paint you in a bad light.

Steer clear of touchy subjects (unless you’re in that niche) like religion, politics or radical philosophy. Your online reputation is more important than your reputation in the real world. A great tip is to optimize your LinkedIn profile – it will automatically show up high in the search results on Google.

Be sure to check up on your business name as often as you can as well. If you don’t have a social media or SEO strategy in place – your name could end up getting a lot of bad press for no reason one day. It’s best to see it coming so that you can prepare, and take evasive action!

Have you ever been the subject of a social media background debacle? We want to hear from you! Leave your comment below!

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The most important of all of these decisions is deciding what your ‘online image or brand’ is going to be. Here are a few tips to get you started on that crucial decision.

1. Be Industry Appropriate and Relevant

At some point every business that makes the leap online is going to have to decide whether to keep up with the Joneses, or become super original in their field.

If you choose to be a stereotypical, traditional version of your industry, there’s nothing wrong with that – but then you literally have to ‘keep up with the Joneses.’ If your brand is too generic, it’ll be forgettable, so it’ll have to be an amazingly good example of a traditional business in your field.

Being original is great, but be careful of taking the high road instead of the low road just because it happens to be there.

Originality can be fun and different, but it can also be weird and irrelevant. Either way, this choice will affect your design, content, images and entire business persona on the internet, so make it count. This will really set the ‘tone’ for the rest of your planning phase.

2. Take a Hard Look at Your Ideal Target Market

An excellent way to start to piece together the puzzle that will eventually become your online identity, is to do some extensive research into your ideal target market.

It will require some deep digging on your part, but it could help solve your image crisis by letting you know what your target demographic wants. Any good business knows that an online identity is constructed for the ‘client’ first.

Use Google to track down competitor businesses and see what they’ve done with their online image. Make a note of what you like about them, and what you would improve upon.

Don’t forget, this is your ‘ideal’ target market, because that’s really the kind of client you want to attract in the end. Pick the part of your business that is the busiest, and construct a list of features that describe your perfect client. Use it!

3. Create an Online Ethics Policy or Code of Conduct

Most businesses launch into their online pursuits without really thinking about the kind of ethics or moral code that they would like to instill in their online businesses.

When you take an afternoon to write down your business philosophy, make a list of strong ethics that you’d like your employees to follow when they work with your business online.

That way, no one will ever cross the line, and people will notice the effort that you put into your products, services and business as a whole. Build your brand around great research, solid ethics and clear goals.

Once you’ve done this, it’ll be easy to communicate what you want to a designer, a writer or a digital media producer.

What elements do you think every professional online brand should integrate into their image? Please tell us below!

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The answer of course, is yes. One wrong tweet or post can severely damage your business. That’s why social media monitoring is so important, and why social responsibility is such a hot topic at the moment.

Do you combine your business and personal personas online? Do you drastically limit what you say as a business? These questions and more are moving to the forefront of every social media strategist’s mind. And here it is, the number one problem with publishing a statement, idea or opinion that could end up harming your business…

Cross Promotion

Like any good marketer you’ve linked up all of your social media pages. When you add a Facebook post it’s published on your Twitter profile. You have a live Twitter stream on your website, your blog and your LinkedIn page. They are all connected, so when you publish a bad post on one platform – say hello to instant mass distribution.

Yes, it matters how many of your accounts are linked, and how large your following has become. It also matters how long you’ve left that dud post up on your complete social media profile. The point is, if you’ve managed to upset your followers somehow, you’re going to have to go into damage control mode.

One Mistake That Might Really Hurt Your Business

Depending on your industry, mistakes come in all shapes and sizes. A bad decision, a poor choice or an angry statement – all of these could have long term effects for the reputation of your business online. It is your number 1 concern to keep your business image intact on the internet.

If most of your business comes from online revenue, then you need to be extra careful. That’s not to say that a corporate ‘real-world’ giant can’t get hurt from online rumours and bad publicity – they certainly can (ask Nestle). Here are some basic tips on how to avoid one wrong comment from destroying your online rep.

1. Your Social Media Strategist

If you’re not taking an active interest in what your business is saying online, then you might find a world of problems heading your way soon. Be careful who you hire to manage your social media pages, make sure they’re professional and knowledgeable.

2. Keep ‘Funny’ on Your Personal Pages

There’s nothing endearing about a business that suddenly thinks posting funny cat Youtube videos on their profiles is going to somehow increase their likeability. As a business everything you post should be clean and professional.

3. Make The Right Choices in The Real World

If your social media pages are a true reflection of the way you do business, then be careful of the decisions that you make in the real world. A bad product, or a new direction for your business might send your current followers into a frenzy.

The truth is, one little tweet or post is probably not going to hurt your business that badly, if you manage it properly. That’s why you need to learn the art of online reputation management. Everyone makes mistakes. Just make sure yours are fixed fast and handled professionally. It doesn’t hurt to get a bit of a wake up call now and then – it matters what you do, always!

What one thing do you think could really damage a business online? Tell us below?

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Well, basically it takes the idea of ‘authority’ to the next level. A company known for its innovative ideas, constant interaction and impressive communication skills is more likely to be a thought leader, than a company that doesn’t spend as much time on their social media identity.

The difference between traditional leadership and thought leadership, is that it works on any level in business. As long as you are coming up with new and exciting ideas in your industry (and people are paying attention) – then you’re a genuine thought leader. It’s incredibly lucrative to be seen as a thought leader in your field – hence the huge rush to become one. But how do you do it?

1. Learn Everything You Can About Your Industry

In order to become a thought leader in your field, you first have to become an expert. That means, you should be able to debate, argue and provide usable information to people that aren’t as clued up about your subject as you are.

You can only come up with innovative concepts and ideas when you’ve taken note of all the old ones, and have found your feet in the latest discussions around your core topic. Be an expert first, and a thought leader later.

2. Make Sure That You Regularly Publish These Awesome Ideas

Whether its information, opinion or speculation, you need to populate your social media pages with a regular stream of ‘oh-so-hot’ content.

This means targeting specific audiences and making sure that you bring up the subjects that they really want to hear about. Social media is all about communication and relevance. You can only be a thought leader if you ‘communicate relevance’ all the time!

Mix it up with different media, and create a variety messages that will help establish you as a leader in your field. Use video, podcasts, commenting sites, social networks, micro-blogs, blogs, wiki’s and geolocation sites to get your point across.

The goal is to blanket the internet with your excellent content. Soon, people will realize that your name is the name that they are always reading, when searching for an authority article, book or comment.

3. Don’t Forget To Boost Interaction as Often as Possible

Don’t become a passive publisher. The whole point of you publishing a never ending stream of great ideas, is to get a reaction from your audience. Generate as much interaction on your sites as possible.

This means replying to blog posts, inviting guests on your blog, running promos on Facebook, asking for opinions on Twitter and starting interesting news groups on LinkedIn. Keep it fresh and interactive.

4. Be Controversial Some of The Time

What better way to prove that you have valid, important opinions than to challenge someone else’s? Don’t forget to be controversial sometimes. If you see some content you don’t agree with, or something you can contribute something valuable to – then do it.

People will want to hear your views. A thought leader is never afraid to stir it up a bit. Just remember to be polite, and don’t rant at people. Opinions are not fights – learn the difference before you launch head first into one unknowingly.

Begin with these to become a thought-leader, and an online influencer. The trick is to stick with it, develop your goals and tweak your strategies until you get it right.

Who do you consider to be the thought-leaders in your field? List them below please!

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Certain tones will help to elevate you and establish you as a leader in your field, while others could be in bad taste and will tarnish your online reputation. Knowing which to use and which to lose, is a process every business has to go through before sending out their streams of conversation on every social media platform.

Recognize The Tone of Your Chosen Industry

Ever wonder why accountants aren’t very funny, and why marketers speak in a salesy way? They each abide by a specific tone that helps others identify who they are and what they do online.

The tone of a 140 character micro blog for example, can be funny, witty, sarcastic, serious, salesy or straight to the point – depending on your intention and chosen field.

While you might want to distinguish yourself from other accountants in your field by being funny – remember that your clients aren’t looking for a joker, they’re looking for someone serious, analytical and exceptional with numbers. Jokes might hurt your future relationships before they have a chance to blossom online.

It’s best to stick to your industry standard – creative career choices can be creative – the more straight-laced career choices need to be careful of being too ‘out-there’ in their social media strategies.

Keep These Points in Mind:

• How do you want your clients to perceive you?
• Will you be able to maintain this tone indefinitely?
• Do you want to spice up your tone online to get more follows?
• The internet is your cyber-resume – are you proud if it?
• Is your tone credible and believable?
• Would it be better to be innovative instead of following the crowd?

Uniform Goals You’ll Want to Consider

All businesses on the internet want to achieve a certain level of recognition for what they do and how they serve their clients. Develop your online reputation with market leadership as your end goal. In order to achieve this, you’ll need to carefully weigh up your choices when deciding what your online image will be.

What will your businesses voice sound like? What images will you allow, and not allow on your pages? What links and content are allowed? These are considerations you need to take into account before you begin.

The last thing you want is for a raunchy image to appear on one of your daily blogs – and oops! There goes all that credibility you’ve been building for the past 6 months.

Always be professional, even if you’re relaxed and friendly and stay positive when writing. Ask yourself the hard questions – like how important is it to separate your personal and professional persona online? Mean what you say and be genuine about it, and people will take you seriously no matter what you decide to use to further your online business reputation.

Can you sum up your online tone in one word? List it, along with your business name below!

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People have been forced to adopt a type of online schizophrenia – two personalities sharing the same cyberspace. But how important is it really to keep your ‘real’ personality and your ‘business’ personality separate?

Remember The Risks Involved

When you decide to be frank about everyone and everything on your personal profiles, this can leak over to your business presence. The only way you can try to curb this content soup-mix is to keep your accounts separate.

If you can, use different networks, groups – heck use different sites if you can. A word to the wise though – no one can hide from Google. Everything you say under your personal name can and will be used against you in business. To prevent this, use nicknames to protect your persona.

Try To Keep Your Moral Compasses Integrated

Your personal and business personas should share a lot of things in common – like your core likes and dislikes, or your code of ethics. There is no point pretending to be a trustworthy business person, when you are boasting about taking people for a ride on your personal pages.

People will find out. That’s why it’s always a good idea to keep your basic beliefs the same. That way, if clients read your personal content, they will see that you are still the same, decent person you claim to be in business.

Structure and Views Matter on All Pages

If you make a point of writing clearly and error free on your business profile, then you should do the same on your personal pages. This will help reaffirm that you are the same person working within these different accounts.

Though your motives are different, splashing crude slang across your personal pages is not going to endear you to any future clients. Also, try to stay away from the touchy topics online.

Religion and politics can cause more fights that any other topics on the internet. Avoid them in business, and if you can, avoid them on your personal profiles as well. Try to reach an even ground with your persona’s!

Your Online Persona Includes Both Business and Personal Use

When people search for your business, or search your name, they get both of your online personas. If you’re a business person, both of these personas need to be managed in order to present the right image to your client and to the world.

If your personal persona has a terrible reputation, you better believe that no one will want to do business with you once they find out. Everything online is interlinked.

You have to be very careful what you say online, and how you present yourself on all fronts. Keep your personal life and business life separate, just remember that in reality – they aren’t separate at all. One leads back to the other and you’re accountable!

Is your business persona the same as your personal persona? Do you think this is the right thing to do? Tell us please!

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But what happens if one day you type in your name and an alarmingly negative comment is glaring back at you on page 1 of the search results. Everyone is going to see this when they try to find out who you are! Is there anything you can do? The answer is yes!

See If You Can Refute, Debunk or Dismantle The Comment

The first thing you need to do is find out what platform the comment is on, and who left it there for the world to see. If it’s on a social network, you’ll be able to write a little something of your own underneath the comment – stating of course that it is 100% false.

If the comment was posted by a disgruntled client or a competitor, explain your side of the story below. Be mature and logical in your rebuttal. That way if anyone reads the negative comment, they’ll also see what you had to say about it.

If It’s Absolutely Unacceptable Contact The Platform

A lot of what is said about people these days is done on social media. This is a good thing because most of the social media platforms have strict terms of use policies.

If the comment that has suddenly become a number one hit says something that is rude, crude or really nasty – report it to the platform. If you bring it to their attention, they might delete it altogether, especially if it is pure slander.

Begin Your SEO Mission and Bury The Comment

If none of the above are possible, or you are still getting negative feedback from people because of that one sole comment on page 1 – drastic measures are in order. Study up on search engine optimization and launch your own private reputation management campaign. Flood social media sites with positive keyword rich articles, reviews, news, comments and information – all under your name of course.

Businesses and business people do this when their reputation has been damaged on the internet. It takes a bit of time and hard work, but eventually that comment will disappear on page 30, while all of your controlled and positive posts fill in pages 1-30 instead.

This might seem like an extreme course of action, but it’s common in online reputation management. Your personal search results are incredibly important, and you should take it upon yourself to keep them in good condition. If it means publishing more positive content to drown out the negatives, then do it.

The returns will be worth it. Leave your name to be sullied – and you’ll have to deal with the consequences. Remember your social media image is everything these days. Deal with spammers and negative comments swiftly and without mercy. That’s the only way you’ll stay on top of your ‘search cv.’

Have you ever dealt with a really bad comment associated with your name? We want to know how you did it!

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And, because many of us are blissfully unaware of the implications of this – it hasn’t bothered us much until now. Then – horror stories of people being fired because they said something on Twitter about their boss.

Businesses ruined because employees ran rampant in a public Facebook group – what’s happening? Well, thanks to search engines and social networks nothing is private anymore. Not if your name is attached to it.

Indexing What You Say in Real Time

Email is a fairly private form of social media, and one we have become accustomed to over the years. Unfortunately, it has managed to ruin our ideas on what privacy should be on social media sites. Don’t think for one second that what you say on MySpace, FourSquare or Twitter is private.

Each word you create and publish is carefully indexed by these sites and stored under your name (or alias). Real time searches and search engines will produce your latest comments on Facebook or any other network they like just as soon as someone types in your name or nickname. Every detail can be traced back to you. Anyone can access this information, even if they aren’t your follower or friend.

Private Is Not So Private On Social Media

If you think your comments or posts are safe in private groups, think again. Social media thrives on information. If you publish a particularly entertaining rant, in a ‘private’ group, it may end up on a client rant site – via someone else who has republished what you’ve said.

Next thing you know, there’s your name, or your business name, with a very inappropriate comment shining out for all the world to see. A lot of social media is recycled, or republished – especially the things you shouldn’t say because they are the most interesting to read. There are some things you should never utter online – ever.

Don’t Freak Out, Remember it’s All about Business

Remember when your parents used to say “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?” Well, like always – that rule should be followed. Think of social media as a direct line to your clients, bosses, competitors and employees. Assume that they can and do see everything you publish online.

That way, you’ll never stumble into a bad situation by mistake. The internet is no longer a platform for little groups of people. It’s everyone’s arena now. As long as you stay honest, pleasant and aware – you’ll be just fine. Don’t be afraid of your opinions, just remember that posting them on Twitter is the same as sending a private email to the people you are talking about! Most of all learn with every experience to improve the way you communicate online.

Finally, stay positive. No one in business wants to read about how sad or angry you are anyway, it never helps your image. Good luck!

Have you ever landed up in hot water over a comment you’ve posted? Tell us about it!

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By doing this, and by stimulating positive feedback, your likeability as a business increases. This means that you begin to have a presence in social media, and your reputation evolves as a result of that.

But whether it evolves into something positive, or into something negative – comes down to a few fundamental features in the end. To truly create a likable presence on your social media pages, you need to concentrate on a few of these key points.

A Recognizable Brand Means Brand Consistency

For people to quickly understand that your social media pages are affiliated with your business page or blog – they need to all share a common brand identity.

This doesn’t mean that they all have to be the same, it just means that when you get a designer to mock up your Facebook, Twitter or Youtube pages, people should be able to recognize that your brands are one in the same. And yes, you should get a designer to design each of your pages as part of your social media identity.

Whatever You Do, Do It Properly and Completely

There’s nothing more irritating than arriving on a Facebook business page, and it’s only half complete. Sometimes this means that you’ve decided to list your business with 8 million social media sites (a common mistake) or, even worse – you’ve started and just haven’t found the time to finish your profile.

Social media makes your business highly visible on the internet, which means that every rushed profile, quick thoughtless post or funny (though wildly inappropriate) image is viewed by potential customers. Oops! Every single little thing you add to your business social media pages makes an impression. Make sure it’s always a positive one!

Use Appropriate Images of Yourself

People that begin to use social media for business, sometimes don’t realize that their peers in business will see the photos that they post of themselves. Don’t grab any old holiday pic of yourself and slap it down as your Twitter image. Think of the image you would like to project for yourself and for your business.

An accountant for example, would not get more work from an image of himself tipsy and sitting at a pub with his friends. Choose a professional image of yourself, and try to keep it the same throughout all of your pages so that people can identify you.

When you begin the social media journey – it’s up to you to ensure that each action has a purpose, and that purpose is to expand your community and make money. If it doesn’t contribute to either of these goals, then it doesn’t belong on your social media pages. Keep it professional, light-hearted and most of all – clean. Let your unique social media personality develop, as long as it’s in line with your business goals!

What three key points did you work around when creating your unique social media image? Trustworthy, kind, kick-ass? Give us your ideal traits below!

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By doing this, and by stimulating positive feedback, your likeability as a business increases. This means that you begin to have a presence in social media, and your reputation evolves as a result of that.

But whether it evolves into something positive, or into something negative – comes down to a few fundamental features in the end. To truly create a likable presence on your social media pages, you need to concentrate on a few of these key points.

A Recognizable Brand Means Brand Consistency

For people to quickly understand that your social media pages are affiliated with your business page or blog – they need to all share a common brand identity.

This doesn’t mean that they all have to be the same, it just means that when you get a designer to mock up your Facebook, Twitter or Youtube pages, people should be able to recognize that your brands are one in the same. And yes, you should get a designer to design each of your pages as part of your social media identity.

Whatever You Do, Do It Properly and Completely

There’s nothing more irritating than arriving on a Facebook business page, and it’s only half complete. Sometimes this means that you’ve decided to list your business with 8 million social media sites (a common mistake) or, even worse – you’ve started and just haven’t found the time to finish your profile.

Social media makes your business highly visible on the internet, which means that every rushed profile, quick thoughtless post or funny (though wildly inappropriate) image is viewed by potential customers. Oops! Every single little thing you add to your business social media pages makes an impression. Make sure it’s always a positive one!

Use Appropriate Images of Yourself

People that begin to use social media for business, sometimes don’t realize that their peers in business will see the photos that they post of themselves. Don’t grab any old holiday pic of yourself and slap it down as your Twitter image. Think of the image you would like to project for yourself and for your business.

An accountant for example, would not get more work from an image of himself tipsy and sitting at a pub with his friends. Choose a professional image of yourself, and try to keep it the same throughout all of your pages so that people can identify you.

When you begin the social media journey – it’s up to you to ensure that each action has a purpose, and that purpose is to expand your community and make money. If it doesn’t contribute to either of these goals, then it doesn’t belong on your social media pages. Keep it professional, light-hearted and most of all – clean. Let your unique social media personality develop, as long as it’s in line with your business goals!

What three key points did you work around when creating your unique social media image? Trustworthy, kind, kick-ass? Give us your ideal traits below!