Social networking is a great way to increase your business exposure, yet so many business owners use social networking to tell things about their life they need not share online. Such as what is happening at home, illness, people who irritate them and so much more. There has been times I have regretted posting something online. Business owners have to realize what they post online can be read forever, and be read by potential clients and prospects, more on that later in the article. One thing I always ask myself before posting anything online is how is this going to affect my business?
NOW before you shout at me and tell me I am being mean or out of my mind, let me first say this, I have LUPUS and I deal with health setbacks. I know what I am talking for this situation. I am truthful to my clients, all of my clients know I deal with LUPUS issues and many of my clients have been with me for 15+ years. When I am having a bad day and I cannot work I let my clients know exactly what is going on, but privately. I then give them a time line. I have never not met my time line, even if it meant working late night hours to get those things accomplished. When I start a project I know I can get it done in 3 days I let my clients know it can be done in 5 days, when they send me everything I need for the project, that way if I do have a “bad day” I have given myself time to deal with that and yet not miss my deadline.
Yes, I did just share my illness online, to get a point across. I started working from home so that I could “work” around my illness. I don’t look at my illness as a set back, I look at it as a challenge that I can surpass and overcome daily, but that is me.
Be honest about your situation when you are having a health or family situation set back but do not post it online in a social networking situation if you are looking to build your business…people look to you for your expertise, and if all they see you doing is complaining about your life, your health, and how you feel about other people, well you just gave your business the kiss of death.
Just remember this no matter what you post online, even if you erase something, yes even if you erase something it will still be around. How you might ask? Did you know that Google caches sites? When you say something online that you want gone, and you delete it chances are that Google has already taken a screen shot of this and now it is up online forever…so be careful what you post, how much about your life you do post, and always be truthful privately with your clients. Read more about website caching here.
Trust is an important part of any business, once you have lost that trust you will never be able to get it back.
