Building your reputation in the digital age

We’re very familiar with the phrase ‘people buy people’, but while that’s always been the case, the way that plays out in the digital age is different. In this Vlog, Grant explains how you build your reputation online.

In sales and in business in general, we’re very familiar with the phrase ‘people buy people’, but while that’s always been the case, the way that plays out in the digital age is different.

In a previous age, people could only judge you when they interacted with you, either by letter or by telephone or in a face to face meeting. Today, we’re all media personalities, whereby someone can go online and check you out before there’s been any personal interaction whatsoever.

So how do you build a reputation online?

While expertise used to be something you had to demonstrate when you interacted with someone, today, you have to deliver it before you even get in the room.

Therefore, you have to package your expertise in ways that are digestible in an online forum. Creating content; either by video, articles, podcasts or webinars, is very important to show that you know your stuff.

It’s not enough just to give knowledge. You have to make it relevant to the audience to whom you’re presenting. Therefore, you start to create real insight.

For example, if you’re an expert in tax, just talking about the change in law will leave everyone cold, but if you apply what those changes mean for owner managed businesses and that’s your audience, it will really resonate.

As well as your knowledge, in an online world, people also have sight of your network. Therefore, it’s not enough to leave it to chance. You need to really think about those people who you want to be seen strategically aligned with and go out to network with those people and connect with them.

While the nature of online means there can be some randomness to people that reach out to you or who you decide to reach out to when you come across them, for the bulk of your connections there really should be a strategy behind what you’re doing.

It is this combination of knowledge and connectedness that will start to build your reputation online and make you a desirable person to approach.