Our online reputations follow us wherever we go. It’s not uncommon for a questionable MySpace photo to cost you a job if your perspective boss happens to look it up. Most students are warned about this at school, but for those of us young professionals who are new-ish to digital PR or have recently started blogging, it’s goes a step further. Not only are we online in a personal sense, but our entire professional lives are documented as well. It is therefore incredibly important to take an active role in managing our online images and reputations. I don’t think anyone in PR has a perfect record, but as digital PRs we have to remember that all of our work – good or bad - is pretty much out in the open for all to see.

Today, Paull over at Young PR tapped a few of us to give our three do’s and don’t’s for online reputation management.

There has been a lot of talk about young people potentially harming their reputation online - along with many case studies. Digital Natives will be the first generation to live their lives branded by a Google Tattoo. At the same time, I’m a firm believer that there is so much to gain from actively engaging online that you’d be stupid not to, it’s just a matter of knowing the ground rules.

Well said. So without further ado, here are my do’s and don’t’s of online reputation management. (These are posted in his comment section as well)

  • Do be personal as well as professional.
  • Do act your age and experience.
  • Do remember that anything you say is theoretically on the Internet forever.
  • Don’t burn any bridges.
  • Don’t expect people to always agree with you.
  • Don’t forget that you don’t know everything about the industry.

Paull, Christi Eubanks and Mike Denton will be bringing the do’s and don’t’s as well as some other thought on the subject at PodCamp Boston. Please consider contributing to the conversation. Especially Lish.