Your Reputation Is Everything, But Why?

All anyone ever truly holds as their own is their name and reputation. A name determines your self-worth by representing who you are. Once a rotten connotation is associated to your person, all may be lost if recovery isn’t accomplished right away. Never let someone wrongfully slander or dismantle your reputation, always be on the alert for potential attacks.

People will always judge what they can see to make an opinion. It doesn’t matter if you are the sweetest person in the world … what people don’t know they don’t care about. Think about it this way … we make someone out to be a certain way just by what he or she wears. If we see someone in all black they must be depressed and if we see someone in all pink they must be an airhead. How did we get this way? By making assumptions that a person is a certain way based on an appearance that ultimately associates a type of person to that individual.

So what can you do to prevent destruction before riding into war?

·       Ignore bad comments on social media outlets. It is better to delete a negative comment and block someone rather than comment back. Trolls develop and people will never back down from a comment battle.

·       Not sure what to do? Do nothing at all. Making a move you are not 100% sure about could hurt you more than it would help.

·       Do what you say you are going to do. If you know you cannot follow through, revert back to elementary school rules and don’t make promises you can’t keep.

·       Take the extra step and go beyond what is expected of you.

·       Be likeable. Watch your body language when around others as you may not be aware of how you come off. Don’t cross your arms. Dress the part. Smile!

·       Be involved with your community and what is going on around you. This will not only be easy networking but reflect back upon you with clear and brilliant lighting!

Unfortunately, we live in a society where the opinion of others matters. If you happen to attach yourself to a bad personality, use it to your advantage like Oscar Wilde did with his reputation making him seem arrogant and isolated. He became unapproachable and feared even. You are the master of your fate, so decide where you want your future to be.

Getting What You Want In Business

Have you ever wondered how people get to those higher-up positions in a company? They seem so confident and sure of themselves but all they did was use a few strategy techniques to get what they want in life. These few simple tricks that go unnoticed can help in life, your relationships, and especially your career. In my experience, attitude and how you handle or approach a situation is everything! There are only a few things to keep in mind.

Be kind. Burning bridges never gets you anywhere. And once it’s burned, good luck putting it back together.

Be different. Don’t be afraid to go about a situation in an unorthodox manner. Why? Without stepping outside appropriate behavior pertaining to language and politeness, find a way to differentiate yourself. There are over seven billion people in the world today. Imagine that you are competing with every single person … why should someone choose you? Figure out why you are special, and don’t think you aren’t! If you lack in one area you excel in another. We can’t be great at everything, but figure out what your highlights are.

Speak your mind but don’t overstep your boundaries. This goes a long way in the business realm. Let’s take a typical marketing scenario for instance. Your boss and you are creating a marketing strategy targeting young architect students right out of school. Your boss thinks you should socially post to LinkedIn as it is a professional network. However, you believe that the best social network for this target market is Facebook and Twitter, as those are the networks your audience spends most of his or her time on. What do you do? Simply voice your opinion, explain why, and if your boss does not see the light after your justification there is nothing you can do but bite your tongue. Who knows, your boss might change his or her mind later on. Either way, your insightful voice won’t go unnoticed.

Ask permission, subtly, if you ask at all. Let your hunger for power guide you and not overrule and destroy you. If you show your boss why something works better than what he or she is suggesting, rather than simply stating what needs to be done, it will illustrate your point more clearly. Better to show the zebra where the watering hole is rather than tell him which way to go.

Show some control. The second you let your emotions run wild you have lost. The less you care the more someone else will. This isn’t to say not to care, but you don’t have to wear your heart on your sleeve for all to see. Play the game. A predator waits for the right time to pounce instead of rushing into a losing battle.

Everything you do in life should be approached from a standoff point. This will allow time to think how to handle a situation before acting out drastically, resulting in detriment. Like everything else, these simply tactics take practice, but anyone can accomplish what they want if handled properly. Make a plan, ponder the execution, and then when ready, go for the gold! We believe in you! 

Keeping Up With Google: The New Adword Policies

Recently Google announced that they will be updating the AdWords Policy Center for the ever-familiar motivation of enhancing user experience and ease-of-use for advertisers. The changes are set to take place around September, so now is the time to start ramping up your best practices to match the new guidelines. Here’s what you will need to know.

Many Businesses Won’t Need to Worry

According to Google, "Almost all advertisers who comply with our current policies will also comply with the new policies." The main differences will be in restrictions on certain types of products and advertisers such as alcoholic beverages, weapons, etc. Just make sure to read the new restrictions to ensure you are still in compliance.

Ramp Up Your Content Quality

We all know that Google is huge on content quality. Almost every major adjustment is aimed at weeding out spammy content. Now they are cracking down on paid content as well. For those of us who are not marketing dangerous weapons or alcohol, this is the most important update. The are adding a new “Abuse of the Ad Network Policy” section that includes the following prohibitions:

• malicious ads, sites, or apps
• ads promoting sites that offer little unique value to users and are focused primarily on traffic generation
• businesses that attempt to gain an unfair advantage in the ad auction
• businesses that attempt to bypass our review processes
• Content that is designed for the primary purpose of showing ads, i.e. Driving traffic (whether through "arbitrage" or otherwise) to destinations with more ads than original content, little or no original content, or excessive advertising.
• Content that is replicated from another source without adding value in the form of original content or additional functionality, i.e. mirroring, framing or scraping.
• Landing pages that are solely designed to send users elsewhere, i.e. doorway pages, gateways.

Familiarize yourself with the new policies, keep your ads free of user deception and spammy links and you will be fine. For assistance with your AdWords campaigns, you can always call Think Agency, Inc. and make use of our expertise.

photo credit: mark knol via photopin cc