On today’s show, I welcome back to the show Todd Lohenry from toddlohenry.com.
Todd’s first appearance on the podcast where we discussed thought leadership and online reputation management at a strategic level can be found HERE.
A thought leader himself, Todd’s passion is helping thinkers become thought leaders in their own right using a process he calls the elevation workflow.
When Todd was last on we walked through each of the nine steps in his elevation workflow at a higher more strategic level
This time, we’re going to dive a little deeper and talk about the tools and apps Todd uses to help facilitate and execute the elevation workflow process.
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WHY YOU NEED TO GROW YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION
Todd and I start our discussion today by addressing why it’s important for people to have a good online reputation.
Todd divides people into 2 groups to help illustrate why your online reputation is critical; people who are linchpins and people who choose themselves.
Modeled after Seth Godin’s popular book Linchpin (affiliate link), Linchpins are indispensable in their roles within a corporation.
These professionals can leverage their experiences and grow their online reputation in their particular area of work. This makes them attractive to their employers, other employers, and recruiters.
Linchpins typically do not realize the opportunities they are potentially missing because they are not actively cultivating their expertise by growing their online reputation.
The other camp Todd refers to are those individuals who haven chosen the path defined by James Altucher in his book, Choose Yourself (affiliate link).
Professionals who fall into this camp have made a conscience decision to follow their own path and have become freelancers or solopreneurs.
In this way building their online reputation allows them to demonstrate and showcase their expertise. They know their potential clients are “window shopping” and comparing their skills against those of others.
Choose yourself professionals realize their online reputation is their livelihood.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A THOUGHT LEADER AND ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGEMENT
Thought leadership is the fruit and online reputation management is the root.
Meaning you can’t obtain or achieve thought leadership status unless you have put the necessary work required to demonstrate your expertise and experiences.
You work on building your online reputation and you may emerge as a thought leader.
TOOLS, TIPS AND APPLICATIONS TO MANAGE YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION
Contemplate
Consider your avatar and how you can be in strategic alignment with your audience. This will help you speak their language and meet their expectations.
Tools to help determine your avatar’s language: Google search, Google Trends, and Google Adwords keyword planner. TIP: During a basic Google search scroll to the bottom of the page. There you will find additional more niche keywords and phrases suggested by Google.
Consume & Curate
The tools and applications used during the consume and curate steps can be the same. Todd uses them to divide content into four buckets; sites (website), searches (Google searches), sources (current thought leaders you follow) and someday maybe information.
Todd looks to RSS content readers to help both consume and curate content. He recommends the following RSS readers; Digg, Feedspot, Feedly, and Inoreader.
Todd’s favorite is Inoreader. He created an easy to follow video on how to use in reader which you can find on YouTube.
If you’re interested in Inoreader Todd recommends a One Note document created by Marjolein Hoekstra. I reviewed the document and can tell you it is very comprehensive. You can find Marjolein at CleverClogs.org
Create
Todd recommends the self-hosted version of WordPress, which is WordPress.org. I put together a step-by-step video to show you exactly how to this. You can have a website up and running in as little as 5 minutes.
Todd discussed in detail how you can use a WordPress plugin called Jetpack to send a simple email which will post directly to your site as a blog post.
If you can send an email, you can start building your online reputation.
Other tools include Microsoft’s OneNote and Word. Both give you word processing power and spell checking capabilities.
Another tool Todd recommends for Mac users is an application from Red Sweater called MarsEdit. I personally use an application called DeskPM.
Of course, you can also publish using the post area directly from your WordPress blog.
The reality is there are so many options for publishing online today the only excuse you really have, is yourself. I wrote about that HERE.
If you’re concerned about the learning curve check out my FREE course to help you get started with WordPress at CareerBranding.Academy.
Collect
Todd uses a freemium tool called RebelMouse. He uses this tool to pull together all of the sites and sources he follows into one page.
This page can be added to your WordPress website for others who follow you to enjoy as well. This gives your audience an additional reason to come to YOU to seek information on a particular topic or niche.
Connect
This is where social media comes into play. Todd’s advice for connecting on social media is to use exactly the number you need and one more.
The choice of which social network to use should be based on where your audience hangs out.
Todd does recommend however two platforms for strong consideration; Google Plus and Twitter.
For Twitter Todd uses a tool called BuzzSumo to determine the information being shared in your niche and who the influencers are you should pay attention to.
Google +
For Google Plus Todd recommends checking out Friends Plus Me. Friends Plus Me enables you to auto post your content to other platforms after first posting to Google Plus.
Using Friends Plus Me in this way allows you to focus on only one platform, specifically Google Plus for its search engine optimization value.
In case you’re wondering Google Plus is not dead. Todd recommends checking a book written by David Amerland titled Google Semantic Search (affiliate link) to learn more about how search works today.
Converse
Todd recommends a dashboard application like Hootsuite which allows you to pull together all of your social network signals in one place.
Convert
For conversion, Todd didn’t offer any specifics because there are so many platforms out there. I personally use two platforms to varying degrees.
This site is built on a Website theme and landing page platform called Optimizepress. I highly recommend this platform for its ability for you to create that website design you’ve been searching for but don’t have the design skills to build yourself.
Create Community
Continue your conversation with your audience by creating a community where you can have deeper, more through provoking discussions. Think about the groups features on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google +.
WRAP
The following methods are The best way to get in touch with Todd
Twitter: @toddlohenry
