CF.Digital: ‘If Google doesn't know about you, you don't exist :)’

Let’s figure it out in 5 minutes: is your image a reliable friend or your most successful enemy?

This morning I masterfully drove Google into a dead end: I typed “image-maker vacancies Kyiv” into the search bar. The poor thing diligently tried to convince me that I needed a makeup stylist or an image consultant for shopping support. Undoubtedly, to some extent, Google is right by offering such positions: the visual component is important, but it’s only one of the vectors of image's communicative activity. Your habitual complex (how others perceive you) can be perfectly stylish with a spicy twist. But if it is not complemented by verbal (what you say), paraverbal (how you say it), kinetic (your gestures, posture, facial expressions, and distance in conversation), and social components, you will stick in memory like a beautiful chocolate figure. A tasty form, but without content.

What does your look say about you?

Let’s be honest: if we take away all your business cards, hide your job title on social media, and remove all corporate attributes, how many out of ten people will correctly identify who you are and where you work? If your answer is less than 7, it’s time to seriously think about this question.

When you arrive at a business meeting with your partner, your appearance is the best possible presentation of yourself as a professional. After all, a person treats their business the same way they treat their appearance. If you can accept and turn the weak points of your appearance into advantages, on a subconscious level, it is immediately clear that your approach to business processes is rational and focused on finding new opportunities.

Tip: I urge you to look right now at your social media profile photo! So? Would you say that the person in that avatar is a CEO, business development director, or CMO? Social media has long outgrown personal space and become a business tool for networking. And you know, overly sexy vacation photos or “letting loose” shots will work against you. Especially if they’re low-quality photos in the 21st century? In short, it’s best to filter the visual content of your social media, because if someone really wants to find that wild photo from your recent youth—they will. This simple rule is known to all, yet I know dozens of top executives’ accounts that sometimes make you feel deeply awkward. So let’s all review our photos and don’t be afraid to hit the “delete” button.

Want to understand a business partner’s philosophy? Go to their social media.

Since we’re already talking about the power of networking via social media, let’s dig deeper into this current. Praise and thousands of likes to Zuckerberg for Facebook, which allows you not only to quickly find the right person but also to break down the verbal and paraverbal elements of a business partner’s image in more detail.

Social media is an express content analysis of personality philosophy in profile. Your posts are a litmus test that shows erudition, professionalism, lexical depth, self-confidence, and the degree to which you resist or, conversely, are influenced by the masses. Moreover, the structure of your texts speaks to your logical and psychological characteristics. Now you might think: “Not everyone evaluates my posts like that.” And you’d be right. But we’re all human, and it’s based on these subconscious signals that we decide whether to start a dialogue with someone or not.

Tip: These days, any position comes with a certain level of publicity. For some, it's higher; for others, lower. But the key is—we're all a little intellectually exposed on social media. And this vulnerability is visible to everyone. So don’t bet on that cringeworthy post from 2015 going unnoticed. It’s only a couple of hours of scrolling through your feed.

If Google doesn’t know about you, you don’t exist.

This one’s simple and clear. You can paint mental pictures of your imaginary social image in your head, but if Google doesn’t know about it, then it simply doesn’t exist. And that already raises questions—how can someone be so impressively attractive, smart, and professional, and yet the top 30 Google results for their name say nothing about their socially active stance? Agreed?

Tip: Involve a team of professionals who can correctly position and highlight the public and status component of your image. Only professionals can create an effective personal image around which the informational field of your reputation will later form.

A business owner’s personal image is an endless multifaceted system of communicative vectors that often plays a key role in the life cycle of the entire company. So we recommend building a good relationship with your image and taking care of it thoroughly. Even if your business is still just a plan.

Louisa Yaremenko, Brand Communication Manager of CF.Digital

Material published Sostav.ua