Have you ever asked yourself how your digital fingerprint will impact your future? I am sure if you reflected on your lifetimes content library all the likes you gave away on your favorite social media platforms the posts and comments pictures and videos that feature you online as well as all those old Kodak photos your friend took 20 or 30 years ago that may still see the light of social media one day you would certainly not be able to recall every single piece of content that can possibly be tied back to you. Yet its out there regardless of your recollection. If not on someones phone your precarious image is buried under some old documents in a school friends drawer or packed in someones memory box in their closet. RescueTime tells us that the average adult swipes types and makes calls over the course of 3 hours and 15 minutes each day (the top 20% even spend 4.5 hours on their phones). In short 50 days per year are full of opportunities to make just one little mistake one post or comment that you might regret later in life. Maybe it will cost you your education or your job. Maybe it will cost you your family. Or if you are lucky it wont cost you anything other than data charges and you will be just fine. We all tend to share our thoughts on social media without being intentional at times unaware of possible repercussions especially on our so called private accounts we only share with family and friends- those accounts that feel safe and protected. How many times would you say you posted something because you thought it was funny at that time? How many times did you post after a few drinks and what you shared did not seem like a great idea the next day? How many times did you post based on an emotional reaction to something you read heard or saw? We have all been there. The danger is that everything we say and do on social media is on the record stored away in the cloud screenshotted on someones phone waiting to come back at us later in life with the potential to impact our career our family or our life. Our lifetime content library one that I call our life-brand is our digital fingerprint shaped by the collection of publicly accessible content shared by or featuring us including photos videos audio recordings social media posts and written statements or comments. This includes all possible content pieces that have not seen the light of day yet but possibly will in the future. We all possess one life-brand there is only ONE. It might be strong or it might be weak but our individual life-brand exists. Our life-brand takes control if we are not aware of it and gains power and strength over the course of our lifetime the more content we accumulate in the cloud. It is literally out of control. The good news is that once we become aware of it we can actively control it so we can arrive advance and thrive in the professional corridors of our livelihood instead of potentially tarnishing our education and career. Nobody prepared us for what could come after opening the social media floodgates through our first Facebook Instagram TikTok or Twitter account. Screen time is no longer a casual activity. A click a post in one breath can stain our reputation in just seconds. However if you frame your life as your life-brand you will indeed be able to use social media as the tool it was originally designed for and instantly recognize the risks your engagement could cause you. How to control your Life-Brand The concept of a controlled life-brand goes way beyond what we understand as personal branding that is the intentional effort to build credibility in a certain field advance ones career and build a particular identity. Life-brand also includes all of our actions and words that we unintentionally put on record through recordings private comments and posts and photos and videos we record or others record of us. It identifies one person as distinct from another and is defined by a persons unique purpose and identity through their everyday displayed public behavior and chosen language in the real and virtual worlds which ultimately shapes the publics perception about the life-brand owner. Life-brand expands the definition of personal branding as an intentional effort of using your purpose in life to impact change to build (early) confidence and to be comfortable with self-promotion (I am particularly addressing my female readers with the last point). Life-brand takes into account your public display of (un)intentional language and behavior or how you portray your identity to others. While personal branding is clearly defined as intentional efforts to advance your career and increase influence life-brand develops itself with or without your control with or without your intention. Like personal branding life-brand can positively influence your development and career if understood and controlled. If unaware of its power or existence your life brand can negatively impact your career and future career family and aspirations by virtue of disadvantageous public perception of you. Considering this additional component of life-brand you might be perceived by the public in an inaccurate way based on interpretation of your unintentional behavior or language that might not reflect your true identity. The image below shows the elements that control everyones life-brand. It consists of two components: your identity and your chosen purpose in life. Identity in the context of life-brand is defined as the summary of your behavior and language displayed through social media or in the real world while purpose can be discovered through the vehicle of a passion an idea your profession or expertise in a certain field or an interest or hobby you pursue. Managing the combination of and connection between identity and purpose is crucial to truly controlling a life-brand rather than being controlled by it. This means your behavior and language must be in alignment with your chosen purpose and need to be portrayed with integrity. That is the case for social media as well as behavior and language displayed in the real world because a public outburst can also make its way as a viral internet video. Sharing your purpose with the world through social media channels is an intentional controlled effort you undertake. Make no mistake it is not random. Public display of purpose can lead to significant positive impact on others and our community thanks to the vast reach social media channels have these days. When a life-brand is owned and controlled it is created by both public perception and positive impact and becomes a powerful vehicle to impact reach and influence others. When the concept of life-brand is understood controlled and proactively developed with integrity between purpose and identity the concept enables us to establish a unique life-brand voice powerfully influencing others who listen and inspiring them to take action in response. We can protect ourselves from possible social media missteps simply by having awareness that our life-brand exists. But the earlier we understand the concept and the possibilities we have to actively control it the bigger the opportunity to use social media as a tool to drive our careers forward impact positive change in the world and our communities and help educate the next generation of social media users on following our example. The post You might just be one click away from damaging your life(-brand) appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Original source: https://socialmediaexplorer.com/content-sections/news-and-noise/you-might-just-be-one-click-away-from-damaging-your-life-brand/ The post You might just be one click away from damaging your life(-brand) appeared first on connect social networks. via Connect Social Networks http://connectsocialnetworks.com/you-might-just-be-one-click-away-from-damaging-your-life-brand/