I have to say I am working on one of the most exciting communications projects of my career right now. I’d have to boast a bit to say that as I have worked on some amazing projects in my PR career. This one gets my heart pumping and my mind up at nights consumed by it.Without disclosing too much about this project to protect those who have trusted me with this task, it involves social media strategies for a very profitable business. My point is not to brag about this mystery project but to promote what’s come out of it, for me.

It comes down to this question: What is my own online strategy? More specifically even, what is your online PR strategy?

Much like any corporation, being remotely public online comes with responsibilities, at least for me they do (online). Due largely to this site and to my social media addictions.. I mean…PR tools, my life is an open book. Of course when it comes to my professional reputation I take the time to think strategy and I think long term rather than short. Twenty years from now I will have built up quite a lengthy presence online. It is inevitable we are moving towards that kind of future. Growing with Google.  Layers and layers of online pages, like sedimentary rock. Maybe I am going for the Grand Canyon of online layers. I don’t anticipate or plan for online popularity or anything either. Growing up I wrote in a journal for most of my life… isn’t this essentially the same thing? Well, that and the fact that I am letting just anyone read it. Let’s call it more like the portfolio of my life.

This “portfolio” has to be something I can stand behind and represents me in the most authentic way. I have no ghost writers. I take all of my own photos or credit and link to the rare times I don’t. (Or at least try to.. please tell me if you’ve caught anything online that deserves a link) but most of all I put time into it. It is something I am proud of. I also take the time to engage in conversation with people who are interested in me and what I have to say. Call it your online handshake and then coffee talk with every Web interaction.

There’s also the mind-set of quality over quantity, being really selective of what you put online with each post, picture and page. Then there’s those that use the Internet and its tools for everything. Photo storage, email storage, blog storage, you get the picture. An enormous amount of layers upon layers of online content. I even know people who store everything for the sole reason the can go back and find it. Certainly faster than going through files in your closet. No risk of losing in a fire. Accessible from anywhere in the world. All things are easily search able if you have misplaced it online. Times that by 20 or 30 years. Now that’s an online strategy.

Yours and my strategy can be different. I’m just encouraging you to think long term, as I try to do with ever post, picture and page. Think about your online collection. It’s is certianly something I take into consideration all of time. It’s no longer this mad rush to pile as much of me on the Internet anymore. Now I take my time to write and edit my stuff on line. My photos are chosen carefully and I take the time to update all of my social media addictions. It’s the online commitment I have made. I’m sure twenty years from now I will surely be proud of myself for putting the work in today. I will instigate a few laughs at the very least, anyway.