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  • Politics Is Like Hiring A Hitman
    by Scott Woods inPolitical on2020-08-13

    For me, politics is like hiring a hitman. I have values and things I care about. I care enough about them to at least bother voting for 5 minutes every year for one issue or another. And because I care at least that much, I vote for people who align with the ability to realize the things I care about.

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  • Punching Above Our Weight
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-07-24

    I believe our vote is the punctuation of our voice. Without that resounding exclamation mark, I believe our voices are just incoherent noise.

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  • BLACK PROGRESS AMIDST SOCIAL CHAOS
    by Roger Madison Jr. inPolitical on2020-06-16

    Recent events have raised the profile of historical injustice and inequities here in the USA. The entire world has taken note of the fact that BLACK LIVES MATTER.   We invite all of our friends to engage in actions that result in the greatest movement for change in our history. It is imperative that we take advantage of this opportunity to affect a positive change by ACTING IN OUR SELF-INTERESTS.

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  • Living in a Black No-Man's Land
    by Roger Madison Jr. inOur Community on2019-10-28

    There are many narratives that define the Black experience in America in this 2nd decade of the 21st century. Our striving over the centuries of our sojourn in this nation is a tapestry of every human experience -- oppression, enslavement, forced assimilation, dehumanization, exclusion, segregation, isolation, struggle, perseverance, achievement, excellence, celebration, mourning, despair, progress, setbacks, lynching, assassination, genocide, terror, self-hatred, low esteem, pride,...

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  • Fighting Racism
    by Scott Woods inOur Community on2018-10-25

    I had a boss who was racist. Not an outright bigot, of course; her toolbox was more subtle than most. We bumped heads a lot over inconsequential things. She frequently couldn’t keep my name out her mouth. Lot of gaslighting. You know…2018 style. I tried a lot of ways to combat or navigate her issues. None of them worked, and that’s saying a lot because I’m really good at fighting racism. But at the end of the day – every day – she was my boss, I had to deal with her, and that was that. Finally I...

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3 Ways to Keep Track of Your Online Brand

Tools to Manage Your Online Brand - GraphicSome employers are using the Internet to check up on potential employees before making hiring decisions, but did you realize that potential clients could be checking up on small business owners, too?  Making sure you know what is being said about you and your company on the Internet should be a regular part of your business activities.  Use these three tips to keep track of your online brand:

  1. Create a Google alert of your name, company name and web site address.  Google will send you an email daily, weekly or as it happens when one of your search items is found on someone’s web site, blog or in the news.  Visit http://www.google.com/alerts to set up these emails.  In addition to making sure your brand image stays positive, Google alerts will also be helpful for monitoring the results of advertising or public relations campaigns.  Go on and set up your alert when you are finished reading the article.  Not only will you be able to keep track of how your brand is being used, but it’s also cool to get an email from Google with your name in it!
  2. Perform regular searches for yourself in the popular search engines.  The Google alert is designed to catch recent information about you, such as when you post a comment to someone’s blog or when your press release is distributed online.  It won’t, however, send you details on things that have been on the net for awhile.  To view this data, use Google, Yahoo, Bing or your search engine of choice to look up your name and company.  Set aside one day every week or two and record what comes up.  This way you will notice changes the next time you perform the search.
  3. Monitor what your friends post about you on social networking sites.  While you may be diligent about protecting your online brand, your friends may not.  Check their pages from time to time and make sure there are no incriminating photos.  Yes, your customers like to know that you are human and have interests outside of work, but having a picture floating around of you in a drunken stupor is a little too personal.  Words can also be damaging.  Make sure a colleague is not recounting your “client from hell” story, with specific information, via his or her profile.  While it may be funny, you do not want to turn off potential clients who may fear being the next subject of a joke or story.

Use these tips to keep track of your online brand.  Remember, you cannot change something you don’t know about, so set up your Google alert, search for yourself online and check out the photos you are tagged in on Facebook.  Make sure your online brand represents who you are today and how you want to be perceived.  Did you find something negative associated with your name or company?  Come back in a couple of days to read our follow-up article, which discusses what to do if you find something negative about yourself online.

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Dequiana Brooks has been an entrepreneur for as long as she can remember. She focuses her energy on helping other businesses succeed through her marketing strategy & design company, Inspired Graphics Media, where we turn inspiration into action. Visit http://www.inspiredmedia.net and schedule your FREE 30-minute consultation today!