They Said What?! Managing an Online Reputation

Last week, I had the pleasure of chatting on a live Facebook preview for the upcoming 5th Annual Women Leaders Conference on April 4, hosted by the UWM School of Continuing Education.

I’m honored to be speaking at this year’s conference, which undoubtedly will be a memorable event. This conference is dedicated to women who have pioneered in their respective fields, shattered traditional glass ceilings and inspired peers and future generations of women leaders across the world.

Since 2012, Wisconsin has gained a reputation as a burgeoning epicenter of female leaders. Marissa Mayer’s appointment as president and CEO of Yahoo! cast an inspiring (and much deserved) spotlight on the state. Mayer’s professional journey started in her hometown of Wausau, but her passion and talent for computer science and technology quickly led her to join two of the world’s most powerful companies – Google, where she became the first female engineer (and employee #20) and more recently, Yahoo!

Mayer is not the only WI women leader to make news recently. Last year, Mary Burke, a former Trek Bicycle executive, announced she would challenge incumbent Scott Walker in the 2014 gubernatorial election. And just two years ago, Wisconsin elected a female senator, Tammy Baldwin.

Boelter + Lincoln is no stranger to female leadership. In 2007, Jill Brzeski succeeded John Lincoln as CEO of the marketing and advertising firm, and women continue to make up the majority of the agency’s partners and leadership roles.

Sessions at this year’s Women Leaders Conference will cover a myriad of topics including: innovation, personal branding, and entrepreneurial lessons, networking across generations, and navigating your career path, among many others.

I’ll be leading a session titled, More Than Just a Name: Owning and Managing Your Online Reputation, which will address the growing challenge of owning and managing an online reputation. Specifically, we’ll explore how best to navigate, direct and manage an online presence and use it as a key driver for new personal or business opportunities. Additionally, I’ll introduce tools for managing, monitoring and tracking social reputation, and discuss how to build relationships and engage online communities.

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” according to Warren Buffet. “If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” 

To say that I am looking forward to learning from and networking with women leaders from industries of all shapes and sizes is a complete understatement. The energy and knowledge sharing will be inspirational for everyone in attendance, and I’m excited to be a part of it. I hope to see all of you on April 4 at the Women Leaders Conference!