Page 86 - Managing the Mobile Workforce

presence � 65

sonality, sense of humor, likeability, communication style, and com-
petence from our ability to communicate online. Most importantly,
they develop a perception of our personal virtual brand.
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The Virtual Mobile Worker (YOU): How Are You Viewed
in a Connected, Virtual World?
A few months back I attended a local conference with an
interesting group of presenters, experts within the social
media space, Justin Foster and his partners within Tricycle.
Their message to our group was about personal branding.
He helped us understand how our own personal brands are
made, how people remember them, and how “sticky” they
can be—both good or bad. Our group, the attendees who
were practically strangers, worked up a few on-the-fly re-
views of the perceptions we had of each other after only a
few seconds of conversation.
Everyone sizes you up within seconds of visual or audible
contact and remembers the small details about you, those
small things that build your personal persona and personal
brand. It all happens automatically. Once your personal mo-
bile brand is established, it’s difficult to change it.
People remember your personal brand based on a visual
and auditory pattern, and they remember the perception of
you from the way they feel about you. What they remember
quickly gets set in concrete. Why is this important for mem-
bers of the mobile workforce?
When you connect a mobile workforce through technol-
ogy, everyone has a personal virtual brand, a personality that
comes through the mobile lines, over the Internet, through
the SMS and Webcasts. Your “virtual-you” follows you, and
your reputation is built. How people perceive you influences
their behavior and whether they will trust you, think you are