There's so much talk these days about managing your reputation online. This is certainly important, but you can't lose sight of what happens offline. I know I've seen statistics recently that even today with all of the time spent on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks still 80% of word of mouth happens offline.

I would also argue that what people say about you offline they probably wouldn't be willing to post online where you could easily find it. Consider your own conversations. Whether it's someone asking for a referral or doing a reference check what you're willing to share verbally likely differs substantially from what you'd share in writing, especially if the writing is going to be public.

So what do you do about it? How exactly do you manage your reputation offline?

Offline is obviously very different from online. You can't setup a Google Alert to notify you everytime someone has a conversation about you in the offline world. What you can do is be proactive and have what I call a strong "spy network".

First and most importantly this is much, much easier if you have a strong reputation to begin with. Start there. I could go on and on about this, but at its core this is hyper simple. Do what you say you're going to do. Treat everyone you meet with respect. Do the right thing. You get the idea right? Even with nearly 1 million residents Austin is still a very small town. If you're not going to act ethically and with integrity people are going to find out. There's really not much more you can do beyond that when it comes to "managing" your reputation.

As for the "spy network", if you do a good job of building strong relationships throughout the business community, or whichever communities you spend the most time networking with, these individuals can become powerful allies in helping you manage your reputation. First they can act as your own mini brand ambassadors. When your name comes up in conversation and you've done right by them it's likely that they will speak highly of you. Secondly when they hear conversation about you (good, bad or ugly), they will often call you to give you the heads up. Many won't tell you exactly who said what they might share with you (in my opinion that's the best policy), but they should be willing to share the context of the conversation and what was said about you.

In the end you don't want to get too hung up about this stuff. If you're doing the right things and acting with integrity all this really does is help you build your reputation and get warnings when certain activies or deeds are not being perceived the way you'd hoped. Obviously the stronger your network the more likely positive word of mouth about your reputation will spread and be protected. Just one more reason to build powerful relationships in your community.

Happy Networking!