Happy New Year. If like many people you have made your resolutions for the New Year I'd like to suggest another one for you;

Make a conscious effort to have a polished online brand. In the past we were told to 'engage brain before putting mouth into gear' now we should be 'engaging brain before putting fingers into gear on our keyboard.'

In the last few days we have seen a classic example of how much damage can be done with a throwaway comment on twitter:

Whatever your thoughts are about the row that has ensued, the result is the same - Diane Abbott has damaged her Personal Brand by using a comment which she says "was taken out of context". Unfortunately on twitter this is easily done as you only have 140 characters to make your comment. If that comment could be taken out of context because of the restrictions in available length then it shouldn't be made publicy - unless you are prepared to face up to the consequences.

It is easy to build up an impression of someone by reading their tweet history - we really need to thnk about what impression of our personal brand would be made if someone looked back at our tweets. I recommend you do this excercise and then add "Think before you tweet" to your list of resolutions.