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How Important is Making a Good First Impression Online?

You'll agree that people tend to make quick judgments based on their first impressions. You've probably heard the saying that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression. It’s true.

For a first-time meeting with people, we want to look special. We carefully choose our clothes and spend extra time on our grooming. Additionally, we rehearse in our minds some of the things we might say during our meeting.

Don’t you think it's also important to make a good first impression online? I believe that it's just as important as making a good first impression offline. Online just as offline, you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

You make a first impression online through your social profiles, your writing and your comments.

Many people carefully craft their profiles and everything else they post online. They choose a flattering picture cropped just right, they carefully fill in their profile information and they check their writing for spelling, grammar and usage errors. They never resort to spam.

However, many other people do not. They sabotage themselves by showing up for a virtual meeting sloppily dressed with messy hair and a mouthful of chewing gum. What a horrific sight!

I look around social sites and read blogs. I often ask myself, "What is this person thinking? Doesn't this person care about how he/she appears? Why doesn’t this person take the steps necessary to make a good first impression online?”

Please consider the type of first impression you make. If you don’t like it, fix it. Help your friends too -- in a constructive way by providing suggestions and non-judgmental feedback.

Tags: good-first-impression

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Comment by Ilka Flood on September 4, 2010 at 7:43pm: @Mirdza .... @Larry

I totally agree with both of you. A smile goes such a long way. My good friend Peter Fuller just wrote a blog post about that. I invite you to read it and I'm sure you love his story ;-)

Comment by Mirdza Hayden on September 3, 2010 at 2:33pm: I agree with your, Ilka. Faceless comments are pretty crazy.

Comment by Larry Brauner on September 3, 2010 at 1:46pm: The picture issue, Ilka, is one of the main things that prompted me to write this piece.

Comment by Ilka Flood on September 3, 2010 at 1:43pm: You are right, Larry. You never get a second chance to make a good first impression. What ever you put out on the internet is out there for the whole world to see. If you leave comments, they will stay forever, or until the host of that website/blog decides to take it down. So you should be very carefully thinking about what you will be writing.

I also often wonder why people don't put there pictures on there profile. Especially in social media networks. It just doesn't make sense to me to appear "faceless" when you are obviously on there to create and cultivate relationships.

Comment by Mirdza Hayden on September 2, 2010 at 11:14am: Good first-impressions are definitely very important both online and offline. I do my best to have up a recent picture of myself so that people can see that what I "preach" is true: We can be fit and healthy no matter what our age. I do my best to post comments and replies that will help people get fit and healthy without having to go through a lot of heartaches. I offer them links where they can get the products that have helped me so that they don't have to figure out where to get them. Unfortunately, those that are closed-minded may think that what I do is spam and simply write articles to get people to buy things from me so I can be rich and famous, but that is far from the truth. I simply love helping people all around the world be fit and healthy, and I know that the products I use have worked wonders fro me, so I want them to experience the same thing as I have.

Comment by Larry Brauner on September 1, 2010 at 11:50pm: I understand, Tommy. However, put the way I put it, you should be able to see that a negative first reaction might preclude the possibility of building a relationship.

Comment by Tommy Stern on September 1, 2010 at 11:27pm: Larry, I agree when you put it this way. When dealing with a snapshot quick view it is exactly how you described. I was talking about building an online relationship.

Comment by Larry Brauner on September 1, 2010 at 10:35pm: Tommy, when somebody arrives at your website they make the decision whether to stay or not in seconds. They won't even scroll down to look at your content below the fold unless what they see above the fold sparks their interest.

Comment by Tommy Stern on September 1, 2010 at 8:42pm: While a first impression is important, I don't think as important as in person. Here is my reasoning, in person a first impression is immediate. All five senses are in play at the same time. Online that first impression could be hour, days, and/or weeks and only one sense at a time is in play. Online if you are perceptive things could easily be clarified.

Here is another question to think about. How does the first, in person, impression differ after only a few phone calls (the old way of marketing) verses a few phone calls and an online relationship?

Comment by Eli Gatanela on September 1, 2010 at 5:43pm: This is a good reminder. I remember the saying too well -- "First impression is lasting." This means putting our best put forward, both online and offline, to act impeccably, say things clearly. It is about getting a good first impression. There is no second chance, no next time around.

Applied to online presence, it means having a good and well-designed blog or site with original high quality content posts, easy to navigate, and not cluttered with ads of different shapes and sizes. Too often you will encounter blogs that look like Christmas trees and you wonder what impressions the bloggers want to convey to the public or their target readers. Yet those bloggers complain of having few readers or generate little income from their ads or affiliate marketing.