One of the things about us and our business that will remain constant is our character. Character will either make our business, and our social media, rise or fall. Simply put, character matters to our customers.

I love the Captain Kirk line… “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!” To put it simply, customers hate to be fooled by someone; especially someone with poor character. Whether our character is good or bad, it will cause our customers to stop and think.

Character matters in business and in social media too. Here's why!

Before the vast viral nature of the Internet, we could deceive a customer and they might tell 10 people. In today’s world of fast communication, bad news travels fast. People can find out quickly if we are a person of poor character. News travels fast.

The above tweet says it all. How we treat others in our business matters. In a world that is increasingly becoming challenging to many, people want to feel safe. They want to feel that they are doing business with someone who will not hurt them. Hence character matters to them, and the business they deal with. Unless we have the market cornered on a widget, our customers have a choice. They will vote with their feet.

I have heard it said that character is what you do when no one looking. It is even more than this. To me character is this:

  • I will treat my customers fairly and honestly.
  • My word is my bond. What I say, I will do.
  • I will be the same person face to face as I am online.
  • I will do not harm to my customers.
  • I will give to my customers more than I take.
  • I will be a valuable part of the community because community matters.

Social media is making it harder to be a bad business and a person with poor character. When people find out, they will share that information with their friends to keep them safe. So we need to think twice about doing harm to our customers because we don’t care. If we are going to be a business, we have to care about our customers. We want them to rave about us and our business.

Character matters online as well as offline. Be a person and a business of good character.

Here’s to a great day of business for you.