Sidestep Cancel Culture: 3 Ways to Manage Your Reputation Online To avoid falling victim to cancel culture, should you avoid being online or are there ways to inoculate your reputation? Here, we'll look at three proven systems to manage reputation online.

Sixty years ago, people would cancel their subscriptions to magazines if a particular article or advertisement offended them. Today, participating in "cancel culture" might mean ending a personal relationship, getting someone fired or generating a firestorm of negativity online. A single tweet can end a career—or unleash over 1 million retweets in a single day. People are getting canceled when they slip up, resulting in social media outrage, boycotting and great risk to their reputation.

It's not just celebrities who are in danger here; anyone with an online presence can be canceled. Since your actions online reflect on you (and most likely your company, too), it's up to you to manage your reputation so you don't get dragged through the mud.

I've counseled many individuals who are worried about that outcome. Let's start by identifying when we are most at risk of cancel culture. Sometimes, everyday people get in hot water when they act out of line with their values. Even more often, a public comment deemed offensive or inappropriate upsets an audience whose values and beliefs you did not understand fully or were careless in addressing.