It means everything to everyone. What do you do after or before you have a coffee meeting? You look them up online. Choosing between working for one company or another, one person or another? You scour LinkedIn and Facebook. You do research to get a feel for what their experiences are and if you can learn from them. If a company has a terrible review rating and Glassdoor says the leadership is awful, what does that mean for you? Do you want to work for a company that does not have a mission for success? NO! If you do, eventually it will be a reflection of you.
Your brand building begins on Day 0 in your first job. It basically begins with the interview process. If you sit across from someone that you do not feel like you want to have a drink with, why continue? You need to promote yourself and always do the right thing. Sometimes the right thing is the most difficult.
A real story, during my public accounting days, somewhere between being a senior accountant and manager, I was assigned to a high-profile client to produce a set of personal financial statements for a tax client engagement. Client divested their real estate portfolio in the public markets and I was working for a senior manager (she may have been a partner at the time). I had a lot of respect for her and she was smart and always helpful and someone that I assumed went to church every Sunday. This person was the treasurer of her neighborhood pool association. She stole from the pool association! Amazing, I would have trusted this person with my only child, she was a thief and likely never have a job in accounting again. Net is, do the right thing all the time. The world wide web doesn’t know everything, but it knows a lot!!!