Its a good idea to actively manage your online identity.
People are googling you. They want to poke you on Facebook and recommend you on LinkedIn (Although the person poking you on Facebook may not be the person recommending you on LinkedIn). In our current culture, and probably more so in the future, many first or second impressions will be over the Internet.
So you need to nod your head at 2 realities before we continue:
- You have an online identity.
- Your online identity will either be controlled by you or someone else.
You have an online identity whether you have ever been on the Internet or not. Not having a blog, a Facebook profile, or a LinkedIn profile gives you an identity. Recruiters and potential spouses will infer something about you when they cannot find you anywhere on the Internet.
On the flip side, if you have an Amazon Wish List, a Twitter handle, or a WordPress blog, recruiters a potential spouses will dive deeply into who the Internet says you are.
Social Media, this cool new community side of the Internet is incredibly powerful. Joe Budde, social media consultant and guru, just blogged about why he loves Social Media. Here are 3 of his reasons for loving the current Internet age we are in:
1. Your Google Search Results Page is your new Corporate Home Page – It takes work to control what google says about you.
2. Facebook Foibles Could Cost You Your Career – or your degree.
3. The new resume is your social media presence. Your blog, and mainly your google search results are the new resume. Also see: here, here, and here.
Notice in his first point that he says “It takes work to control what Google says about you.” You are indeed in charge of your own Internet destiny. Creating and maintaining your online identity does take work. But it does not have to be overly difficult. Here are a few tips to get started:
- Buy www.yourname.com from a site like GoDaddy and put your contact information and a link to the results from the following tips.
- Create a LinkedIn profile.
- Create a VisualCV resume.
- Google yourself on a regular basis and take action accordingly.
This is not an exhaustive list of tips. Leave a comment with your own tips or a link to a site talking about what we are talking about. Tell me how you manage your online identity.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Matt,
You can also check out http://www.lookuppage.com – an online service that helps users create a professional webpage in 5 min that is highly visible on search engines for name search. It’s also provides you with a http://www.yourname.com domain name to go along with your profile, and a sponsored listing on Google when someone searches you.
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