In this day and age, so many of our actions are done on the internet. That means that now, more than ever before, it is vital that you have a strong online presence. However, as with anything online, you are going toned to know how to protect yourself at the same time. So, in this article, we are not only going to teach you how to make sure that you have a strong online presence, but we are also going to teach you how to protect your information from people that have less than honorable intentions with your information.
Make Your Mark
If you are thinking of landing a job, you are going to need to make sure that the recruiter has the easiest time possible locating your information. This means that you are going to want to make sure that all the information they get will put you in the best possible light. Of course, they will first take a look at your resume, but after that, they are going to head to the internet. They want proof that you are who you say you are, did what you say you did, fit well within their organization, and understand how to use the internet properly.
However, if they do a Google search and you are nowhere to be found, they cannot verify any of that information. They will only be looking at the first three pages if you are lucky. That means that you are going to want to make sure that you are on those three pages. Obviously, the closer to the top of page one that you are the better.
So, what is your plan of attack? Well, first off, you are going to have to do a Google search of your own. You want to see what they are going to see when they type your name in. If you don’t find anything, then neither will they. On the other hand, if you find some things that are not too flattering, you might want to see what you can do about getting rid of that. Sometimes it is as simple as removing it from your social media profiles. On the other hand, if you have had some bad press, you are going to want to see what you can do about that. Commonly, people will enlist the services of a reputation management company, but not always. It really depends on the magnitude of the bad things you have on the internet.
In the case of mistaken identity, you are going to need to overwrite that bad press. This means you will definitely need to get a reputation management company. The reason for this is that if you were to try to do it on your own, it could take years to knock that stuff off the first page. With a reputation management company, they can do it in half the time.
At any rate, you need to make sure that when the recruiter goes looking for you, and they will, that you have the best possible things for them to look at. If there is nothing for them to look at, give them something to look at. Make some social media profiles and update them regularly.
Reputation Repair and Recovery
We went into this a little above, but we are going to go into more detail now. There is a healthy balance of putting too much or too little about yourself on the internet. Today’s youth seem to think that every second of their life needs to be posted on the internet. We are not sure if this is for them to show their friends just how much fun they are having or something to look at in the future. Either way, many people that have made numerous questionable posts come around to not wanting to see that ever again. If you don’t want to see it, then no one else does either. It is the tradeoff of the instant gratification world we live in.
So, you have some things on your page that have come back to bite you. Well, now is the time to start cleaning that mess up. Most of the negative things are going to be self-inflicted. Therefore, we have the power to change that. The first thing that you need to do is to identify all the things that you don’t want others to see. By this, we generally mean photos. All that you need to do is to remove any of the photos you don’t want anyone to see. Additionally, you will want to ask your friends to remove them if they have posted them as well. There is a process that you can go through with Facebook (or any other social media) that you can have the image removed if you are in the picture and no longer want it posted publicly.
After you have done that, you are going to want to increase the quality of your post online. To do this you can frequent message boards or forums within the industry. Set up profiles with your real name to make sure that when you are searched that these results appear. Also, make sure that you have a LinkedIn profile and complete all the suggestions they make for a complete profile. The most important thing when creating these profiles is consistency. If you have a unique name, this may not be an issue. Otherwise, just make sure that you pick a unique name that can be identified as yours.
Play Nice
Remember when you are posting on the internet, millions of people can see it. This means that if you consider making an ill-conceived posted, you may just be insulting the person that does the hiring at the company you just applied for. Be courteous and kind to all that you meet. This may even lead to someone contacting you with a job that you had not intended on having. Make sure that you post as much publicly as you possibly can. This is not so that others can see you, but so that the people you want will see you.
Conclusion
It is never too late to start working on your personal online reputation. In fact, as soon as you finish reading this article you should do some of the things that we suggested. You may think that it is a lot of work, but it will pay dividends in the future. Just because it happened ten years ago, does not mean that you will not be held accountable for it. We hope that this blog has been helpful and that you do some work on your online presence in the very near future.