How to Measure Your Online Reputation
By: Laycee Moss
Have you ever googled yourself? How were the results? Did you appear on the first page or even the second? How many times did you show up? Did you appear in Google Images? These are very important questions to ask and to know. Why? Because knowing how often your name will appear on google when someone searches for you, like future employers, can make or break a decision between you and the other candidate. Being able to manage your online reputation and keeping track of what new topics are popping up around your name gives you the ability to be a step above the competition. Forbes has suggested some simple tips to manage your online reputation.
1. Join the Social Media Craze.
This includes not only the major social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Google+, but also the lesser known social media sites, such as Tumblr and Pinterest, . The more sites that you have the more relevant your name will become. Also, fill out the information on these sites as fully as you can. It helps bring your name up with keywords selected in your given information and “likes.” With this being said, WATCH WHAT YOU POST! I can not stress this enough. Social media can be fun and be very time consuming, but it is very easily forgotten that it is still part of the Internet and the Internet can ruin opportunities if you are not responsible with it. On the other hand, if you are responsible and can manage these sites and stay active every now and then, it will help you in the future. Which leads me to my next point.
2. Privacy is assumed, but nothing is truly private on the Internet.
You may think you are being responsible with your social media and not posting things that you wouldn’t want the whole world to know, but that one friend of yours posts everything and may bring you down in your future endeavors. If there is something posted of you and you don’t want to be involved with it, either remove the “tag” or don’t be afraid to ask your friend to take it down or remove it. If this is not your case and you are dealing with your “haunting past,” Forbes says to create multiple websites and content that pushes the “haunting past” down in the results making it appear on another page. This is not to be mistaken for “creating misleading and fake content.”
3. Make all of your created content accessible in one place.
If you have a website or are using a blog site for your main resume site, make all of your social media, achievements, etc., accessible right from that main site. Make your links visible for future employers to see. This also goes for those who do not have a website dedicated to themselves. Make one! An electronic resume is the new age and should be taken advantage of.
These three things are critical in creating and establishing an online reputation.
If you want like to view websites that will help with your online reputation, refer to the link below.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/03/14/6-steps-to-managing-your-online-reputation/.
1 Comment
Laycee, I loved your approach to this article, especially the section on privacy. With personal facebook (and any other social media) pages you don’t realize just how far your posts and pictures can actually reach. From a business page on facebook you can view statistics of how many people see a post and it isn’t uncommon for more than twice as many people who actually follow or like you to see the posts. When someone likes your status it pops up in another person’s timeline, sometimes people will share your pictures and before you know it, the page you thought was personal and private has been seen by people you don’t even know. I had never thought of flooding the internet with other pages to flush out a haunting past. Its a great idea because not only are you pushing the worst to the bottom of the pile, you’re saturating the top with the best hand selected information.