Your online reputation exists. It’s practically impossible to avoid unless you become an internet recluse. When someone searches your name online, most anything you post can and will be seen. Would you feel comfortable showing your boss or potential in-laws the tweet you posted last Saturday about your weekend at the club?
According to Jennifer Aaker, Marketing Professor at Stanford University, “We are at a critical point in technological history – where social media is beginning to have more impact on how we are perceived than our in-person interactions”. Once you put that comment, picture, tweet, or blog out into the universe, it’s there forever.
Here are five ways to help your online reputation:
- Search yourself! Make sure you type your first and last name into the search engine. This is a great way to determine what others can see without any real ‘digging’.
- Stalk yourself! Search through all forms of professional and personal social media outlets. This is a great way to get a perception of your current online reputation. Determine whether or not this is the type of person you want to be seen as.
- Out with the bad! Delete anything that might come off as unprofessional. Clean out anything that may be seen as inappropriate or offensive.
- In with the good! Filter what you write about by thinking before you post. Don’t post anything that will make you look bad. It may be funny now, but you’ll regret it later. Post information that you are knowledgeable about or take interest in.
- Public positivism! Post things that are professional and create a positive image of you. By creating a positive image of yourself, you make yourself competent and respectable.
