4 Steps to Manage Your On-line Reputation And Boost Career or Business Growth

One essential thing for people to consider today for career or business success is the importance of reputation management, both on-line and on the ground.  This topic is critically important as the integrity of our network determines the value of our net-worth, and negative things on-line can tarnish our reputation, affect career opportunities and mobility, and stunt business growth.  Potential employers and clients alike can and often do search the web to determine if they want to engage with us.  So, if you are not receiving follow-ups to job applications or seeing business growth in response to your efforts, your reputation may need to be addressed. 

Today I want to share 4 simple steps we can all implement to discover and manage our on-line reputations and proactively ensure a good name for ourselves.

1. Google search:  Have you ever done a Google search for your name and scrolled through the results including Google Images?   If not, then I highly recommend this as an interesting exercise.  You might be amazed at what you find.  In moving forward, one of the best and easiest tools for tracking what Google knows about you is Google Alerts.  You can set up a Google Alert and receive an email as soon as your search phrase ~ like your name or company ~ enters the Google Index.  If you do find content on-line that you would like to have removed, you can look into removing personal information from Google.
   
   
2. Buy your domain name:  Buy your domain name and create a simple website using options such as Wordpress.com, Wix.com, Weebly.com or Workfolio.com.  One of the best ways to prevent or manage potential negative content on-line is to create your own content and optimize your profiles so that positive information stays at the top of the Google pages and if present, any negative information gets pushed down.  This means strategically creating the content that will live on your site, such as an effective bio, CV or resume, testimonials and recommendations from people or customers that have worked with you, a blog, commentary on a book or article, etc…  Also, frequently visit other people’s websites or blogs, (colleagues or industry related), and make comments thereby connecting with others, creating the threads in your worldwide web and boosting your search engine optimization.
   
   
3. Join social networks:  Today there are so many social networking sites that can be used for job searching and business development including Facebook. LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.  In truth the selection can be overwhelming and difficult, if not nearly impossible, to keep up a profile and content on all of them.  My thought is that it isn’t as important how many on-line platforms you show up on as long as you consistently show up on the platforms you choose.   
    
   That said, I suggest picking 2-4 social media sites, (depending on how much time and energy you have), create a well-populated profile and then put your best self forward.  Also, be sure to customize your URL by using your name and link as many of your social media sites together as possible.  For example, LinkedIn and Twitter can be easily linked so that when you post on LinkedIn, your post is also populated on Twitter. 
   
   
4. Guard your privacy:  I suggest when putting things on line, assume that nothing is private and place strict settings on all personal content that you do share, ensuring only selected and trusted individuals, friends or family see it.  Another option, specifically with Facebook, is to create a separate fan page for your professional persona or business, leaving your main Facebook page strictly personal.  However, Facebook and other sites often change privacy and security rules and currently it is possible for other people to post pictures of you on-line without your consent.  If an unprofessional or embarrassing picture of you does show up on Facebook, you can remove the tag that identifies it as you. 

 
These 4 tips reflect some of the simple ways for most of us to manage our on-line presence, however, sometimes the issues is bigger than we can manage with the steps above, (such as someone with the same name who has a bad reputation or criminal record), and the use of a reputation management firm becomes necessary.  Two of these firms include Reputation.com which will clean up our reputation, ensuring it is squeaky clean for a fee and brandyourself.com which offers an easy do-it- yourself on-line tutorial that walks through the basics of reputation management for free.  If needed, they will also help clean up your on-line reputation for a reasonable fee. 

Wishing you a successful week and happy web surfing!

Lysa



*  Photo thanks to www.soundswrite.co.uk