If you are thinking about a major expansion in your life, love, career, or business it is likely to involve other people because growth doesn’t take place in a vacuum. And you can bet one or more of the key people who can greatly influence your success in any area of life will look you up online. So, who are you online?
You may not have given much thought to your appearance online even though your online presence is probably the most important way that you will be seen in the world (world-wide-web). I have friends, good personal friends, who I knew well as genuine and authentic full-featured human beings who have passed away. What remains of them is their online presence.
I look back at their social media accounts, and this is all there is left, except for my memories which fill in the gaps for me. I see the whole person but others only see what is there. Then, there are those friends of mine who are no longer with us, who had no social media account representation at all, though they are very few. No one online would even know they were here (and they probably preferred it that way).
Aside from the morbidity of my reference to dead people, social media and your online presence is incredibly important and meaningful to your process. I am sure you have heard countless stories of people who have applied for a job but didn’t get an interview because someone in the HR department looked the employee up online as they were scouring through the applications and found something in social media that they thought would not reflect well on the organization’s image. Next.
I know of HR departments that lookup every applicant online before even looking at their resume. They look them up online first. One of these employers has a strict policy about not hiring anyone who does not have an Internet presence. In the world that we live in, it is as if you are not a real person if you cannot be found online. I know we are not there yet, but it looks like that is where we are headed.
Who Are You Online?
That’s a good question. Look yourself up. If you want to see what anyone else sees when they look you up, log out of your browser and social media accounts or if you use chrome you can do a search in “incognito” mode. Now, start looking you up, as if you were looking for a job, or expecting people to pay you money for anything. Be sure to do an image search as well.
If you are having trouble finding yourself because you have a common name, then think about changing your name into something you can own. Try adding a middle initial or your full middle name. If you are still lost in the crowd, then think about adding an identifier to set yourself apart. Note: The best way to “own” your own name is to find a name (and identifier, if necessary) that you can purchase the dot-com for. Then, you really will own your online identity. And if you have a resume or other documentation, change it across-the-board and in all your social media accounts to match your dot-com. Now, you are fully differentiated and brandable.
Review Who You Are Online
When you are searching for yourself, what you are seeing now, is what everyone else is seeing when they look you up.
Are you pleased with what you see?
Based on the results of your query on yourself, you might have some online housekeeping to do.
Clean up your act if you are seeing yourself not represented in the light of the Internet as you would like to be. Keep in mind, that if or when you delete anything, it never really goes away. Your average Internet searcher may not be able to find it, but it could be easily mined by someone with a higher degree of investigative search skills.
This is good to keep in mind when you post anything on the Internet. If you don’t want it to be found, don’t post it.
Red cup party pix are red flags for HR departments. Provocative photos are questionable unless you are in the adult industry.
Update your profile pictures to be a good match for how you would like to be seen “out there.” Likewise, add pictures to your profile catching you in the act of doing the things that you would like to be remembered for.