In the digital age, professional connections are no longer made with a handshake, they begin with a search engine. First impressions are now shaped by the digital footprint you leave online, long before you meet someone in person.
In fact, there’s a good chance the last comment, photo or post you left online will have been picked up by a search engine and archived somewhere within the depths of the Internet. When you consider search engines are the first place people go to search for information you can see that understanding your online reputation, as well as the techniques to protect, manage and enhance it has never been more important.
This post looks at five things you can do to manage your online reputation and ensure when a prospective employer, client or partner looks you up on Google, they only see your best side.
1. Understand
Discovering what websites the Internet equates with you is the first part of understanding your online reputation. Begin with a simple search of Google, Bing and Yahoo for your name. In many instances this will return too many irrelevant searches. If this is the case, use Boolean search and enter your name plus the industry you work in. These results are the primary layer of your online reputation and the one people are likely to see first.
But there are deeper layers of equal importance. People search engines like 123people.com and PeekYou.com offer a detailed understanding of your digital footprint as they search for people’s names, rather than the whole web. These results are insightful and need to be understood as they offer a glimpse of what people will find if they conduct a more thorough online search of you.
Whether your initial search results are good, bad or ugly, set your privacy settings to private, delete dormant online profiles and treat what you do online as public, permanent and immediate.
2. Continue to listen
As part of good online reputation management you need to be listening out for where your name is mentioned. A great place to start is signing up for Google Alerts. This is a free tool that sends notifications to your inbox of relevant mentions online. The alerts will enable you to continually understand your online reputation, but also bring to your attention potential issues, as well as opportunities to engage, network and create.
3. Be Social
One of the most effective ways to boost your online reputation is by using social media. The reason being is Google tweaked its search algorithm to include social media; making blogs, Twitter, Linked In, Delicious, YouTube, Flickr and public social networks the new SEO. Create accounts for the social media most relevant for your industry and make use of biographies and descriptions with appropriate keywords. Social media generates naturally acquired back-links, social recommendations and enhancements that score highly on Google, so make sure you’re being social.
4. Engage in conversations
Twitter is a great platform to discover news, start conversations and network. However, Twitter Search only tracks 4 days worth of Tweets. This means the conversations you have on Twitter may enhance your online reputation in the short term, but leave little lasting impact. You should continue to Tweet, but use tools like Listorious, Klout or Edelman’s (disclosure: my employer) Tweet and Blog Level to identify online influencers and engage with them on popular blogs, news sites and forums – all of which score highly on search and will improve your online reputation.
5. Create content
There is no better way to improve your online reputation than by creating content such as a blog, podcast, video or photo album. Provided it is tagged with keywords, along with a SEO-friendly title and relevant description, it will score highly when someone types your name into Google. Blogging in particular is an effective way to document your thoughts, network and create a community of fans. There is also offline benefits to creating content as people recognise that it takes planning, creativity and commitment.
I’m adamant these are three attributes every prospective employer, client or partner would value in a professional connection.
What tips do you have to manage your online reputation?
People need to be aware of who they are online.
Great Tips, Thanks….
@Jacob D. Pahcheka I really like this comment. You can do everything that’s listed above, but if you don’t watch out with what you say, people will hate you for it.
6) Treat people in your personal life with respect because if you have an enemy that really hates you, they can screw your reputation online. Having a lot of friends that can vouch for you can really help you out.
7) Make sure your Facebook privacy settings are on and you’re not sharing any personal data: people are posting that stuff to http://www.dirtyphonebook.com and similar sites and those associations can be problematic when people Google you.
8) Make sure that you buy your personal domain name so that when an employer googles you your own site will always be the first one that comes up.
9) Avoid doing stupid thing that can cause your reputation problems in the first place. Don’t get drunk and fall asleep on the couch at a party. :)
10) Have a good friend thats a lawyer!
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This is brilliant – thanks Ben !
I guess one concern I have with your tips is the time frame. I seem to see people come and go and keep following the big guys and I just wonder how much is working today. I am getting more sceptical the longer I spend on-line
Nice post Ben. I recently attended a seminar about social media and search, with online reputation management being a key topic. Two things from it that I think are worth highlighting, though they are more for companies than individuals:
1. If there is a negative post/sentiment about you online, investigate the root cause rather than try to cover it up. Maybe there is a miscommunication that you need to address, or people have unrealistic expectations as to what you offer (leaving them feeling “scammed”, for example)
2. You can also use neutral, 3rd party sites like Yahoo! Answers to have discussions or address issues of contention, these often rank highly in search results and show that you are not just using your own platforms for engagement.
Jon @FreshNetworks
@Jeii H Legend Thanks, Jeii – I look forward to sharing a few more tips to help manage your online reputation over the coming weeks and months.
@Emma Gannon Thank you, Emma – I’m pleased you found the post useful.
@Jacob D. Pahcheka @Farid El Nasire I couldn’t say it better myself. It’s surprising how many people don’t appreciate that the web, in particular social media is often permanent, public and immediate.
@Roberta Budvietas Hey Roberta, thanks for the comment. Could you expand on your concern with the time frame and I’ll do my best to get back to you.
@antimott These are excellent tips and show how the line between off and online behaviour is disappearing. I’d particularly recommend people buying their name as a domain and begin creating an e-portfolio, blog or lifestream page, all of which scores highly on search.
@FreshNetworks Thanks for sharing these great points. Companies need to be listening to the online conversations about them and where appropriate, engaging and rectifying any issues. You’re right, Yahoo! Answers too. It’s fantastic for addressing contentious issues, whilst LinkedIn Questions and Quora can also be used for the same purpose.
@FreshNetworks Thanks for your feedback Freshnetworks. I am a strong advocate for finding the root of the issue. This is an opportunity for you to help not only clarify information for the individual but anyone else that interacts with that content. I am not a huge fan of Yahoo Answers as a SEO strategy but I get how one would use it.