Many of us have heard that term in a derogatory sense. It is used quite harshly when a person thinks you may be acting as if you are more than truly are or thinking of yourself pretty “highly” and wants to bring you down a notch. But another way to interpret this term is in the positive…in a “reputation management” sense.
If you are an entrepreneur, leader, aspiring leader or straight out of college looking to start your career, you can best believe that before most people fool with you for business or a relationship, they WILL google you. What will they find? You don’t have a clue, do you?
The best way to find out and start taking steps to highlight the positives, mitigate damaging truths, image busters or unjust perspectives is to see for yourself as to what is there. People that are too lazy, proud or uniformed to do this simple task, run the risk of having reputation scarring information online that left unaddressed, can be a blotch on your character. Like it or not.
For those of us that are thought leaders or subject matter experts, the goal should be to “OWN” the google front page see picture.
It is believed that most people search one or two pages at best. So if you are diligent to have enough content available consistently and accessible online this is not difficult to do. If your name is common (Ann Smith), you may want to use your middle initial professionally or always attach your name to your company, tag line or brand.
Steps to take to polish your online image: (below are 3 of the top ones, we teach and manage over 12–15 strategies for our clients)
Positive consistent social media content. If you are on social media — -BE SOCIAL and use it. If you are not, pick two (X and Linked in ) are a good start for professionals.
CTL ALT DEL. Control the number of media outlets you can use successfully.Alter any bios, tag lines, about me sections, etc.. to ALL say the same or similar information. Delete any old online attachments or references for example…NO ONE should still have a MySpace account. No one. Delete your name from old dating sites and close old email accounts.
BLOG/VLOG (video blogging) I know you may deem it “old school” but it has been around as long as it has for a reason. If you have something to say that is significant, the easiest way to get YOUR VOICE heard is to put in format that people can find it. Blogging/Vlogging is also a GREAT way to get retweets, likes, shares and quotes which also helps with your rankings.
There are many more strategies we use to help clients, clean up, create or better manage their professional image and personal brand online and in public. These three should help get the ball rolling. If you would like to work with our team to get results like we have seen, please reach out to us and put “Google Yourself” in the Subject line!
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