Today, a lot of us live our lives online and we believe what we read on the internet. The scary thing is that if you’re currently using Social Media sites, then you already have an Online Identity.
Do you know what your Online Identity is?
As a professional, you need to be building your brand presence online otherwise Google will give you a presence whether good or bad. A healthy online brand presence can massively enhance your career or business. An unhealthy one can destroy you.
Believe it or not, somebody somewhere is searching for you on an almost daily basis. Whether it’s your future employer, a business colleague, a client or even your fiancé’s parents, people are going to judge you on what they see about you on Google.
If someone is searching for you and can’t find anything at all about you, they will assume that you have nothing of value to add or that you are hiding something.
Here’s a few handy tips that you need to follow to ensure a healthy online presence:
1. Ensure you own your own name as a URL and also your own handle on the main Social Media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Your Website can host your Online CV which is an absolute must for anyone with a career or business. Your Social Media sites can link to your website and vice versa. The more you link, the more overall brand presence you will get.
You can also use simple offline marketing strategies to enhance your online branding, by adding your website details to all your marketing material for example your business cards and hence draw people to your website.
2. Keep your online presence professional even when you’re being personal, for example when posting pictures up on Social Media sites. You never know whose Googling you.
3. Clean up all your profiles. This could take a while, but needs to be done. Intimately check all your posts on Social Media sites and untag yourself from those unsavoury photos and videos.
4. Be consistent across all your sites. For example, use the same or similar photos on your website as you have on your Social Media pages purely for branding and recognition purposes.
5. Be careful of what you write on Social Media sites and in forums as everything you do on the internet will be there for life and will point back to you. Your online activities can help the reader build a clear picture of who you are as a person, and you don’t want the wrong signals to be sent out.
6. Update your social media sites at least once a week. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes and helps to keep your sites ‘alive’. Talk about your interests and achievements to add some depth to who you are as a person.
7. Register with Google Alerts to set up notifications of any mentions of your name on websites and news stories etc. This is a great way to monitor searches of your name online and an indication of what others may see when searching for you.
Of the above, having your own Online CV website is the most powerful way for you to brand yourself. If you don’t yet have an Online CV, you can get one today by visiting this link:
Your Online CV is your personal branding website without the limitations imposed by Social Media forums.
