It’s not what you said that determined your reputation but what Google said... This is the world of digital age after all! Almost every professional cannot escape leaving a digital footprint – some of us bigger than the rest but no one is spared from leaving some marks somewhere.
As the internet helps a person to be famous very fast, one negative comment can likewise spread quickly beyond our personal network to damage one’s life and career.
Scary? Absolutely. So, how do we manage and protect our online reputation?
1. Use social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter wisely. As more recruiters are using these sites to screen new candidates, be careful of what message you post on your wall and profile page. If you do it right, these sites can be your great ally.
2. Search your name occasionally and check for the activity that’s connected to it.
3. Set up news feed for your name so you can monitor when and if your name pops up on blogs or other online articles. For example, create Google alerts for your full name so that whenever your name is mentioned in the net, you get an email alert immediately.
4. Watch out what you post on the web, whether it’s a blog post like what I’m doing now or comments made in other sites. Often, the negatives about you can be something you published yourself. Recruiters may just eliminate a candidate based on something that they have said on the web.
5. If something untrue is said about you, take action immediately. Ask the site owner to remove the article as it’s still out there.
6. Create a google profile since google dominates the search engine market This new tool is recently launched by Google to let us create profiles and direct people to this profile when someone conducts a search. It gives you the opportunity to allow people to get the first-hand knowledge about you and to push other results about you that may be embarrassing farther down in the search list results.
7. If you do not wish to have the world see your tweets or photos, opt to keep your account locked or refine your viewing permissions.
Some of the ideas above are from Forbes.com.
Bottom line: Use common sense when you surf on the net as each activity help to create your online reputation. Are you happy with the results people get back when they Google your name?
I must admit I've so much to learn as I blogged about this subject.
OMG. No privacy like that. It's so scary. Is it better to close my FB account?
ReplyDeleteYou don't hv to close yr FB account. As mentioned, if used wisely, it can be yr ally. The key is to know how to manage it well. For e.g., we use FB "what's in yr mind?" to update our status. That does not mean we share every single thing that crossed our mind...:)
ReplyDeleteIt depends on how you potray yourself online ..
ReplyDeleteIf you tell people you are religious , and you use words like fck or something online . then yeah , you are screw .
But if you potray yourself as the guy who doesn't give a shit . i think you can do anything you want .
for me, i'm not afraid of what other people said about me on the internet. haha, esp since i'm not that famous anyway. :P so don b too bothered by such things. :) remember that u cannot please everyone in this world.
ReplyDeletebut things could b different if u r a professional like doctor, lawyer, accountant....where your name basically determines your career. then thats another story altogether...u need to look after your online n offline reputation.
gapnap & Alvin, thanks for sharing. Points are spot on...:)
ReplyDeleteehh..cannot like that one ..
ReplyDeletemust disagree with us , flame us a little bit then only interesting maa..
like how me and alvin kill each other in our blogs :P
Nay, i wont disagree for the sake of "disagree". But i must say yr comments made me checked out yr blog...ahem, a music freak, huh? Nice...
ReplyDeleteThot of introducing a site for ya if you've not known Freemanguitars yet - a local guitar maker...http://www.freemanguitars.com/
Cheerio!