Your digital footprint represents you personally and professionally whether you intend it to or not. It’s too easy these days for people to get the inside scoop on you – whether they are thinking of dating you, hiring you or looking at your uni application – people will do a search on you and make a judgement based on what they find.
www.pipl.com is one of many serach engines used to get a better glimpse of someone. Punch your name in to see what it has on you. First Last and FirstLast versions of your name should be searched.
So what happens if the search of your name reveals some not so good things? As of today, there is no guarantee you can ever rid yourself of it… but here’s what you can try:
1. Contact the web adminsitrator of the site that contains the information of you. Ask them to remove it.
2. Mitigate – or bury it! You can easily do this by getting active online in ways that will improve your personal brand. Open an account with linkedin, twitter, start a blog, comment <intelligently> on other people’s blogs. Remember to ensure you maintain these sites at least once a week to keep your digital footprint looking healthy.
Twitter
LinkedIn
SlideShare
Facebook
A good read is “Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand”. It focuses on your brand as a person and how your brand is presented online. I Google myself on a regular basis because I need to know what’s out there. Reputation is everything. The most disturbing thing I found was that my old workplace had accidentally had their employee list posted to the public and it had my phone number and e-mail address online. I notified my previous employer of it and it was taken care of in a quick manner.