By now, I think most people realize that they have a brand, whether or not they pay much attention it. However, since so much information is available about you online these days, ignoring your online brand and reputation is risky at best.
How Do You Manage Your Personal Brand Online?
William Arruda is widely recognized as the guru of personal branding. A recent post by Tara Kachaturoff in Arruda’s online publication, The Personal Branding Blog, addresses the above question with some practical steps. In a nutshell (read the blog post for details), they are:
- Assessment: Create a benchmark from which you can measure progress.
- Determine what you want to change.
- What’s working for you?
- Draft a strategy that works for you!
- Rinse and repeat – do what works and more of it!
Think You Don’t Need to Manage Your Brand?
Think again! Whether you’re a job seeker, just managing your ongoing career or a business owner like me, you really can’t afford to ignore the need for personal brand management. The days when you could stick your head in the sand and pretend this issue doesn’t exist are long gone.
Try Googling yourself by first and last name (or your business name if you own a business) and see what comes up. Or what doesn’t, as the case might be.
At times, I’ve found references to myself in as many as 6 or 7 of the top 10 on page one of results and maybe a few more on page two. (There are several Georgia Adamsons, so I’m usually not the only listing.) Most recently, I found just 2 or 3 on the first page and 1 or 2 on the second page. Obviously, I have some work to do! (Of course, if I Google “Georgia Adamson resume writer,” I’m 10 out of 10 on page one!)
By the way, one of the references you might find when you search for yourself is your LinkedIn profile–especially if you’ve updated it recently (even a small tweak now and then will help the profile to come up high on the list). That’s just one of many reasons to make sure your LI profile is current and updated fairly often; LinkedIn does get a lot of exposure. If you want potential employers to find you and to be favorably impressed by what they find, give your LinkedIn presence the attention it deserves.
You don’t need to spend hours every day on managing your online brand and reputation, but consistent attention over time is likely to pay dividends. You’ll be more easily found and better able to make the kind of impression you want to make on the people (i.e., employers) who do find you. That’s well worth some thoughtful effort.
