Chances are, you have Googled someone whom you wanted to either know more information on or wanted to verify the authenticity of their presumed identity and claims. While the results always inform our decisions thereafter, most people never take a moment to think about what appears when someone looks them up.
Are you guilty of this? Don’t worry, today, we will discuss how to look yourself up and how to improve upon anything you found, that you might not want to be out there on the web.
Online Personal Branding 101
According to research conducted by Forbes, 93% of employers said they will search for your social media profiles during the interview process. This means that its not only about what a potential new friend might find out about you, but also what potential employers and even clients could find when they look you up online.
You exist online as much as in person, and it is important that you’re aware of what your digital footprint reflects in regards to your personal branding because it has become a huge part of it. Here are some tips to help you find out where you stand and how to do something about it:
Clean Up Your Online Act
Enter your government registered names into Google Search and find out what the internet knows about you. If there are things that you find that you would not rather have out there about you, contact the site hosts and ask that you have your information removed.
Note what the top results about you are saying and where they come from. If you are looking to improve your professional persona, you would want the highest ranking result to be your LinkedIn profile or personal website and not that picture your friend tagged you in on Facebook.
Mindfully Preserve Your Authenticity
As an individual, you have a wide range of thoughts and skills in your personal toolbox. The truth is, there are only a few that you know well enough and enjoy doing to either adopt as a hobby or offer as a service. The aim is to showcase those skills that you are willing to spend most of your hours on while maintaining your personality as a human being with diverse other interests. Have a theme to showcase your full range of skills, experience, capabilities and personality. This “theme” can also be referred to as a “Mantra”, and it describes what your ultimate goal is, in a few words.
For example, our mantra at Brains World is “Improving African Digital Presence” and that is reflected by our teams way of life as well as the skills and services we offer. What is your mantra? Does the content you post reflect that mantra? It’s time to walk the talk.
Keep Learning, Become An Authority
It is not always about having the largest audience, sometimes displaying an intimate knowledge about a specific area of interest will strengthen your brand.
A consistent demonstration of your ability to adopt new concepts and also share valuable insights will increase your reputation as well as increasing the likelihood of prospective employers picking you for that position.
It’s a Community, Mind Your Actions
What happens online doesn’t stay online – and privacy is more of a theory than a reality. This is extremely important when you consider your audience in alliance to the content you post or are associated with online. You are crafting a persona and building a following based on your brand, this means disassociating with anything that might undermine this.
If you have content that is undermining this then delete or save it under an alternative profile. Its always best to have it removed altogether though. Those friends who might play too much or be too radical in views that you might not share; kindly ask them to not tag you in their polarizing content as it undermines your efforts to improve your personal brand.
Stay Relevant, Keep Updating Your Audience
You’re constantly evolving, so make sure your online presence is as well. The only way to get a reputation for anything is by actively participating and that will keep you relevant. Regularly update your associated profiles on all Social Media networks where you have an active profile as well as constantly updating your website in the case where you have one.
Consistency in the content you publish and comment on is also beneficial to this cause. This is the age of Online transparency and it is important for your online personality to match your offline reality. This means that it is also important that you walk the talk and not mislead audiences as this is a ticking time bomb.
Alternatively, if you want to separate your online and offline personalities in favour of just showcasing your skills and interests, then you have an option to just create a brand to represent those skills. If you need more advice on how to do this, send me a message below and thank you for reading the article to this point.
Check out all the Personal Branding and Digital Marketing services we have on offer.
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Thank you for the continued support Beatrice. Subscribe to our newsletter so you get the next article first.
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