The Other Woman

Call me obsessive, but I cannot resist the weekly urge to check the pulse of my online self. I want to know what you see when you Google any combination of Margie, Maddux and/or Newman. It’s not that I think everyone is out there Googling me, but what if they do? What if “they” is my future boss or a high school friend? I want the search results for my online self to be a good representation of my real self, and it should be the same for you.

Your online self should be relevant, not creepy. Even if Googling you yields nothing more than an Amazon.com book review or your thoughts on downtown living, public relations stuff or your love for Nashville Predators hockey, I’ll choose boring over sketchy every time.

How many times have you looked at someone’s Facebook page and viewed photos that made you more than slightly embarrassed for her? Or worse … what if you ARE her?  From unflattering photos to deep personal thoughts, some things should be saved for friendly, human ears and eyes only.

And don’t even get me started on drunken Facebook status updates and mobile photo uploads. Far worse than drunk dialing or texting, this drunken Facebooking is now a part of your virtual footprint. Our intoxicated bliss may last for three hours, but our updates could last forever.

When in doubt, I use this code of Internet conduct: I don’t put anything on any portion of the World Wide Web that I don’t want future employers, friends, reporters, co-workers and, one day, my grandchildren to see. I urge you to adopt this code, too, before the interwebs come back to bite you.
The job-search site Careerbuilder.com says a recent survey of employers found that 20 percent of companies admitted to checking out candidates’ profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace before deciding to employ them.

Startlingly, the survey found 33 percent of those employers had also decided not to make a job offer after reviewing the content on a profile after viewing “use of drugs or drinking and photographs deemed ‘inappropriate’ or ‘provocative.’” 

“Don’t think for a second a recruiter or hiring manager isn’t at the very least using Google to find out about you,” says fellow geek Lindsay Olson, a partner and PR recruiter at Paradigm Staffing. “We use social networks, social bookmarking, blogs and Google to find out about the people we are interested in connecting with, and personal online reputation management becomes much more important. The results could get you the job or could cost you the job.”

Sing it sister! Managing your online reputation (also known as your personal brand) is vital. It’s also pretty easy to do with a quick Google audit.

Using Google web, blog and image search, take stock of what pictures, mentions and facts about you are living out there on the web. Now go to your social-networking profiles and do the same.

If you use Twitter, understand that your Twitter feed is recording your every move. Your “tweets” and other folks’ tweets about you do show up in Google searches. Same goes for your photos on Flickr and, if you are in PR, anything you’ve ever said to a newspaper with an online presence.

“Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, blog posts and comments — basically every piece of content you generate — collectively feed search results in Google, Yahoo, Ask and all other search engines,” explains PR and social media guru Brian Solis on his blog, BrianSolis.com. “All it takes is someone to ‘Google’ (aka search) your name to begin the process of forming an opinion and perception based on the search results — usually without your knowledge and definitely without the opportunity to explain the results.”

Oh! And don’t forget to take note of any results popping up under your name that don’t actually belong to you. I’m lucky because in my case there are quite a few Margie Newman’s out there, but they all seem to be doing relatively normal stuff or are really old and living in Florida.

What is your online doppelganger up to? Google yourself today; you might be surprised at what turns up. No matter your level of technological savvy or interest, you’ve got to tend to your online self. It’s not arrogant, it’s your reputation.