HOW TO MANAGE YOUR PERSONAL REPUTATION ONLINE

By: David Nunez-Ariza

Many of us between the ages of 21 and 30 were front and center during the initial rise of social media and have been using these services for over a decade. We were using it before our parents or grandparents were ever on it, before we understood what “it’s on the internet forever” truly meant, and before we could be told posting a simple picture or expressing our opinion online would be available for the entire world to see. Most importantly, the majority of us included in that category are either hunting for employment or trying to move up the corporate ladder in a chosen field.

Things are different now.

The sad reality is that many of us began using social media before we realized how quickly one misinterpreted post on the internet can change a person’s life forever. You might think it’s too late to change anything, but it’s not. The reputation you create online can make or break what millions of people think of you before they ever even meet you. The risk is just too great to allow potential landmines to sit out there without being destroyed.

It’s never too late to start making things right. There are two different types of steps you can take to protect yourself online: proactive and retroactive.

Let’s start with the RETROACTIVE: 5 things you can do to clean up what’s already out there.

Step 1: Research

Before you can fix what’s wrong you need to know what the problem actually is.

• Google yourself: It’s a fast and easy way to locate the types of things employers could easily find. Check out everything on the first page of Google search results when you put your name in and don’t forget to look at images and videos as well. You might be surprised with what you find.

• Go through every social profile you have: Yes, that means clicking through every single one of your 1000+ tagged photos on Facebook and scrolling all the way to 2007 to read over every post on your timeline. You might be surprised with the kinds of things you find that you didn’t know were there. If you see even one thing an employer could potentially misinterpret or disagree with, then it was worth every minute you spent. Oh, and once you’re done, go through it again. It’s very easy to miss something when you’re endlessly scrolling through information. (Every profile includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Tumblr, and YouTube.)

• Know your followers: Look through every profile you have and make sure you know exactly who has access to your posted content. You might not be aware your new supervisor can easily read a controversial Twitter rant or an unflattering picture from what was supposed to be a private party.

Step 2: Security & Optimization

Now that you’ve tripled checked your profiles and Googled yourself too many times to count, you need to make sure the doors and windows are locked. Spend a little time getting to know the different security options for your profile. This way you can know exactly who has access to what information of yours and you choose what is publically viewable. Another good way to make sure people have access to what you want them to see is to optimize your profile names and URLs so everything is easily navigable. Link your accounts so people only move through things that belong to you and don’t get confused with fake or similarly named profiles.

Now that you’ve done everything to clean up what’s already out there, let’s get PROACTIVE about helping our reputation.

Step 1: Creating Content

The best way to get people to look at you exactly how you want them to is to create that information yourself. Get ahead of the game by purchasing a URL with your full name. Doing so will protect you from any potential fake websites popping up when people search for you. Start posting everything you have and everything you create to this new website. Google results filter new content, making your most recent content pop up first and pushing down unwanted things to no man’s land (aka the second page of Google search results).

Step 2: Stay Alert

If you have various active social networks, you need to know exactly what’s on them at any given point in time. Remember to check your profiles frequently and make sure no one has posted something unflattering about you. If they have, you can counteract this by creating some new, positive content. You can’t control what someone else posts, but you can surely control what you post.

I can never stress this enough: go back and look over your old pictures and posts again. There are so many things out there that it’s easy for something to go overlooked. Your cleanup jobs are never done.

Step 3: Think Ahead

From this moment on, you need to think long and hard before you post absolutely anything. Many things seem like a good idea at the moment, but you don’t want a simple tweet to come back to haunt you years later because you were feeling emotional for a single moment. Before you post anything, ask yourself, “Could anyone interpret this in a negative way or get offended?” If the answer leans towards “yes,” you should probably think twice before hitting that “post” button. It’s better to play it safe than to take a risk that ends up backfiring. You can say whatever you want about yourself, but people reach their own conclusions. Don’t give them unnecessary ammo.

MOVING FORWARD

Now that I’ve given you all the tools to succeed, the rest is up to you. The key to managing your online reputation is how much you truly care about protecting your image. If you care enough to take all the steps outlined above, then you’re on the right path. If you think these steps are not enough, there’s always more you can do. Set up Google alerts for your name and continuously monitor anything that pops up. Make sure nothing catches you off guard.

From this point on your reputation is in your hands. Even if you disagree with anything I’ve said, take it from someone who knows the value of a public image better than you and me:

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

• Warren Buffet