When you are looking to do or purchase something these days, chances are you’ll check out a company’s website to see what they say about themselves, and other sites to learn about their reputation. Sites like OpenTable for dining and Edmunds for cars are only two of the numerous examples that provide reviews for all kinds of things. Amazon and eBay afford consumers the opportunity to comment and read about goods, services and the sellers who provide them. The list is endless.
[See: 10 Ways Social Media Can Help You Land a Job.]
In this social environment, it is easy to ding a company’s or product’s online reputation. A single disgruntled comment, even when it isn’t deserved, can inflict long-term damage on the product or its seller.
When you are seeking a new job, a search of your online reputation and activity is part of today’s standard corporate hiring due diligence. More than just checking out your LinkedIn profile, companies are likely to peruse your Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as Googling to learn everything else they can about you. Things totally extraneous to the level of your skills or the quality of your work can sway a company away from hiring you.
It is critically important for you to manage what background checkers and hiring authorities can learn about you when they investigate your online presence. There are numerous reputation managing apps, programs and companies to which you can turn for help. But even without them, you should think about taking the following steps to enhance and protect your reputation.
[See: 8 Ways Millennials Can Build Leadership Skills.]
Make sure you have a solid online presence. Your LinkedIn profile should be complete, with a strong summary section and accomplishments associated with each of your jobs. Accumulate blog posts of interest to professionals like yourself, or those who work in your kind of business or industry. Pose intellectually interesting questions, or respond to queries from others to build up a body of material that will testify to your professional expertise and willingness to add value to the work of others.
Carefully scrub your social media sites for anything that might shed a negative light on you. Get rid of pictures of yourself getting rowdy at bars, smoking marijuana (even if it is legal in your state), or doing anything that could be misinterpreted as malicious or socially unacceptable. Your posted activities and pictures can work against you, even if they are from your “off” hours or vacation time.
Consider deleting your posts on Facebook bashing either President Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. You never know the political leanings of the people who will be judging your fitness for a job, and how they might subvert your chances of success if they disagree with your political statements.
[See: How to Follow Up on a Job Application Without Being Annoying.]
Keep your LinkedIn posts professional. Some people are starting to put personal or nonbusiness-related posts or images on LinkedIn. These belong on Facebook or someplace other than here! LinkedIn is all about business networking, and failure to distinguish between the different sides of your life reflects on your judgment.
Check yourself out on Google and Bing. Make sure to check different ways you might be found online. For example, the same person might be: Jo, Joe or Joseph. Don’t forget to also include your nicknames. See the places you are found online, and also what other people are saying about you. And if there is anything questionable or negative, do your best to track it down and get it removed.
Use Google Alerts to track yourself. Google Alerts lets you create as many alerts as you wish for different versions of your name, articles or blogs you author, or whatever else you want for free. As Google continually crawls the internet, it will alert you whenever any of your search items are found in a new posting or site, and give you the URL to check it out.
When you employ these tactics, you are well on your way to presenting a positive, professional persona to the world.
Happy hunting!
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