Do you know what’s being said about your personal brand online?
It may be common sense, but having just one negative result show up when a recruiter or hiring manager enters your name in Google will undoubtedly harm your chances of securing the position. Think about all the online communities you may have signed up for in your younger days. Better yet, think of ALL the online profiles you’ve created for yourself. Studies show that a staggering
89% of recruiters and hiring managers review a candidate’s online profile. Do you have a positive online presence?
The truth is, having a negative presence (or no presence at all) can hurt your job search chances. See what hiring managers see - Google your name. Are you happy with that shows up in the search results? Here’s how to create a positive online reputation that won’t scare off the hiring manager!
BrandYourself.com
For anyone serious about improving his/her online reputation, signing-up for BrandYourself.com is an absolute necessity.
BrandYourself allows you to update what links show up on page one of search engines when someone types in your name. Having positive links portrayed will be very helpful when an employer is searching for you when considering you as a candidate.
BrandYourself allows you to submit links that you would like featured on search engines, but it also has a powerful feature that allows you to hide links that aren’t of benefit to you as well. Use BrandYourself to track what’s appearing when someone performs a search of your name.
NOTE: Changes made on BrandYourself may take some time to reflect on search engines.
Create a healthy social presence
Those who have
social media profiles will notice that when they Google their names, most (if not all) their social profiles will show up on page one. If this is the case for you, make sure your profiles are optimized for success and that your privacy settings are customized on Facebook so that those who aren’t your friends can’t see things that only your friends should see. As a rule of thumb, don’t post, tweet or share pictures that hiring managers hurt your chances of getting hired.
The profile I would spend the most time on is your LinkedIn profile.
Optimize your LinkedIn profile to 100% completeness. Then, change your custom URL link to your name so that your LinkedIn profile will show up on page one when an employer searches for you on Google. Evaluate how your social profiles make you look and make the proper adjustments.
Monitor and manage
How do you intend on managing your online reputation in the future, after you’ve optimized your reputation? One can accomplish this goal by creating Google Alerts.
Google Alerts is a web tool that e-mails you whenever something is said about your brand online. Visit the website and create alerts for your name. Furthermore, to make sure your name is only showing the links you want it to show, make time to perform searches for your name once every two weeks or so.
Remember, just one bad or inappropriate finding about your personal brand on search engines can certainly be enough to end your chances of being hired by potential employers. Google your name now and follow the steps to creating a more positive search result.