Search Me: Online Reputation Management

Did you just search for me? What Will You See? Was it good or Bad?

Take a minute to think about what you’ll find if you head over to Google right now and search yourself.

Do you think you’ll find…

• News publications about your achievements?

• Positive stories about your personality/ethics?

• Recommendations from people you may have worked with in the past?

• Well-kept social media profiles that do not contain vulgar content?

Or, do you think you’ll find…

• That photo album of you getting drunk?

• Someone ranting about how you scammed them or betrayed them?

• Nothing at all?

Sometimes, it can happen that there’s a combination of the two, but it usually ends up being that it’s

one or the other. Either you see some great things or you see some bad things. The lack of a middle

ground in this situation makes it difficult to justify ignoring it when you consider that it’s become the

norm for employers and potential partners to google you.

Most people can agree that having these people see all the undesirable things about you or your past

is probably not the best thing to have happen, especially if your future is hinging on getting the job in

question. Would you really want to miss out on an awesome opportunity simply because the first result

of your name is a series of photos that eerily looks like you running around topless with a bottle of

alcohol in your hand?

What Should You See?

Chances are, the answer to that question is no, and for good reason. While it might be completely

alright for you to do that in your free time, it’s not what you want representing you as a professional

human being. With the internet adding more and more accountability each passing year, it’s become

rather evident that soon we will be represented by what comes up when we get searched. As a result,

it’s grown increasingly more important that we have a pretty good idea on what our online identity is

and to take steps to passively improve this. You can achieve this by being active on social media and

obviously posting content that reflects positively on your character, but finding ways to have your

accomplishments posted on reputable websites is an incredible idea and does light years more than

simply burying the bad stuff with random content.

Ideally, an employer should not see the glaring negatives on the first page of your name. If every result

is something vulgar or negative, chances are you’ll be passed up on. After all, a company wants an

employee they can rely upon, and how you conduct yourself ‘publicly’ is a pretty big part of that. So,

what exactly do you want an employer to see when they look you up?

Simply put, the answer to that is quite straight forward – you want them to see the positive truths at the

top so they can make a decision based on the characteristics that truly matter, not the things you do in

your free time or the things you’ve done in the past. Tough to accomplish on your own, but you’re not

alone. An online reputation management company can help, you just have to find them.