SMC of SLC

Have you Googled yourself lately?

Maybe you’re one of those people who (fortunately or unfortunately – it’s up for debate) was born with (or married) a very anonymous name and Googling results in bits of a thousand different people’s biographies. Maybe you are the only known person on the planet with your name and every result (good or bad) is about you.

That is where I am. I will admit by combining my maiden and married names I created a winner in the “guaranteed to be found/stalked via Google” category, so it’s really my own fault. After all, my married name is fairly anonymous. I just couldn’t break the label my parents gave: “Always has to make everything difficult.”

Regardless of what your name is, however, it’s probably a good idea to know if anything is floating out there on the Internet with your name that might come back to haunt you. Reputation management is a big deal these days, with companies putting their brand and image into the hands of fanatic enthusiastic customers and their social media prowess. However, it is just as important to mention an individual’s need for reputation management online.

There are, of course, the painfully obvious examples of what not to do. Like the call center employee who outed himself on Facebook after calling in sick or the sheriff’s deputy who said some colorful things, while dressed in uniform, on his personal website.

But there are other, less blatantly obvious, needs for online reputation management. Some thoughts to consider:

• If you represent your company, where does your official “representation” end and your personal online life begin? Or is there not a line? Are you always “on the clock” when you are in such a position?
• How do you know that the person with whom you’re interacting online is who they say they are? (For some great info, read Pete’s comments to KSL about this very subject here). How does that enhance/tarnish your reputation?
• How familiar are you with the privacy policies, controls and filters of the social media platforms on which you participate? (For instance, did you know you can categorize your friends on Facebook and what they have access to?)
• Are you aware of the potential privacy and legal issues surrounding your participation in the social media sphere if you are employed by someone else?
• Is online safety a concern to you if you post details, photos and names in a public sphere?
• Do you consider everything you put online as public?
• Are you inadvertently exposing others to online scrutiny (infamy?) without their knowledge?
• Do you routinely check to see how (and where) your name (or brand) is being used and what is being said about it?
• Do you have a personal branding strategy for the web?

Jason Falls, a co-founder of the Louisville SMC, brings up some additional questions and food for thought with his blog post and contribution to “Employers, Privacy and Social Media,” on the need to maintain one’s own vigilant awareness of their personal brand online. It’s worth downloading the podcast just for the questions it raises.

Most of my career has necessitated me having some sort of online presence, and I decided early on to separate the personal from the professional. A basic search engine query will give you a pretty thorough idea of what I’ve been up to over the course of my career, but won’t tell you much about my personal life, other than where I went to college. It’s on purpose – how I reference myself, the privacy controls I implement and how I manage my personal brand online. Not entirely fool-proof, but it works for now.

So, as someone heavily vested in social media (or maybe just dipping a toe in the water) , what do you think about managing your personal brand online? Do you have a personal brand strategy or are you more of the “come what may” type?

-Sara

@sarabanut