How did you know I like DnB music and Persian food?
Nowadays, anyone who is interested in finding out more about you can easily “google” you. You may be surprised at what they find.
The first day of my strategic communications class (a fancy word for social media), my instructor had put together a power point presentation with a slide on each student in the class. The slides contained information she gathered from the internet through various social networking sites.
When she got to my slide, it said that I like DnB music and Persian food. At first I had NO IDEA how she possibly could have found out that information. It turns out she had somehow found some comments from years ago that were on my MySpace page!
I made the natural migration from MySpace to Facebook along with everyone else and I pretty much stopped maintaining my MySpace account. After class I looked myself up to see what dirt I could find on myself. Let’s just say that I wasn’t presenting myself how I would like to be seen.
Here are a few suggestions for maintaining your personal brand:
- Use appropriate default photos that reflect you positively
- Set privacy settings for accounts you prefer others outside your network to see
- “Google” yourself every now and then to see what others find when they look you up
Remember that you are in control of your online image. If you have friends who have posted pictures or information that does not support the image you are trying to maintain, ask them to remove them.
Finally, it is better to have some information about yourself online than none at all. Happy branding!
Here is an interesting video of Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library discussing social media and branding. (Warning: Video contains some colorful language.)
