by Dan Schawbel
While brushing your teeth or driving to work, do you know who is watching you? These days, anything is possible, due to the rise of social networking sites, blogs, forums and the focus on Google as a Personal Branding search engine. Employers and friends alike tend to Google your name to verify your identity and background. Even public relation firms focus on spreading messages through these networks, aside from their usual media pitch activities.
At any point in time, you could be subject to a Personal Brand disaster, where your name is associated with a negative connotation. The problem is that, you don’t know who is viewing your profile and which social networking site they are using. The more you spread your brand through these sites, the more you have to keep track of and moderate. If you don’t keep them current, it may appear that you are either younger or less experienced than you actually are.
Those that want to build their Personal Brands online and communicate their value proposition to the word will have to manage their reputation either weekly or daily.
Here are some tips on how to protect yourself:
1. Set a Google alert to your name, so that each day you will receive an email with the latest blog entries attached to your name.
2. Concentrate your Personal Branding efforts on a select few networks, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and your blog. These tend to have the highest installed bases, so they are more worthwhile.
3. Communicate to some of your most trusted friends, to make sure they are watching your reputation as well.
4. Google your name periodically to ensure that your information is kept up-to-date and accurate.
5. Set complex passwords so that you’re accounts do not suffer identity theft.
It’s important to note that as you build your brand and reputation, you take significant time to ensure integrity and accuracy. You never want to Google your name and find that you are misrepresented by a blogger or a comment on your Facebook wall. As you become a web worker, you want to establish a daily means of checking your status. There are way too many people that lose opportunities from what employers have seen online, so take the next step and start protecting your Personal Brand!
Dan Schawbel is owner of the Personal Branding Blog and publisher of the Personal Branding Magazine.
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