Tip Diva | Top Ten Tips - Controlling Your Online Identity

Top Ten Tips - Controlling Your Online Identity

By Tip Diva | Dec 07, 2007

Categories: Blogging, E-Mail, Facebook, Google, Internet, Job Search, MySpace, Photography, Search Engines, Social Networking, Tips, Web, Web Search, Websites, Work, YouTube

With more employers googling job applicants, it’s more important that ever to take control of your online identity. Do you really want your dream job to find out about your raucous bachlorette party or that you post “Jackass”-worthy videos on YouTube? Here are tips on how to take the reins of you online identity and make yourself more Google-friendly:

Make All Your Social Network Profiles Private - That means Facebook, MySpace, Friendster and any other social network you’re on. Set them so that only friends you’ve connected with can see information in your profile. Therefore, if you’re Googled, your prospective employer cannot get in. You will still show up in search results, however, so make sure your profile picture is something tame - not one of you giving the finger to the photographer who snapped last week’s drunken escapades.
De-tag Online Photos - From the social networks to Flickr, make sure that potentially incriminating photos are de-tagged and do not point to you. Ask your friends to do the same to any photos they may have tagged you with.
Examine Your Personal Blog - Does your blog contain information you wouldn’t want prospective employers to know? Make those entries private. You may even want to make the entire blog private, only visible to certain friends and connections. And if you are hired, never refer the company, boss or coworkers by name - if you’re even gutsy enough to write about them - because it could backfire. Here are some stories of people who were fired for blogging.
Google Yourself - And not just on Google. Check your name out on other search engines like Yahoo! and Live Search. Google your name in quotation marks for more accurate results. Google your name with your hometown or any affiliation you’ve had in the past, including former places of employment, schools or clubs. This will give you a snapshot on how someone sees you online.
Get Rid Of Unwanted Web Pages - Web pages can come back to haunt you, even if they are no longer online. Google and other search engines, as well as sites like The Internet Archive Wayback Machine, cache pages, so they may still be visibile long after they’re gone. (Check out Yahoo!’s home page from October 17, 1996, if you want proof.) Here are instructions on how to remove cached pages from Google and the Wayback Machine.
Be Careful Where You Drop Your Name - If you like getting into heated political debates online or contribute to message boards, don’t sign posts with your real name. Instead, use a pseudonym.
Make A Good Name For Yourself - Create a profession-related website that paints a positive picture of yourself. Create an online portfolio and link to news articles or web sites that you appear in. Make sure your full name is on the site, so that when potential employers Google you, you appear in search results. Buying your own domain name and hosting is affordable these days - try a host like GoDaddy, which offers site builders and more. Also created a profile on LinkedIn, which is the professional world’s MySpace.
If A Controversial Person Has The Same Name, Don’t Fret - Tip Diva once read about a woman who shared a name with a porn star. At least Tip Diva has it better - she only shares hers with a reality TV star. But be up-front in the interview that if you’re Googled, the potential employer may come across questionable websites that have nothing to do with you. Make sure to point them to where your real Web information lies.
Create An E-Mail Address Specifically For Job Hunting - Employees can trace online activity back to your personal e-mail, including message board postings, social networking profiles and even your instant messanging screen name. Create a professional e-mail, using your name, preferably. You can even use free e-mail sites lik Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo!. Just don’t create an e-mail with a moniker like sexygurl123 or darkdude666. You’re not in high school anymore.
Keep Tabs On Yourself - Google yourself regularly and continue to pay heed to how you conduct yourself online. Googling may not stop once you’re employed.