Don’t Shy Away from Social Media, Embrace it

The age of hiding behind aliases for your various online accounts is behind us. With the exception of private information such as your bank account of course. Social Media is one of the best ways of performing PR for yourself and managing the content that’s found about you when you’re searched for online. Instead of letting others decide what’s posted about you, why not take it upon yourself to actually post relevant information about yourself under your own disgretion. Every social media platform has preferences that allow you to limit what’s available to the public and what’s picked up by search engine queries.

A Google search for your full name (admit it, you do Google yourself), is the best way for an employer to perform a “social profile background check” on you to see if there’s any additional relevant information about you that might not otherwise be mentioned in your resumé. Majority of employers look for well rounded individuals. After all, the activities we perform out side of our 9-5 is what shapes us. By taking it upon ourselves to own that responsibility, we in turn have a high impact on what a typical Google search on us comes up with. Additionally, If you’re concerned about what’s posted about you on some website, take the time to contact the administrator of that site, and politely ask them if they can remove that content.

Vanity URLs are a big craze right now as they end up placing keywords associated with your full name higher in search engine results. A good place to start would be to open up a LinkedIn account, and create an account associated with your full name, unless it’s already been taken by someone else. A Facebook account would be the next place to start unless you already have one. Again, you can limit what people see about you. A lot of companies have began establishing Facebook pages already and in many cases ask their employees to join them. Don’t be left out in the cold.