Why Don’t You Go Google Yourself

Yesterday I was Googling myself to see which results appeared first. For years I was always out-ranked by Ellen Ewart, vice president, investor and media relations at Foundation Coal Holdings, Inc. But now, my name dominates 8 of the top 10 search results. It’s now time to manage those results to ensure I’m presenting myself in the best light.

Some entries are within reach if, for example, you have a Linked In profile, a public Facebook page, MySpace page or any other form of social networking page, or if you have a personal blog. Make sure that these profiles reflect the dedicated, hard-working professional that you are now, and not the life-of-the-party frat boy you were in the past.

Dan Schawbel, for Mashable, recently wrote about personal branding and google. He suggested this simple exercise:

Google your name right now. Copy the results to a word processing document and circle the results that have to do with your name. After you do that, highlight the positive ones in green, the neutral ones in grey and the negative ones in red. Only do this for the top 10 results. What you’ll notice is that you either have a presence on Google or not and you’re either positively portrayed in Google or you’re not.
Though there may also be search results that are not within your control, such as news articles. You can bury these posts by making sure you have a positive presence on the web.

There are a tonne of resources out there to help you amp up your personal brand. Just Google “personal branding” for some ideas. What I suggest you do before that step is define your personal brand. This is not only a rehashing of your resume, but a way to reflect on how you want to be perceived, in which communities, and to what end. If branding is the promise of the value a customer will receive, then define that value and exactly how you can deliver upon it.

Another thing to consider is your audience: if you know your potential employer or hopeful clientele is not likely to know what GigPark is, then don’t spend endless hours connecting to every network possible.

What do you think? How much attention do you think should be paid to developing an online presence if your industry is not a web-focused one?

Image Source: Source: flickr: Danard Vincente