What Google says about you

I often Google myself. Not that I am a total self-obsessed person, but I like to manage my image just in case people want to get information about me. As in the “real” life, I have a “rep” to protect : mine.

And, let’s be honest for 2 seconds and face it : we all do it. Ok maybe not ALL of us. Only 47% of people google themselves, while 53% google others*. In US, 45% of recruiters use social networks, while 35% disqualified candidates after having access to their profiles. 29% of IT and services companies use Facebook, 26% LinkedIn and 21% MySpace**. That makes me think. I also Baidu-d myself and got different results..funny

 

This is a basic. Yes, you want some people to find you when they Google you. But do you want anybody (random strangers, potential recruiters, clients) to know about your pet diet, your sexual orientation, your religion, who you know and see your last very flattering party pictures?

My advice would be to never, ever put such information on the net. You just don’t know who can have access to it and how they can use it. Trust me, you don’t. A friend of mine was seeing this lady who has a high position in the police. She cracked his facebook account to check if he was messaging other girls…No comment…

Depending on the level of privacy wanted, you might also change your name on your Facebook profile, refuse to appear on search results, be invisible (my favorite) or settle a dedicated email address that can prevent people from finding you with your email (a sneaky one I admit). This is true about Facebook and about any decent social network. Be sure to check privacy checkings before uploading any personal information.

So, you still can’t help to do status updates and tell about your holidays of debauchery in Thailand or your sister’s wedding (sigh..) at least manage who has access to it :

 

x Google yourself and see results

x Pick the ones you want to keep and shut down the others

x Go to all your social networks profiles account and adjust the privacy settings

x Google yourself again to check if it is effective

x Brand yourself in a positive way (the ME 2.0. article is great, check it out) 18% of the previously mentioned companies said they decided to hire a candidate after checking their profiles on different networks.

 We live in a world of first impressions and appearances. Virtual information is still “real” and it can have an impact on your “real” life. Both of them - virtual and non virtual, mesh thus matter.