Take Responsibility for Your Online Brand

It's not a secret that employers sometimes use social networking sites to scout you out. And I'm sure every parent who is suspicious about their child's online activity has preached to them about this.

What I didn't know is that the newest stat from a book called Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success states that ONE in FIVE hiring managers use social networks for background checks.

I concur with Keith Ferrazzi on this piece of advice that went out today on his Success Tips email.

1. Be your same self for all audiences.
2. Clean up your facebook along with the rest of your online presence.

Of course, after I post this, is someone going to tag me in now considered unprofessional pictures from seven years ago from a sorority theme party? I didn't say this would be a one-time spring cleaning kind of thing; it's ongoing.

In fact, I recently connected on facebook with some friends I met on my year in Ecuador as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. They are in law school/married/working and those days are a distant past, but a photo turned up from a pageant we all put on for each other where we were grouped by country. That year there were almost 100 exchange students and probably 60 were from the US, and for the pageant, we had American flag capes on while we rapped Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Of course our intent was patriotic (we all missed home intensely and for some reason, that song conjured up home) but now, ten years later, I saw that picture and I was embarrassed. Out of context, it seemed disrespectful and I immediately removed the tag.

I have other friends who try to leverage facebook for professional reasons and have TWO profiles. This to me seems more insincere because anyone who is looking for you will see that you are trying to maintain distinct presences: one socially and one professionally.

Whatever you do, make good use of privacy settings and keep up with it. You don't want to give anyone reason to negatively judge who you are and what you're made of by what they find online.