What is your personal e-reputation?

It’s a powerful trend that concerns everyone! With the Internet, you can be “personally” Googled at any time, by anyone and for all sorts of reasons. More than ever, you need to care about your presence on Google and, as a result, on social media. Indeed, your first and last name represent your personal brand. Like companies, your “personal” brand can generate positive as well as negative reviews that can then have consequences. Better to know about it beforehand…

Everyone Googles everyone

85% of Internet users pay attention to the traces they leave online, and particularly on Google, which is the main search engine used by Internet users (for 91% of French people). They are quite right to do so, because they stand a good chance of one day being “Googled” either by recruiters (90% do it today, according to ExecuNet), or by personal as well as professional connections. What they all have in common is that they are looking for information about you, to get to know you better. This information online can come from you (your website, your social media), or come from other people, and most often without your knowledge. That’s where the risk lies!

Your personal brand on Google

What do people say about you on Google? That’s the first thing to check. Perhaps you need a full audit of your e-reputation and should turn to one of our services? Are you present on Google, and how? If so, in what position and through which types of web platforms (your personal website, your various personal accounts on social media)? If not, why? Do you have one or several namesakes who dominate the first page? In that case, as for everyone who wants to improve their visibility on the first page of Google, you can follow the actions suggested by the “Recommendations” module of the e-reputation dashboard, which guides you in creating your personal pages on the best web platforms of the moment (Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, official Facebook page, etc.). By writing unique and value-added content there, your new web pages can then rank on your Google page if the SEO competition isn’t too strong.

It is also strongly recommended to create a personal website in the name of your own brand (buy the domains in your name!). Another crucial question: how do people talk about you? Well or badly? It’s up to you to assess the results and analyze the sources. Who is talking about you? You yourself, who shared information through your social media… The media… Personal or professional connections… Or even anyone who might have shared information or images about you…

Your personal brand on social media

Once you become aware of Google’s full power, it is important to put in place a good communication strategy for your personal brand within social media. It is advisable to open several accounts on social media (Viadeo, Linkedin, Twitter, Slideshare…) in order to become visible in a positive way when people search for you on Google. In any case, beyond opening an account on a social network, what matters most is the content, its added value, its engagement and above all its freshness, which will make it possible to keep your digital identity up to date.

“If there is something about you that no one should know, maybe you shouldn’t be talking about it in the most visible place,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. So be careful with your comments on Facebook pages or groups that are visible to everyone, or in forums, with the photos that show you off on Flickr or Picasa, with the video of your bachelor party on Youtube, with your blog articles, or even with compromising links (political, associative…). Everything published on the web will be seen and looked at, whether by a recruiter, a colleague or a loved one. The stakes are all the higher when you know how difficult it is today to remove information harmful to your reputation on the Internet.

Your digital identity depends on Google!

One thing is certain: spoken and written words alike stay online. By taking control of your personal image, your digital identity, you won’t let others do it in your place and you will have more mastery over this reflection of yourself online. In short, no one knows better than you how to present yourself… While keeping in mind that “your brand is not what you say it is, but what Google says it is,” according to Chris Anderson.