Are you ready to be Googled?

Posted by: Krishna De | Posted on: June 22nd, 2005 | 0 Comments | Posted in: Uncategorized

Recent research by Harris Interactive and reported in the Boston Globe earlier this year identified that 23 percent of people search the Web for the name of a business associate or colleague prior to meeting them. And this also goes for hiring managers who “Google” prospective candidates as well!

One thing is for sure, you can’t control your ‘on-line’ identity.  You can however watch you leave your footprint – or should I say thumb print!

I recently “Googled” a friend who is moving to a new role as an executive head-hunter.  She’ll be working with the worlds most senior executives and was rather embarrassed when I advised her that I found the first reference to her was the comments she made on a web site of a novelist about a book that she had read!

So what happens when someone does conduct an on-line search on you? Perhaps they’ll see nothing at all – which isn’t much help if you are hoping to make a positive impression!

Or if they do find a reference to the real you, it may be outdated or simply embarrassing or inappropriate.

Worse still is the possibility of a future boss or potential client stumbling upon information about someone else who shares your name but isn’t associated to you at all or what you stand for!

The latter case is what happened to me!  Prior to co-founding my business, I had a wonderful career in a global international organisation.  My identity was inextricably linked to the position I held and the brand name of the organisation I was with.  I never gave a second thought to my ‘on line identity’.

After all I had a strong reputation and my name was unusual so I had no issue being remembered by the people who I thought needed to know of my existence!

As a result of seeing the above mentioned research, I “Googled” myself and imagine my dismay when I saw not references to me being high on the list, but thousands of sites referring to the Hindu god Krishna.  I was blessed with my name by my parents – one was Welsh and one Indian – and to be honest had also found it helpful that my name was quite unusual a name in the circles I moved in, but I don’t associate at all with the religious background to it.

What I can tell you for sure is that you can’t control what others write about you on the web.   News clippings, blog comments and photographs that may appear about you may not reflect who you want to portray yourself.  Trying to erase all unflattering content is almost impossible because Web sites may publish what they choose as long as it’s not libellous or otherwise a violation of the law.

Stephanie Rosenbloom wrote an interesting article in the New York Times Online earlier this month on how to eradicate her past on the web.

So what’s the answer?  Whether you work in a corporate organisation of you have a small business it is definitely worth while building an on line identity.  This may be by a personal web page or portfolio, a weblog or check out solutions such as Ziggs. 

Ziggs, launched last year and has one of the most professional on line portfolios available if you don’t want to invest in the development of your own personal web site.  It’s easy to update, you can add your photo, and it has an international data base.  What’s more it’s available FREE and for the for the princely sum of US$50 per annum you can upgrade to their premium service where they will guarantee premium visibility in search results with Google, Yahoo, MSN. 

I’d strongly recommend that you invest time in developing your ‘on-line’ profile – either through your own portfolio such as those developed by Kirsten Dixson at Brandego or a do-it-yourself approach such as with Ziggs.Is it worth the risk of someone not wanting to interview you or not wanting to talk to you about a potential work opportunity because they can’t find you ‘on-line’?

And guess what – you’ll find me at Ziggs!!!  I wasn’t going to take the risk of my ‘on-line’ identity not being found ever again!

So if this has struck a chord with you, in the week ahead why not invest some time in getting ready to be "Googled" and develop YOUR ‘on-line’ identity!