Do you treat your online presence as if it were your small business? You should! Otherwise, you may end up like the unfortunate guy in this recent story on LearnVest titled, “Saving Face: Does Your Online Reputation Need Managing?” He googled himself to prepare for a job change and was unpleasantly surprised.
The article has some very good points about determining whether to invest in an online branding service or dealing with the details yourself. I think that once you learn how important your personal brand is in today’s employment market, you’ll want to at least invest in some online branding/profile development coaching so you are equipped to do this important task.
So, why would I say that your personal brand is your business? There are two ways to read that statement:
- Your personal brand is your BUSINESS because you are selling yourself when you put out resumes and apply for jobs. Many of the marketing tactics employed by small businesses are applicable to individuals. Get a lot of positive information on yourself online and there’ll be good stuff on those first pages when they search for you.
- Your personal brand is YOUR business because you are ultimately the person responsible for seeing to it that your name, image, and reputation accurately reflect who you are. You can delegate all you want to, but ultimately the information that initially comes up on a search engine when your name is entered determines what that searcher thinks of you. So be proactive and make those search engines work for your benefit.