How to Build your Digital Brand
By Yair 'Jay' Harel, JGSM '04
Yair 'Jay' Harel, JGSM '04
Issue date: 10/10/08 Section: Perspectives
In this digital day and age, the first thing a recruiter does is to Google you. Did you ever try that? You would be surprised with what comes up. Can you control the search results? You bet. Should you care? Only if you want to move ahead in life. Your digital brand is being built as you read these lines, through your and your friends' contributions to the online elephant that never forgets. Rather than sitting back and watching it building itself, you can take a proactive role in shaping it, to ensure it plays to your advantage when you need it.
If your name is unique like mine, people will find you immediately. If you are John Smith, it won't be as straightforward. People who search you will add search terms, like a middle name, the school you graduated from, the city you live in, and so on. Try these searches yourself and check the results.
You can control your digital brand by creating as much content as possible. Build a complete profile in multiple social networks, write a blog, comments on other people's blogs, participate in online discussion forums, upload your pictures, share your videos, and more. Only by being proactive and actually generating information can you ensure that this digital elephant remembers what you want it to, and is not biased towards things you'd rather forget. This is true until you become famous, by which time other people will generate way more content that you ever could.
Social Networks
Let's start with the obvious - you must have a LinkedIn page. Xing, Plaxo and others also compete in this field, but right now at least in the US, LinkedIn is king. If you don't have one already, create a full LinkedIn profile, and start linking to friends. I suggest connecting only to people you know, and not just asking random people to join your network. If you do the latter, you'll regret it the next time a friend asks you to refer them to one of your contacts, whom, as it turn out, you don't know at all.
Facebook is more casual, but very influential. It has somewhat of a strange blend of friends, family, and business contacts, so content control is very important. You are the only person who can (and should) control it. If you don't want your boss to see that old picture of you throwing up in that frat party, don't let your boss into your network, or better, don't let your whacky frat brothers in, only the trustworthy ones.
If your name is unique like mine, people will find you immediately. If you are John Smith, it won't be as straightforward. People who search you will add search terms, like a middle name, the school you graduated from, the city you live in, and so on. Try these searches yourself and check the results.
You can control your digital brand by creating as much content as possible. Build a complete profile in multiple social networks, write a blog, comments on other people's blogs, participate in online discussion forums, upload your pictures, share your videos, and more. Only by being proactive and actually generating information can you ensure that this digital elephant remembers what you want it to, and is not biased towards things you'd rather forget. This is true until you become famous, by which time other people will generate way more content that you ever could.
Social Networks
Let's start with the obvious - you must have a LinkedIn page. Xing, Plaxo and others also compete in this field, but right now at least in the US, LinkedIn is king. If you don't have one already, create a full LinkedIn profile, and start linking to friends. I suggest connecting only to people you know, and not just asking random people to join your network. If you do the latter, you'll regret it the next time a friend asks you to refer them to one of your contacts, whom, as it turn out, you don't know at all.
Facebook is more casual, but very influential. It has somewhat of a strange blend of friends, family, and business contacts, so content control is very important. You are the only person who can (and should) control it. If you don't want your boss to see that old picture of you throwing up in that frat party, don't let your boss into your network, or better, don't let your whacky frat brothers in, only the trustworthy ones.
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