Did you know that 85% of hiring manager’s Google you before, or after, an interview? Or that up to 84% of companies use social media to source their new talent and 95% of them use Linked In? How are you managing your online reputation? Let’s hope it’s better than Rep. Weiner. who returns 6.7MM results in under .10 seconds on a Google search.
Amateur Google alerts
Have you ever posted a response to a blog? What about a comment on a news story online? They show up on your Google search. Within .30 seconds, Google returned 48K results when I searched “career coach adriana llames”. None of them were surprises to me because I have Google Alerts set up, something I discuss, and advocate, for savvy job seekers in “Career Sudoku: 9 Ways to Win the Job Search Game”, for both name and all email addresses.
If you have Google Alerts set up, congrats, you (and I) are now halfway there. Google announced last week a new online identity tool, Me on the Web.
Google Me on the Web
Google Me on the Web is accessed via the Google Dashboard (it’s free) and has an easy 4-step process to make managing your online identity as easy as it is to create one. In a few minutes you have a Google profile, Remove unwanted content and the associated results and set up an alert to be notified when your personal information appears on the web. Go, Google, Go – this is a tool I’m in love with (from the looks of it) thus far.
Social tatoo
Managing your online identity (aka social tattoo) is as crucial to your success in the business world, be it a job search, promotion or small business venture, as the work you do day to day. This is what people read about you before they meet you in today’s world. Kudos to Google for continuing to create tools that make online identity management easy for us. Kudos to you for taking advantage of these free tools!
Go forth and Google me.